The other day I took an inventory of the mirrors hanging in our house and was a little shocked by the number…27! No, we are not the most narcissistic people on the planet, I just happen to implement many of my design tips at home, and adding a mirror (or several) to a blank wall is often as dramatic as painting it purple! A lot of the decorative pieces we have lead with
form and leave the
functionality behind. For example, I will hang a mirror higher than the tallest person I know merely to bounce light around a room, and not so Narcissus can check himself out! When I step into a space with tiny windows, odd shapes or other baffling architectural features, I tend to think PUT A MIRROR THERE so your eye (and light) bounce around the room. Years ago
Martha Stewart Living Magazine featured an article on collecting round mirrors and using them in unconventional ways. My friend, Lora, and I became fascinated by them and combed antique stores around the country searching (I flew to Dallas where Lora was living at the time, and drove back to LA with her..so not ALL over the country, but a good swath of it). As a result Lora has created an incredible collection of round mirrors in her home, and just like the article in MSL, she's placed them randomly on a wall in her living room (well, she's a designer, so nothing is "randomly placed"). In an area with a beautiful sidepiece, Lora placed different sized round mirrors from the ceiling to the floor, creating an incredible focal point while lightening up the space. Because I've moved so many times since our drive across country all those years ago, many of my mirrors have been lost to the causality of exhausting moves (read: I've sold them to avoid carrying them one more time). I have, however, started a new collection in one of our smaller rooms where I hung six various sized round mirrors on a wall behind a dresser (and did the same for client in a babies room). The visual effect, in my opinion, is stunning. So next time you're staring at a wall wondering what on earth to do with it, HANG A MIRROR!
