How to fix vintage Ethan Allen mirror
I inherited a gorgeous 1985 cherry(?) dresser. It‘s the second-heaviest thing I’ve ever moved in my life (piano wins) and the problem is the tri-fold mirror. The brackets disappeared somewhere in the years of being in my grandparent‘s storage. This mirror takes two people to easily lift…it could be a very bad accident if it fell.
The problem is the back of the dresser has a 3/4 inch lip overhang so a normal long, straight mirror bracket won’t work. The base of the mirror is also not wide and feels like it will tip easily. There are only three screw holes at each bottom side of the mirror frame and a bunch of very small, messy nail holes in the top frame of the dresser to clue us in to how it was mounted. We tried a bracket clamped underneath the lip, but it did not feel nearly sturdy enough to hold the weight.
It looks like my sweet granddad screwed holes half way down both sides of the back of the dresser (4th image), but a closer look shows that they are not hitting wood at all. Yikes. Either my grandmom was super lucky all these years or there was some other weird contraption keeping this mirror up. There do seem to be two holes on the bottom frame of the dresser, but they are spaced strangely. I cannot find any pictures of the back of similar dressers (one without a flat back).
Does anyone have a solution or suggestion? I would love to see a pic if someone has a similar dresser.