The Magic of Mirrors

Mirrors are all too easy to overlook when it comes to furnishing a room.

The possibilities of mirrors throughout the home should never be underestimated.

There are, of course, the practical uses for mirrors – most especially in the bathroom, where virtually everyone has a mirror. Many people have a mirror on a dressing table as part of your bedroom furniture for applying makeup and a mirror in the hallway. All of these applications for mirrors could be seen as purely practical. However, when you look at them from a home decor point of view you will notice the benefits mirrors have in their given rooms, and apply that to the rest of your home.

Mirrors – simple mind control!

Mirrors and Space

Of course, you may just want to use it to look at yourself in, but the use of mirrors around the house is also a wonderful way of creating the illusion of space.

Obviously, unless you’re standing directly in front of a mirror the reflection you’re seeing is a general image of the room, and when the eye is drawn away from the mirror this image is perceived by the brain as being just another part of the room, which in turn makes your subconciuos think that the room is larger than it is.

Mirrors and Light

Another great way of using the natural properties of mirrors is to throw light into dark spaces of your home.

How many of us have at least one room in the house that has a dull corner where the natural light struggles to reach? You can’t even liven it up with a vase of flowers! I’d say most of us.

One way of reinvigorating it is to put a lamp in there. This then takes up space and you end up illuminating an area of limited use, even during the day. You also need to run mains power there if there isn’t any already. This is not only a poor solution, but it’s not very environmentally friendly either!

By far the simpler solution is to hang a mirror so that the ambient light from the rest of the room is reflected into the dreary area. The mirror will give you a more balanced feel to the room and make it look bigger at the same time.

A nifty way of softening this effect is to put a small, leafy pot plat directly in front of the mirror, making the plant seem bigger than it is whilst also shedding a little dappled shade at floor level.

These are great tricks that interior designers use all the time, and are well worth remembering if you’re selling your house.