This Genius Design Hack Can Make a Room Have Golden Hour Lighting 24/7

Mirrors offer so much more than the ability to check your reflection. “Mirrors create the illusion of space and they bounce light,” explains Summer Thornton. The Chicago-based designer installed a floor-to-ceiling mirror wall in the lounge of her clients’ postmodern Chicago townhouse, but this one is beyond basic—featuring a gold tint that provides golden hour lighting 24/7.

“The goal with this room was to create a space that was sensual and would give everyone this warm glow as if they just returned from the Amalfi coast,” Thornton adds, who used gold hues mixed with copper and cinnamon accents in the room to bring that energy to life. “There are few things sexier than a mirror. When you make that mirror a gold-tinted mirror, it goes one step further.”

So how did she do it? Thornton and her team had a huge slab mirror with a gold backing from Glassworks installed in the home. “We always use professional installers for glass and mirror, but we get precise measurements and then they use an epoxy to adhere it directly to the wall,” the designer explains.

The mirrored wall was placed off-center to exaggerate the asymmetry of the room. It’s also placed near the windows so that the natural light entering the room really reflects off of it.

If you want to get the look in your own home, Thornton says to “go for it with reckless abandon.” But she notes there are a few crucial questions to ask yourself: Should the edges be beveled? How will it be mounted? What is across from it that will show in the reflection? “Those details can make it or break it (pun intended),” she says.

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