The fairest mirrors of them all can remake a room

When Louis XIV decided that the royal palace at Versailles should have a huge Hall of Mirrors, his minister of finance saw an opportunity.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a fierce nationalist, was determined that Paris be able to compete with Venice in producing luxury products like silk, lace and mirrors. He recruited Venetian artisans to come to Paris to craft all 357 of the hall's mirrors. They devised a method of pouring hot glass onto an iron table that allowed them for the first time to make really big mirrors.

With its elaborate ceiling art and solid silver tables, lamps and orange tree pots, the magnificent 17th century hall was the setting for balls, births, even the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

We don't live in glittering palaces, but many of us do tend to think of mirrors as a tad gaudy, a bit Vegas, and not a material we can decorate with easily.

None of which need be true.

We might consider mirrors the way feng shui practitioners do. They see mirrors as serving three purposes: expansion, reflection, deflection.

A well-placed mirror, particularly one that reflects an open doorway or window, can open up a small space. It doubles the feeling of space and, in feng shui, serves an even greater function: It's believed that when a mirror reflects something good — such as a family portrait, pleasing scenery or symbolic object — its positive effects are doubled. Bagua mirrors, on the other hand, are seen in feng shui as bad-energy deflectors used on the outside of the home.

A mirror clad in a pretty or unusual frame will enliven the most basic room.

"They're a focal point in bathrooms, functional in bedrooms and closets, can serve as accent pieces on dining room walls and in foyers, and add height and light to small, dark spaces. When designing a room, it's the one thing I almost always use," says designer and HGTV celebrity Will Smith.

Notes New York designer Geoffrey Bradfield, "mirrors give a room an illusion of infinity."

Round mirrors can be especially smart looking. Pottery Barn has an Art Deco-style beveled glass beauty that hangs on a faux leather strap. Another is wrapped in sustainably harvested cherry tree bark.

In Rocky Mount, Va., Uttermost has a stable of artists creating mirror designs, such as Grace Feyock's "Raindrops," a constellation of tiny mirrored circles orbiting a larger one. Her "Kellan" is a swirl of silver leaf around a beveled mirror, and "Tamryn" boasts a headdress of woven palm tree fibers.