The feng shui thing with the mirror in the BR is that you should not be able to see yourself lying down in that mirror; i.e., mirrored closet doors or a mirror on the ceiling, oh yeah, that's probably another entire thread. LOL. The other feng shui no no is a mirror hung so that it cuts off any part of your reflected head. To do so is bad luck. Also, a mirror on the wall directly across from the entry door (first thing you see when you look into the room) is not a good feng shui thing. That is not just a BR consideration. Also, no family photos in the BR. BR is supposed to be the haven of your marriage. I have a mirror over my triple dresser - is the top piece of the dresser as it has a jewelry box type of thing attached. I have the dresser placed on a wall where I can't see it while in bed. If the past placement of the piece made you uncomfortable or was accompanied by issues, definitely pay attention to that. So, if you want a mirror over that dresser, perhaps it was the placement in the room that was the problem. As far as matching woods, I am not a fan of matching, complementing is better IMHO. Can you paint or modify it to your satisfaction if you use in your bath?

We currently have a 60" vanity with overhead lights. Our bathroom is 5' x 10', and I read that I need 300 watts of light for that size bathroom. I'm sold on sconces for our remodel because of our aging eyesight. We'll have two sconces with one sink. I've looked at all kinds of mirror configurations, but what makes the most sense is to set the sconces into a large mirror so that the light is bounced around the room. Did you say in another post that your ceiling is only 7 1/2' tall? I'm not sure a chandelier would look so good. I think they're better in powder rooms and in spacious bathrooms. Instead, I would use an exhaust fan/light combination to put light and ventilation over the toilet and shower area. I wouldn't count on the vanity lights, door, and a decorative chandy to supply enough light for the other side of the room. You need light for cleaning the toilet and shower and if anyone reads while on the can.

thanks for the kind words! I'm just going to reply to those who asked questions but I do very much appreciate your comments. general note- I've had the appliances all over my house for the past 5 years! Pretty much all of it was closeout/clearance/ebay / or craigslist. Imaging my sigh of relief when one by one, they turned on and worked. I did resell some of the extras that I could not fit in, that I had purchased for a larger kitchen expansion. Having the appliances made it "easy" in a sense to plan the layout since it constrained the choices. I had been thinking about this last plan for a few months already by the time I met with Lorna, the Dutchwood kitchen designer, so I was able to send her all the specs on the appliances and she worked out the details to make it fit into the layout I wanted. I did ask for maximum ventilation height of the induction cooktop above the 30 inch oven. dccurlygirl- I brought lots of pictures of things that I had pinned - toekick drawers, pullout cutting boards, cut down drawer for Stages sink shelf, cut-down drawers for 36" cooktop over 30 inch oven, dividers in my pots/pan drawer, custom paneled appliances etc , most of them from gardenweb postings, and Lorna worked them into the plan. In their showroom, they had the pullout cutting boards and toekick drawers in their displays already. One thing I did not post is the electric trash opener for the trash drawer under the sink which was also in their display, it is a big hit with my whole family. I provided the "asks" and Lorna either worked it in or told me if it couldn ot be completed for whatever reasons. I am including one picture of just the fridge wall here so that you can see the level of detail and customization in these plans (BTW the fridge wall is partial overlay and again not one person has noticed that) . Dutchwood is used to working with paneled appliances and appropriate spacing- at the end I wrung out another inch or so of space from Jason for my pantry on that wall over a few emails, the last bit he gave me was 1/8 inch by reducing the overlay to 1/2 inch on the pantry only instead of 5/8 inch on the rest of that wall (that happened after these plans). They were super accommodating with my wishes. lannegreen, here is the "overview" layout , it's a little hard to read but the dishwasher is under the kitchen window around the corner from the sink. It is paneled which is why you could not identify it in the picture. It is at the base of the "U" with 24 inches space on one side and 24 inch space on the sink side. I can stand on both sides and unload dishes. I have the Lemans unit in that blind cabinet between the sink and the dishwasher, so the toekick between the dishwasher and the sink was made removable to install and access the plumbing. This was suggested by the inspection office of my county when I called to explain the problem (before I found a contractor). The removable toekick was the only think that I found surprisingly expensive at Dutchwood but it was more than balanced by the reasonable cost of everything else ($90 for toekick drawers for example). AineLane, here are more picture of my "sitting bay." It cost slightly less than $5000 all told (including moving electrical and adding foam insulation under the exterior Azek cladding, tempered windows since I have all boys :) ), measures 78 inches wide internally by 18 inches deep. Much cheaper than adding a 40k breakfast room or an 80k large kitchen expansion as I first planned. I have a custom cushion for it now and my teen boys enjoy lounging and napping there. The key is to seat it low enough to the ground to make it comfortable for sitting (16" height). I also specified the weight that it had to be able to carry (600 lb). The style is known as a "box bay" and the brand is Sunrise windows. I purchased their premade "projected frame" window through their authorized contractor and he worked with me on the other details. My good friend and former nanny came by to visit the other day and barely noticed the kitchen renovation, she was so taken with the sitting bay. Exterior of original windows New box bay replacing old windows. Somehow those bay walls bring in a lot more light into the space. We also really like watching all the small wildlife outside that we could not reall see before. In terms of the layout, it gave us enough "breathing space" and sitting area that I could put 16 inch deep drawers on that side of the peninsula. I added an undercounter fridge (paneled, it is next to the wall) on that side as well with the idea that the "coffee center" would be accessed from that side. The light, animal/ibird watching, and perceived airiness is a huge bonus. This post was edited by scrappy25 on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 18:51

I am in a similar dilemma, in a long, rectangular box condo, with a fully mirrored back wall in the living area (I do have a dining table closest too it, or course, due to layout of space). I love the light and bounce back of the water view, trees, flowers, etc. My partner says "dated" because that is what he has heard, but as he has virtually no design sense of his own, I'm not putting much stock into his opinion. I believe it was actually a great idea at the time, and, despite the conversation about dining, etc., which doesn't really address the issue of being "dated", it doesn't really explain why a great idea has to be "dated" at all? I love the various spins I'm seeing on the mirrored wall now, and what I'm really seeing is that designers have gone back to realizing that this play on light and space is a great idea, particularly in today's world of shrinking personal real estate space. Most people don't live in large houses, and the majority of the world's population live in very small spaces. I guess there are ways to "update" the look, if it really needs it, but I vote to keep the mirrored walls!