Accentuate your accents – Mirror, mirror on the wall

In this blog post, I will share with you how I was able to transform a mirror into timeless beauty – magically, of course!

“Mirror, Mirror, on the wall … Who’s the fairest of them all?  We’ve all heard that familiar line from the Disney fairy tale “Snow White.” Every morning, the Evil Queen asked the Magic Mirror the question “Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?”  The mirror always replies: “My Queen, you are the fairest in the land.”  OK, so this post has no evil queen, but we do have a peculiar mirror with a happy ending!

This past summer, I had the pleasure of working with a repeat client on a dining room makeover.  We worked together before, but this time I was asked to refresh the look and feel of the dining room by creating a more “modern look” or adding “pizazz” to the existing color scheme of saffron yellow, gray and white.  We purchased several staple pieces to accent, but struggled with finding the perfect mirror.  Because this was a design refresh or “light” makeover, on a conservative budget, we kept the scope of the refresh focused on complimentary accent pieces.

The hunt was “on” to find “funky” accent mirrors that would “pop” and “jazz-up” the traditional feel of the room.  So, we went shopping.  Who doesn’t love to shop:)  especially for accents.  We ventured out to a few local home store favorites, but no luck. We tried several more stores and lucked up … there it was, the perfect shaped mirror and within budget. On top of the finding the right shaped mirror, there we plenty to choose from so check, but wait the mirror was only available in the WRONG COLOR!  What? No.  OK, so now I was challenged as the designer to bring this project full circle for my client.  I didn’t want to fail her and certainly not now.  Mentally doubling back to previous selections, I had a thought … “how about this?” I shared … “How about we transform these mirrors?”  My client looked confused so, I go on … “how about I play with some color and see if you like it?”  She was hesitant, but trusting so, we purchased the mirrors, as is, and off we went.  A day or two passed and I thought about colors … played with swatches here and there and after a little while created a custom color – in the cobalt blue family.  Voila! I was able to transform the unattractive mirror into a cobalt blue masterpiece.

My client was beyond satisfied with the idea and color choice.  Together we created an original piece of art that she can appreciate while dining her in her now favorite room.  We achieved the pizazz we initially set out to purchase. This project reinforced that sometimes we get what we want when we can see beyond what we have … the accent mirrors in their current state simply did not work, but with the right touch of inspiration coupled with creativity; we were able to accentuate the accent.

Let your design style flow …

TM

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