How to Use Mirrors to Create the Illusion of Space

Many shops and retailers do this really well; they use mirrors to make their premises appear larger than they actually are, or to give the impression that they have lots of products or even customers, all tricks to cleverly entice you into their stores and then once you are over that threshold it is over to their sales people to work their magic. We can learn a thing or to from this trickery when developing small spaces in our homes or work place. The key is to maximize the amount of light coming into the room, after all a light airy space always feels bigger than a dark and dingy one.

There are hundreds of articles out there about avoiding too many colours, sticking to plain, minimalist and neutral wall coverings, along with small, light coloured and high gloss/reflective furniture and reducing clutter to help generate space, but hardly anything about using the natural light in the room to work in your favour.

The key is to take advantage of any natural light coming into the room (note, this may be from a doorway rather than from a window, but the following principles still apply). Don't over dress your window - in fact do everything you can to maximise the amount of light it lets in. From a practical point of view you may feel you need curtains to shut out the light for sleeping or to reduce glare on your computer screen - may be consider blinds instead that can be pulled right back and opened fully when not in use, leaving the area around your window free from clutter and exposing as much wall space as possible.

The next trick, to create the illusion of light and therefore space, is to strategically place a large wall mirror, preferably one with a light frame and with plenty of plain glass. You will notice that in shops or entrances such as hotel receptions they have extremely large mirrors on the back walls opposite the main entrance and shop front windows. In an ideal world you would replicate this in your home or small space, positioning your big mirror so that it reflects the entire window giving your room the illusion of a second window, picking up all of the natural light and giving your room depth.

However, this is not always possible! Your next option is to monitor the position of your room in relation to the sun. Try to work out the times of day that you are most likely to use the room and take note of the angles the sun rays come into the room - this is where you should ideally position your mirror so as to take advantage of the natural light.


Remember, when trying to create the illusion of space, less is more apart from when it comes to your mirror. The bigger the mirror the better, cover a wall in glass and maximise it's potential to reflect that all-important natural light.

There is a huge selection of large, glass framed and over sized mirrors available at http://www.exclusivemirrors.co.uk/ Or why not consider a row of smaller mirrors, this will have the same reflective effect as a large mirror but may suit your decor better.