‘If you have a good friend, you don’t need a mirror’
~Bente Borsum

So, if you have a good friend, you don’t need a mirror……… but just about every room does! My No. 2 Design Must have is Mirrors! Mirrors have so many unique uses. Here are some of my favorites!

· Finish the end of a dark hall with a mirror……fill the entire wall floor to ceiling. It will reflect light and add depth.
· A small framed mirror in a book case draws attention to the shelf reflecting an angle that is unexpected
· Dress your coffee table with a mirror, use one with a unique frame as a tray. Fill your new tray with candles, stones, glass beads ……. Watch the light dance when the candles are lit.
· Place mirror on a lower shelf of an open sofa table or console. It brightens a typically dark lifeless area
· Use a series of mirrors, collection of distinctive frames to fill a wall above a sofa or a upper hall. Great alternative to art work……….let the reflections create the art!

Here’s another little secret….. as a fine artist when I struggle with identifying what might not be quite right in a painting or drawing I hold it up to a mirror…….very many times the reflection shows me very clearly what needs to be changed or adjusted. Many years ago I found the same approach works with designing rooms. The reflection forces you to view the room in a new light. It offers the composition of the room at a different angle, if the composition is working it will work ‘backwards’ too, if not……..you’ll see it immediately.

Yes mirrors reflect a lot…….the good, the bad and the ugly…. I take the bad & the ugly on with the challenge to change……….the good I smile at! What will your mirrors reflect……..are you up for the challenge? I’m betting you are!

Every room needs Life……..

or at least the suggestion that there is life!

Life…….my No. 1 design must have is Life! OK, before I lose all of you …… every room needs a plant or two. Not everyone is has a green thumb to be perfectly honest when it comes to indoor plant life mine is a black thumb! Fear not folks, silk plants to the rescue!
Even with the warmest color palettes rooms can feel stark, plain and frankly bare. Now by no means am I suggestion that you turn your family room into a greenhouse, but start to soften those rooms with a little life!

Here are few suggestions sure to successfully add that much needed life to your spaces.

· Fill dark corners or empty corners of a room with a tree. Up light the tree to create exciting shadows and patterns on your walls

· Perk up those bookcase with a basket of ivy in the center of a shelf, let it cascade down soften the harsh line the shelf itself creates!

· Struggling with what to do with the center of the coffee table…… punch it up with a bowl of green grass!

· Fresh flowers, a must! Treat yourself once a week to flowers it brightens any room and simply makes you smile………..

· Not sure how to finish off an end table? A little potted plant is sure to enhance any arrangement…and again you can create great shadows with the light coming off a lamp on the said end table!

· There’s always that shelf on the bottom of a table or sideboard that just collects dust. Fill it!

Plant life, silk or the real deal is an inexpensive way to freshen up any room. Now get out there a liven up your spaces!