A Master Bedroom in Cheshire, Built Around a Nine Foot Bed
A Cheshire master bedroom built around a nine foot bespoke bed, with a headboard spanning the whole wall in bronze mirror.
Mirrors do more work than almost anything else in a room. They move light into corners that do not get any, they make a narrow space read as wider, and a large one over a fireplace or a console will set the proportions of the whole wall.
Some are in stock in the showroom and the rest are ordered in from catalogues, so the choice is not limited to whatever happens to be on the floor. Sizes, frames and finishes are all chosen against the room rather than the other way round.
Bring a photograph of the wall and a measurement. Mirrors are one of the things people most often buy slightly too small, and it is much easier to judge with the space in front of us.
Sizing and placing a mirror
Over a fireplace or a console, a mirror generally wants to be around two thirds to three quarters the width of the piece below it, and hung so its centre is a little above eye level when standing. Too small and it looks marooned; too high and it reflects the ceiling.
What a mirror reflects matters more than where it sits. Facing a window it doubles the daylight, which is the whole point. Facing a blank wall or a doorway into a utility room it doubles that instead. Stand where you will usually stand and look at what appears in it before deciding.
Frames, finishes and shapes
A frame is a piece of furniture in its own right. Antiqued and smoked glass warms a room and hides fingerprints; a bevelled edge catches light along its line; a heavy metal or timber frame reads as an object rather than as a mirror.
Round and organic shapes soften a room of straight lines, which is why they suit contemporary interiors with a lot of joinery. Long rectangular mirrors do the opposite, and are the better answer in a narrow hall.
Mirrors we stock and order in
A sample of the range rather than the whole of it. Some of these are on the floor in Bowdon and the rest come from the same houses we buy the furniture and lighting from, so a shape you like can usually be found in another size or finish.
Where mirrors go wrong
Hung too high, which is by far the commonest. Placed opposite a light fitting so the room is lit twice and glares. Chosen to fill a wall rather than to reflect something worth seeing. And frameless mirrors in rooms that needed the frame to carry a finish through from elsewhere.
Mirrors are also the easiest way to lift a dark corridor, which is where they are used least often.
Seeing it in person
The showroom is at York House on Vicarage Lane in Bowdon, open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm. An appointment helps but is not necessary. It is a retail showroom and you are welcome to walk in.
Questions we get asked
Can mirrors be made to size?
Often, depending on the design. Tell us the space and we will say what is possible.
Do you supply mirrors for bathrooms?
Yes, though a bathroom mirror is specified differently: it needs to suit the humidity and, ideally, to be lit from the sides rather than from above.
Can you hang them?
On a design project, yes. Large or heavy mirrors are fitted rather than hung on a hook, and the fixing depends on the wall.
Mirrors in finished rooms
Two projects where a mirror is doing structural work rather than filling a wall.
A Teenage Bedroom in Knutsford
A teenager's bedroom in Knutsford with hand-made glass leaves above the bed, designed to become a guest room later.