Filed under: Bedroom, Your Home, Living Room, Projects
A found collection of mirrors is a fun, affordable way to reflect your style.Mirrors are a great way to make a space look bigger and brighter, especially if you have few or no windows. But the right mirror can also work as a piece of art on your wall.
If you have the wall space to play with, forget hanging one extra-large mirror. Instead, hang a collection of smaller mirrors -- matched, mismatched or somewhere in between.
"Compared to art, decorating with mirrors is less expensive and more neutral," says Claudia Juestel, the principal and founder of Adeeni Design Group, a firm in San Francisco, California offering green design services. "Still, you can combine and arrange mirrors into different layouts, just like you would with art." (Here's a tutorial on hanging art.)
And if you want your mirrors to lighten up a room, a collection can also help break up a not-so-nice view.
"It's always important to remember what you're reflecting. If you're hanging them to bring in light, and the reflection is not that attractive, a collection of small mirrors will fragment the view and make it more abstract. A not-so-interesting reflection will immediately become more interesting," Juestel says.
Still, the best thing about any collection of mirrors is that it can completely reflect your style. Your montage can be shabby chic, rustic, contemporary, funky, stately or casually elegant, depending on what pieces you use and how you put them together. Luckily, when it comes to vintage and antique mirrors, finding smaller pieces is a lot easier than over-sized mirrors, Juestel says.
Here are a few of our favorite mirror montages:
Mirror decorating made easy. Photo: Anthropologie.
On a big, brick wall, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The trend finds its way into a charming restaurant. Photo: Megan Garrelts, Bluestemkc.
This collection screams "shabby chic." The etched lace and heart-shapes on their own could come off as too cutesy or country, but when arranged so close together, it works wonderfully.
White-framed mirrors bring a shabby chic sensibility. Photo: Flickr, kimhas8cats
A collection of mismatched mirrors painted the same color as the wall can add uniformed texture and depth, and brighten up a dark, narrow space, like this hallway. It can also add modern flair to older pieces.
"If you have mirrors with all different kinds of moldings, shapes and colors, you can paint the frames all one color to tie them together in a more contemporary look," Juestel says.
If you'd like to try this at home, here are some great tips on freshening up vintage mirrors.
Whichever style suits you best, Juestel offers three suggestions for making your montage of mirrors shine:
1. Combine a mixture of different sized pieces.
2. Map out the layout on the floor in front of the wall, before you start hanging anything.
3. When it comes to your arrangement, "start from the center and go outwards," she says. Or align the outer edges and work inwards. "With the second option, the middle may become irregular, but that's fine since the outside edges align."
You can also make a wall montage using family photos or your favorite dishes.