This Easy, Rental-Friendly Decorating Idea Can Make a Tiny Bedroom Look Palatial
Mirrors are a key part of designing any room. There’s a mirror for a last look in the entryway, a full-length mirror near a closet, a stately mirror above a sink in the bathroom. What you may not have thought of is using mirrors over or near your nightstands. Bedside tables are typically bedroom dumping grounds — home to a reading lamp, a glass of water, whatever you’re reading at the time — so they’re often neglected in terms of thought-out design schemes, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
A single mirror (or a pair of mirrors) just might be the easiest way to create a dramatic (and practical!) focal point in the bedroom, as they can fill awkwardly blank wall space near your nightstands. You can easily incorporate tall mirrors with modern lines, ones with ornate gold frames, or add a much-needed circular motif to a room dominated by right angles. Read on for the biggest decorative benefits of using mirrors above your nightstands (or even just beside them, if you really want to go big!), plus some inspiration on how to find some for your own space.
Mirrors contribute height to a bedroom that doesn’t have soaring ceilings.
If you’re struggling to add height to your bedroom — say, wall-mounted sconces and a low bed frame keep the space feeling too close to the floor — large mirrors above or beside your nightstands will draw the eye up, creating the illusion of a taller ceiling. It might seem like an unconventional choice to place full-length mirrors above nightstands, but it actually feels surprisingly chic, leaving room above your headboard for a statement piece (or pieces!) of art. You can also go the route you see in this bedroom above, with a full-length mirror just beside your nightstand.
Mirrors throw artificial light around a room.
Unlike dining rooms, hallways, and bathrooms, bedrooms are often short on overhead lighting, which presents the challenge of fully filling the room with light. Mirrors above one or both of the nightstands in a bedroom not only can provide reflective backdrops for your table lamps, but they’ll also help throw artificial light around the room by projecting the usually-concentrated beams from table lamps into the rest of the space.
Mirrors can brighten up a smaller, darker room in the daytime.
Similar to throwing light from a table lamp, mirrors can also help spread daylight around a room on sunny days. Even on overcast days when natural light is at a premium, mirrors can also help disperse the little light that is coming in. White paint, bedding, and accessories, as all seen above, will certainly make that effect more pronounced, too.
Mirrors can add calming symmetry to a sleep space.
The collective inspiration behind bedroom design is typically “quiet sanctuary.” Sure, that effect is achieved with soothing color palettes and fluffy bedding, but a sense of symmetry can be visually calming to the eye and contribute to a peaceful end goal, too. What better way to build upon the sameness of a nightstand set than matching mirrors and lamps above? Adding the same mirror on both sides of the bed allows for more decorative wiggle room with books, knickknacks, and personal items while still keeping the room feeling balanced. You can really double down here, too, just as the dwellers above did, choosing to add a pair of large mirrors in lieu of a headboard, which makes maybe the ultimate symmetry statement.