What do You Reflect?

Look in the mirror and remind yourself that “Excellence lives here.” ~G. Boston

Mirrors are our friends when it comes to decorating what with a little of staging and positioning to expand a view, redirect light, create illusions of depth and space, or multiply an effect. Mirrors expand your view and the depth of awareness, sometimes in a psychological way. These looking glasses are showing us what we are radiating and emitting in a space. Although I am not into Feng Shui decorating, some of it is common sense and I can see how mirrors can create energy in a room.

If I like something in a room I try and multiply its effect. Dining rooms are great for this, particularly when entertaining what with multiplying the reflection of people and food! My dining room is multipurpose with the table on one side and the other side is my diagonal al bookshelf. from the other room. This reflection takes the light of the lamps on top of the bookshelf throwing it back into the room and there is the illusion of more space.

My living room furniture is position to create two distinct areas. The result is an extend entryway when I moved the sofa into the LR more and its back is the boundary of this entry area created. I place a mirror on the desk at the end of the area the entryway extends toward. The flowers are roadside cuts (!) placed in individual vases in front of the mirror creating more flowers. I will change the flowers seasonally.

My house is, for the most part, is kept straightened up and neat as it is my place of business (a BnB) so it has to be ready for the spur of the moment guest. In full closure, my closed-off bedroom and bathroom not always so much tidy. My 8’x9' private bathroom (no guests allowed!) has been turned into an extension of a dressing closet making it more of a dressing room. The clothing closet (hanged items) has a pocket door. Coincidentally there are a lot of mirrors (two medicine cabinets, including a large corner one) and a full-length mirror hung on the back that is locked. My entrance is from my bedroom. sometimes I found myself overwhelmed in this room, never could get that tidy vibe in there even after it was cleaned and straightened. Long story short, I shut the pocket door and cleaned off the counters space, closed the shower curtain then "BAM!", a totally different feel. The moral of the story do not reflect cluttered areas as it duplicates the clutter.

The guest bathroom upstairs gets some special mirror treatment by adhering a frame

to the center of the mirror above the sink. I dress the room up at Christmas time and the mannequin, adorned with a green skirt (made from artificial leafed branches) and a small wreath around the neck, reflects itself back year around. Meanwhile, the added illusion doesn’t take up any space.

I like to use mirrors in photography. Sometimes there is a corner that can’t be seen when entering a room, so I was able to reflect the corner’s allure to add to the

ambiance of the room. The mirror highlights that corner what otherwise a guest might be initially blind to. By the way, the framed mirror used to be the one above my bathroom sink in another house.

In one of my guest rooms, there is a slightly larger closet, a version of a walk-in (my home was built in 1909) with its natural lighting from a closet window often found in older homes. A sit-down makeup area fits nicely there with a mirror reflecting the light from the window.

In another guest room, I use the looking glass to tell a story that perhaps I could see my guest doing while seated at a desk/work area.

My personal working desk is in a room

(some call a laundry room which I prefer to call my to-do-room). This room, 10'x16' and can end up being a catch-all room. It's adjacent to the kitchen and is the backdoor entry into the house. There is a mirrored hat tree in there. Again, I normally do not want to reflect clutter that can accumulate in this area (right now the room is a holding station for potted plants rescued before last night's spring freeze). Another example, if I have a pile of bills on the desk, the mirror will duplicate (or double the number of bills) which I definitely don’t want! A mirror can create a forcing function for me to straighten as I go. Bonus: there are two windows behind my desk, and the mirror reflects light from them creating a bright spot in my to-do-room.

In my kitchen, I use a long narrow mirror that

reflects light from one of the windows where there is a small herb garden growing.

Previously I mentioned I'm not a strict disciple to Feng Shui but as a rule of thumb the obvious has to be said, do not place a mirror where it reflects the toilet which is considered negative energy.

I do have a small experiment going on, albeit a silly one. I have put a concave mirror on the exterior of my house. Feng Shui promotes this use as reflecting bad energy away from the house. It reflects a yard across the street that is cluttered, where music is played too loud and a dog roams in the neighbor’s trash on pickup day….you get the picture. Maybe a mirror along with communication with the neighbor can fix this?

Have you thought about mirrors and what you want them to reflect in your home to create an atmosphere?

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