Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Old-Fashioned, Mirrored Closet Doors



When I mentioned to my sister that I was thinking about a mirrored door for the newly framed out closet, she scrunched up her nose. She was picturing something like this...



Which, by the way, is 100% ME in 1989. Except my uniform was bright blue and gold. With a bulldog on it.

But, I was picturing something like this...




image via cote de texas


Well, okay, not exactly. Those are uber-pricey custom doors with antiqued glass. Gorgeous, but a little upscale for this modest split-level. So pretty. What are those ceilings? 20 feet tall?

Older homes often have mirrors on the closets. Quaint little mirrors that don't cost an arm and a leg. In thinking through the inspiration for this room, I kept coming back to some images of closets I had seen on Meg Duerksen's blog, Whatever. Meg has the most amazing house. It's a HUGE, old Victorian with all those quirky fun details (like a bath beneath the stairs and an entire hallway filled with cabinets) that I love so much in a home. She doesn't blog much about the house itself these days, but her posts are always full of creativity, warmth, and color.




This closet is in her youngest girls' room. Meg has a great, care-free, kid-friendly style. Relaxed and cheerful and beautiful. Like a vintage book of poetry for children.

That old school hardware is so. incredibly. great.



I think her closet doors are perfect. I wish I could touch 'em. Have I ever told you about the inexplicable urge I have to run my hands over old, smooth, painted wood? Especially if it has coat after coat of oil-based paint? I imagine the men who painted the first and second coats, the family that painted the third, the touch-ups through the years. So smooth and solid. You can practically touch the history. I bet these doors feel like that. Functional, light-reflecting, and full of that old house character. Yeah, and lead, but ignore that part for my purposes, please. This is her teenage daughter's room above.




There's yet another mirrored closet door in the master bedroom. This mirror looks to be built in to the actual door, unlike the children's rooms where the mirror is installed with screw clamps. Hard to tell, but it seems like part of the actual door. Love that. Meg was so sweet to let me use these images. Thanks, Meg! Isn't this just gorgeous?




This last image from Decorpad is just about perfect. Maybe not "just about", maybe actually perfect. Baseboards look a little like ours. Our closet in bedroom 2 is on the opposite wall from the new, larger window. A mirrored door would reflect light all around the room, add function to the closet as a dressing space, and, when framed out with our new trim (which I was so happy to see is much like Meg's), add character as well.

What do you all think of old-fashioned, mirrored closet doors like this? Don't be a lurker, now ;) If you were in the market for a not-really-that-old house and the bedrooms had these closet doors, would that be a positive or a negative?




9 comments:

Jessica said...

YES!! planning to do this in my bedroom too

love the cheerleader hair & pose Miss 1989!

Laura Lynn said...

Our first home we purchased was a 105 year old farmhouse Victorian with all the quirks. Those doors remind me of my old house. We had transom windows over each of them, vintage hardware, old floors, original light fixtures, 11 foot pocket doors.{sigh}
So any time someone wants to add charm and more architectural detail to a space, I'd tell them to go for it.

Stephen and Larissa said...

Hmmmm.... I'm undecided. When you first said "mirrored doors" I was definitely picturing that first scene! But after seeing some of your picture research, I say go for it!

meg duerksen said...

hello!
i am so pleased with this post. :)
in our master bedroom the door has the mirror built in with molding. the girls' rooms are just attached. and it's funny you say that about the first layers of paint....this WHOLE house had never been painted...until we moved in. it makes some people crazy that we would paint original woodwork but it is just US. we love the white. it shows so much more detail in white.
thanks for the shout out!

Heather said...

I love mirrored doors! We (well, hubby) recently mirrored our door to our master bathroom.

Jessie said...

Well, we are actually putting in mirrored doors similar to the first photo. We have only one small window in our "master bedroom" and my thinking is the mirrors will reflect light.While I like the old fashioned mirrored doors, it wasn't in our budget to do that. I say go for it if you like it.

Beautiful Handmade said...

A positive! Can you say MAKES SENSE? Great idea!

Ashley said...

Oh, I am there with the mirrors! They are great. We have a standing mirror now (big, from Ikea), but if our room were smaller, I would totally love the mirror on the door. Especially when they are framed with wood. Genius.

Rebecca said...

love those mirrored doors! Wondering if you are keeping them white or painting them black like your other doors?