Mirrors around the home

Mirrors serve more of a purpose than just functionality. They also act as decorative accent that can be utilized in many ways throughout your home. How many times have you walked into a room with a large mirror as a focal point and thought how nice it looked?

They can make a room look larger and, if strategically placed, reflect much needed light in dimly lit areas. From Better Homes and Gardens to Architectural Digest, you can see some fine examples of the use of them in the fairest of homes. If you’re about to redecorate or in the middle of a home makeover, consider the addition of one or more mirrors to your decor.

Vanity’s sake

For vanity’s sake, mirrors have been around a long, long time. To this day we still have them in our bathrooms and over dressing tables. Most of us have even got one near the front door so we can catch a glimpse of ourselves as we exit the house or answer the door, just in case we need a last minute touch up — and for many of us this is a real live saver.

Just ask any parent with young children how many times they’ve caught sight of themselves with cereal in their hair or pablum on their lapels as they’re rushing off to work.

The bigger picture

One thing every woman should have in her home is a full-length mirror. This cannot be emphasized enough. If you had a nickle for every time you looked at someone and thought to yourself that they surely don’t own a full-length mirror, you’d be rich by now.

Full-length mirrors can give you much needed perspective on how well your overall look will be perceived and hopefully spare you the embarrassment of countless fashion faux pas in your lifetime. If you don’t already own one, run, don’t walk, to your nearest department store and purchase one today.

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

Lit magnifying mirrors are a God send for the average woman. Without them, how else would we see those occasional (or not so occasional) errant facial hairs that rear their ugly heads that we dread so much. If you’re anything like most women over the age of 30, you never leave the house without a pair of tweezers anymore.

Today they make a variety of inexpensive vanity mirrors for your bathroom or dressing table that magnify up to 10 times larger on one side and that throw off enough light to successfully land a 747 at midnight on the trickiest of runways.

Optical illusions

For smaller rooms that you wish to add depth to and give the appearance of having more space, consider mirroring an entire wall. Mirror comes in all sizes these days for home accents. Purchasing mirrored panels and having them installed on the fronts of sliding closet doors is a great way to open up a room by giving the illusion of depth and reflecting light.

This gives the impression of an airy spaciousness that is otherwise hard to replicate with paint alone. Check around for building surplus supplies in your area that might carry over-sized panels for the best prices available if you decide to go this route.