Hi, I am renovating my house and would like to add a mirror to my wall to 'enlarge' the living room. Can I cover the whole wall with mirror with the back of the sofa set facing the mirror?

Dear Anon,

1. Looking into past practises; it is popular for the Cantonese (dialect group of the Chinese) to place a wall mirror facing their dining table. The Cantonese felt that having a mirror in this postion would be "auspicious" as food on the dining table can be "doubled" with the mirror image.

2.For interior designers,a large mirror is often recommended as most of us are aware of to create an illusion of depth orseemingly make the home look larger.

3. To be honest, having a mirror behind the sofa is often, less than idealalthough it can still be done or still acceptable. However, for practical reasons, if thesofa-head-rest is too close to the mirror, often,we may get "marks" e.g. greasy hair stains or smudges on the glass- thus may haveto spent some time or effort to clean it.

4. More importantly, for those who stay at higher floors or storeys, it is best to specify to the contractor that youwant a ONE single piece of wall glass.

5. This is because, more commonly, may apartments or access to many apartments are "restricted" by the size of the lift! Thus the contractor may not want (nor their workers) want to walk up the stairs carrying a large piece of glass! They often cut-it-into-two pieces and push it into the lift (escalator).

6. If so, try to check out the attachment, below.Two pieces of glass does not look visually appealing as it seems like "cutting" the room into two. If really ONE piece is not feasible, then go for two pieces of glass, instead!

Warmest Regards,
Cecil

Anonymous wrote:
Hi, I am renovating my house and would like to add a mirror to my wall to 'enlarge' the living room. Can I cover the whole wall with mirror with the back of the sofa set facing the mirror?