33 
December, 1915 
THE DECORATIVE VALUE OF 
MIRRORS 
AGNES FOSTER 
Questions on House Furnishing and Deco¬ 
ration will be answered promptly and with¬ 
out charge by this department. Articles 
shown here may be purchased through the 
House & Garden Shopping Service. Send 
self-addressed stamped envelope. 
1as* 
Chinese lacquered 
mirrors require a 
refined back¬ 
ground. 1 6J/2 " x 
26R 2 " 
D ecorators would 
be lost without mirrors 
to aid and abet their schemes 
-—to make a room larger, 
broader, more spacious, more 
luxurious. For not only do 
mirrors serve their utilitarian 
purpose of reflecting an im¬ 
age, but they help architectur¬ 
ally. Now, more than ever 
before, do they play their part 
in a well-considered interior. 
We have only to remember 
some of the salons in the 
French chateaux to realize 
how much spaciousness is 
given them by their many 
mirrors — salons whose floor 
plans are not of great dimen¬ 
sions — yet seemingly we 
stands in huge, vast rooms, 
resplendent with reflections 
on every side. 
The craze for mirrors has, 
in a way, returned. Draw¬ 
ing and dining-rooms on 
whose walls once hung por¬ 
traits and pictures of more or less mediocre in¬ 
terest now have several mirrors. And if we are 
of an investigating mind, we may learn that the 
pictures themselves have been removed, mirrors 
replacing them in their frames. It is well. How 
many of us have really hideous oil landscapes or 
portraits, for which we’ve neither taste nor senti¬ 
ment, but whose frames are either well toned and 
well gilded, or else of a good piece of mahogany. 
Substitute mirrors, and you have at once accom¬ 
plished two objects, eliminated something ugly 
and refurbished with something decorative. Old 
mirrors are used largely over a chest of drawers 
or dressing-table. An old gilt oval 
frame may be hung lengthwise over x _ 
an old mahogany bureau, and we have 
a most attractive ensemble, adding a 
pair of candlesticks to “tie” the bu¬ 
reau with the mirror. 
In the same way, over a simple 
chest of drawers painted grey may 
be hung a grey mirror frame deco¬ 
rated in whatever color is used in the 
room, — say old rose with stripings 
of a deeper grey; or else a grey mir¬ 
ror of French design suitably carved. 
This may be the means of giving first 
the requisite touch of the French 
spirit. Mirrors with frames of sim¬ 
ple moulding, painted dull black with 
In a wall group¬ 
ing, gilded or 
carved mirrors 
should be made 
the attraction. 
$10 
Over a dining-room mantel or 
in the living-room a triple 
mirror is especially suitable. 
221/2" x 59". $25 
a narrow striping of brilliant 
green in the grooves and 
hung by a green cord and tas¬ 
sel would add quite an air of 
modern Vienna to a Futuris- 
tically inclined boudoir! For 
the room with peasant furni¬ 
ture, mirrors with a cut-out 
frame are most suitable. The 
decoration is crude and sim¬ 
ple, but well colored. 
Old-fashioned frames with 
the painted decoration on the 
mirror itself have always 
played quite a part in our 
Colonial interiors and they 
have a very strong decorative 
value in a period room of 
early mahogany. Generally 
the real old mirrors have a 
smoky glass which to those 
who make a fetish of the an¬ 
tique is an added allurement. 
Chinese lacquired type re- 
They are apt 
The old-fashioned 
glass is best hung 
in a bedroom or 
a room furnished 
with Colonial ma¬ 
hogany. 
121 / 2 ". 
F rames 
rated 
of peasant shapes can be painted and deco- 
to suit the furniture of the room. $18 
Mirrors of the 
quire a very refined background 
to be used too promiscuously, in interiors totally 
unsuited to them. Exquisite in themselves, both 
in feeling and decoration, they add to a room a 
refining touch—and be the lacquer black and gold 
or red and gold — a subtle 
note of color. 
The question so often 
arises whether a m irro r 
should be used over a dining¬ 
room mantel or sideboard. 
Over a sideboard it is not ad- 
visible, as hanging low it is apt 
to reflect the diners, and this 
is always unpleasant, especially if the 
room is so small that the mirrors are 
near the table. Over a mantel in some 
dining-rooms a mirror may be used 
with excellent effect. If possible, the 
mirror should be part of the mantel it¬ 
self, built into the woodwork. A triple 
mirror goes well over the mantel. In 
an oak or dark dining-room, a mirror 
does not suit so well, unless it is in one 
of those beautiful, heavily carved Ital¬ 
ian gilt or polychrome frames. In a 
light toned dining-room with white 
paint, however, a mirror is most ac¬ 
ceptable. 
