There is a really big trend in mirrored furniture with interior designers making an impressive selection in the market place. Although this style of furniture has been around for over a century, today’s trend towards an eclectic combination of furniture and other home decor has made mirror furniture a must have for designer portfolios. In this article I will go over the best way to use this type of chic furniture in a space, how to care for it, types of mirrored glass furniture, how to make your own and lastly where to buy.
Designing With Mirrored Furniture
As a designer, I like to first describe to my clients what makes great spaces. There are many factors in this. The first thing to consider is balance. You never want to have something heavy visually on one side of a room without combating that with another element on the other side of the room. This goes for little accessories and detail items as well. Think color pops. For example, if I’m using a bright yellow lamp shade then I may choose to use a small yellow lumbar pillow on a chair on the other side of the room. The next thing to consider is visual space management. If there is low ceilings, what will make them appear taller? If the room is very small, what will make it visually larger? Is the room dark? What could make it visually lighter? These are very important things to consider.
Now, what exactly does this have to do with mirror furniture? Well, this type of furniture can be a solution to many of the questions raised above. First we must consider the characteristics of a mirror. First and most obvious is that it’s reflective. How can this be an advantage? Think about a dark room. By simply placing a mirrored console table opposite a window, you’ve effectively created another window’s worth of light. Not only have you lighted up the space with bouncing the natural window light, you’ve also made a stunning focal point to the room. In a darker space, with the mirrored table reflecting light, it will simply visually jump off its background.
In the balance discussion above, I will use mirrored bedroom furniture as an example. I had a client with a bedroom that was a bit on the small side and to add to the space issue, their closet was tiny. Normally I would not put a large dresser or wardrobe in such a tight space, but it was a storage necessity. By putting a mirrored dresser in the room, it appeared to be much smaller visually than it really was because of the reflective surfaces. The room actually looked bigger than it did with no furniture. Since this was mirrored, the large piece of furniture, the room didn’t need another massive piece on the other side of the room to balance it out. I put a mirrored nightstand next to the bed to bring it all together and it looked great. The same concept with the nightstands applies to mirrored side tables. Placing a mirrored side table in a dark living room can work magic into the space.
Another piece of design advice with this type of furniture is general use. I try to avoid using mirrored furniture that gets heavy use. This would be things like dining tables and coffee tables. Having a mirrored coffee table, you will bound to have people’s feet on the surface not to mention finger prints. This will result in one of two scenarios; a filthy piece of mirror furniture or a nice looking piece that requires cleaning every half hour. Neither sounds very appealing does it?
To sum up the design piece of mirrored furniture, just remember it’s visually light much like a white bookcase. Also mirror furniture is a conductor of existing light, use that to your advantage. Also, being reflective means it’s colorless. You can have a lot of fun with this. If you have a brightly colored wall a piece of mirrored glass furniture can complement it by reflecting the color. Another option, if you want to tone down the reflective properties of the mirror, black mirrored furniture is always an option. Black mirrored furniture almost takes on a silky high polish look, without immediately looking like a mirror. Be careful with this type of furniture, if you go overboard your space can end up looking like a bad Las Vegas suite. Not the look you want with black mirrored furniture.
Mirrored Dresser
Caring for Mirror Furniture
Like I said earlier, avoid using this material in high traffic situations, unless you love glass cleaning. Caring for mirrored furniture is relativity simple. For the surface any glass cleaner is sufficient. A little trick I learned is to use newspaper instead of paper towels when using glass cleaner products like Windex. It’s amazing how much better it works, no streaks at all! The reason for this is that paper towels are too soft, leaving a lint like substance on the mirror. Most mirrored furniture’s base construction is wood. Wood products like this do not do well in outdoor spaces. Wood does not like moisture. If anything gets spilled on mirrored furniture, wipe it up as soon as possible. The moisture can leak between the mirrors and start to warp the wood. Once the wood is warped, the mirrors shift and can even crack.
Types of Mirrored Furniture
The styles of furniture covered in mirrors is virtually limitless. The nice thing about this kind of furniture is that it can easily span different aesthetic tastes. In other words, mirrored furniture will look great in traditional, transitional and modern spaces. Contemporary mirrored furniture can be an absolutely stunning focal point for a room. On the flip side, I have also seen antique mirrored furniture be used in a contemporary space. This is something to keep in mind. Maybe not that exact combination, but anything unexpected is always an attractive design goal. Other than modern, transitional and traditional another variety sort of sits by itself, art deco mirrored furniture. I have seen this category slump a little bit, but there have been some new takes on these designs since the height of this movement in Miami.
As far as pieces furniture that can be mirrored, virtually any kind, but here’s a list and remember if it’s not on the list then you can still probably find it:
- mirrored table
- mirrored side table
- mirrored nightstand
- mirrored dresser
- mirrored headboard
- mirrored lamp
- mirrored Armour
- mirrored console table
- mirrored desk
- mirrored chair
- mirrored coffee table
- mirrored sideboard
- mirrored buffet
- mirrored wardrobe
Stylish Mirrored Console Table
DIY | How To Make Your Own Mirrored Furniture
By being a website dedicated to woodworking and all things wood, you may think that mirrored furniture may be a bit of a stretch. Really it’s not. Any quality furniture mirrored or not must have great construction. Especially with this variety because the glass mirrors add considerable weight to the piece. If you are really handy and want to start from scratch, be sure to construct the joints carefully as they will need t bare weight as well as need to be perfectly square. I will not go into detail about making wood furniture, as I will have other posts on this. The following section will apply to those of you who build furniture as well as those who would like to modify an existing piece of furniture.
If you don’t want to make your furniture and would rather modify existing furniture there are a few things to keep in mind. By far the most important factor is having perfectly square corners and flat surfaces. Glass obviously doesn’t bend, that is why you need level surfaces to adhere the mirrors to. Once you’ve identified the surfaces you would like to cover in mirror it’s just a matter of making templates. Use paper and make templates. I like to use art tacky spray, the kind that isn’t permanent, put it onto the glass. Simply use a scoring blade and a steel straight edge. Use several scores and then snap the pieces out. The next step is adhering the mirror to the furniture. Nothing works as fast and as cheaply as a hot glue gun, other adhesives can work, but I like the hot glue. When making your own mirrored furniture, be sure to wear the proper safety gear such as gloves and safety glasses.
Where to Buy Mirrored Furniture
The best place to start shopping for mirrored furniture is online. This way you can get a good idea of styles you like and further research the price range they fall in. After a little research you will find that most of it is pretty expensive compared to other types of furniture. Even a mirrored nightstand can cost up to $1000 if you buy a designer brand. There is cheap mirrored furniture out there. The overstock type websites will occasionally have a pretty remarkable deals with a mirrored furniture sale. Keep in mind, often times you get what you pay for, so buyer beware. Be sure to check the store’s return policies. As mentioned above the best way to find mirrored furniture for less is to simply make your own. With a little time and effort, you can have a stunning mirrored item for a fraction of the price. As far as brands almost everyone will have some form of mirror furniture, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware. A really popular brand is Bassett mirror furniture that features borghese mirrored furniture. Even macro retailers such as Walmart, Target and ShopCo are getting into this category offering very low prices. Don’t forget Ebay and Etsy as well. As far as brick and mortar, ie your local furniture retailer, they will have some as well albeit a smaller selection than what’s available online. Places with larger populations such as New York, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, St Luis, Denver, SLC, Cleavland, Charlotte, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, San Antonio, Austin, Seattle, Portland and Kansas City will all have a decent selection of mirrored furniture.
