The beauty of the mirrored pieces didn’t smack me in the face until I was right in front of them. The auction house staff had arranged them as if they were in a living room or parlor, and they were striking in that setting.
I had never even thought of or contemplated adding mirrored furniture to my decor at home. It would be too elegant for the down-home comfortable feeling I went for in choosing my furnishings. Besides, I’d be so nervous with the furniture in my home that I probably wouldn’t enjoy it.
I’d be apprehensive and my head would be full of questions:
How do I keep it from breaking or cracking, or being scratched? Would I have to clean it all the time? Would I cut myself on the sharp edges? Who would repair it if it got broken – again and again? How much would it cost? Is it worth it?
Still, as I stood there in front of the roped-off area admiring the furniture, I was stricken. It must have showed on my face because an auction staffer walked up to me. “That came out of a house in Manhattan,” he said, remarking himself on how awesome the pieces were.
I was not surprised about their origin because the setting had the look and feel of an elegant New York apartment.
“This is the stuff the young people want,” he added, dismissing with a nod of his head the antique wooden furniture covering practically every inch of every room at the auction house. Although I found some of those pieces just as nice, I understood what he meant. Auction staffers elsewhere had said that it’s hard to unload some of those antiques.
I also understood the allure of the mirrored pieces, and I could see using a dresser or table in a room “to make a statement,” I said to him. Although the dozen pieces in the arrangement worked together, I could not imagine a room full of them.
In an article on elledecor.com, two New York designers also suggested that you not overdo it with the furniture, which, they said, added mystery and glamour to a room. The two also listed their top 10 choices of mirrored furniture and offered advice on what furniture to pair them with. The blog houzz.com offered photos of rooms with mirrored furniture showing the other furnishings reflected off them.
I wasn’t around when the pieces sold at auction (they were scheduled for a future sale), but on the web, mirrored furniture was selling for hefty prices. You could buy them from low-end to high-end stores. Or you could make your own, but you couldn’t match the beauty of the pieces that were commercially made. And here’s some advice on maintaining their good looks.
The earliest of the mirrored furniture as we know it today was the mirror itself. The most elaborate of those are in the Hall of Mirrors in Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles in France, with its “357 mirrors, 17 glass doors, marble walls, chandeliers and ceiling paintings.”
Here are some of the furniture pieces from the auction:
