There’s something stunning about an old mirror. Not only do they open up the room, adding light and the illusion of additional space, many surviving antique mirrors are richly decorated and beautiful to simply look at. It’s no wonder so many people simply love to integrate these gorgeous elements into their home, but how to do it the right way?
With so many in Singapore living in modern, recently constructed HDB flats, a carefully crafted antique mirror can look a bit out of place. Fortunately, there are ways you can introduce these into a contemporary setting without overpowering the surrounding pieces, read on to find out more.
Making it a centrepiece
The first tactic to try is to avoid integrating it into the surrounding décor at all – let it stand apart proudly as a centrepiece. Whether this is using it as your primary bathroom mirror, or letting it hang alone on an otherwise blank wall, this can be a bold choice that allows the full impact of your treasured antique to be felt without interfering with the carefully constructed interior you have elsewhere in your home.
Step across the threshold and back in time
If you have multiple antique pieces, embrace the plurality of design choices in your home and considering making one room – or even several – your antique area. Putting them in your bedroom or in a private study or bathroom away from the lounge and more public spaces can be a great compromise, allowing you to keep your home thoroughly modern in the majority. Often the antiques in our lives have been inherited from loved ones or have some other sentimental value attached, so keeping them in a private area of the home where we can enjoy them more fully can make these spaces more welcoming.
Group by function, not style
This takes some lateral thinking – rather than trying to bridge the gap between antique mirrors and modern surrounds, why not go a bit eclectic and decorate a feature wall with multiple mirrors from different time periods? A mix of modern, classic, vintage and antique mirrors will make the wall seem more of a cohesive whole, where a single antique mirror could draw attention away from your hard decorating work in other areas.
We hope this blog has fired your imagination enough to get that beautiful mirror out of storage. What’s more, these approaches to decorating work for any antique, so whether it’s an old portrait or a china cabinet, looking at it in a new angle can allow you to bring something beautiful into your home.