Vote for MIrrorMate to Win an Interior Design Best of Year Award!

MirrorMate is thrilled to be up for Interior Design Magazine's Best of Year: Product Design award!  The winners will be selected by industry professionals, so if you're a designer, architect or in commercial facilities management, your vote can help us win! Visit Best of the Year Awards today to vote! Thanks in advance for your support!

New styles for fall

MirrorMate has added even more new styles to the collection, including Chelsea in Pewter Bronze and the Casco Bay line that combines wood tones with metallics.  Best of all, these new styles as well as those that debuted this summer - Providence, Cherokee Slim & Bellemeade - are on sale through October 21! 

Winners Announced in the 2010 MirorMate Makeover Contest!

Earlier this summer we asked..."Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" And today, after 66 mirror makeover entries showcasing some amazing before and after photos, we're so pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 MirrorMate "Rate My Makeover & Win" Contest.  Amazingly, two makeover from Texas took home top prize, one for the consumer category and the other for the professional category - and both used the Tribeca frame in Burnished Brown! You can see those makeovers, as well as the second and third prize winners below.  In addition to cash prizes, the makeovers are also featured on MirrorMate's homepage!

Congratulations to all the winners!  You can read more about the Grand Prize makeovers here.  Thank you to all who participated - we love seeing all those bare mirrors become oh-so beautiful! If you'd like to see some of the other entries and makeovers as well visit the MirrorMate Forum where the entries were submitted. Enjoy!

 

Color Trends 2010

The Color Marketing Group (CMG) recently gathered to discuss color trends for 2010. Larson-Juhl, maker of high-end framing materials used by professional framers, including MirrorMate, participated in the CMG meeting.  Their North American Color Marketing Group representative, Sherran Arthur shared some interesting insights on color coming out of the meeting: 

• There are two major influences to the 2010 color palette.  The first being environment, and the second, economy.  
• "Coastal-inspired colors are incorporated to respect the environment and bring a bit of the outdoors in."
• "Happy colors are incorporated to move out of a downward economy"

Particularly of note with regard to the increasing popularity of gold tones in framing, "gold is influencing metallics as cool metals are slightly touched by yellow.  White nickel and toned down subtle gold reflect elegance."

Sherran also notes the following shifts in colors:

- Reds: Shifting to a truer red with blue influences

- Oranges:   More organic, cross cultural, global infusion

- Yellows:  Moving to lighter sunny tones with a hint of natural green, very happy

- Greens:  Fresher, regenerated, evoking a sense of renewal; Think Earth

- Blues:  Calming blue tones, inspired by the sky and sea

- Purples: Ranging from orchid to deep eggplant 

- Browns:  Nature inspired hybrid neutrals; chameleon tones

Golden Rules

Kitchen & Bath Business today featured an article, "A Warm Front in the Bathroom," on the increasing popularity of gold, brass and bronze finishes.  They note the trend, particularly for oil-rubbed bronze, in everything from faucets to sinks.  We wanted to share some frame options that can complete the look.  The new Bellemeade frame in Champagne has a golden hue, while there's the traditional Old World Gold in Permaquid Slim and Permaquid, and Antique Gold in the Naples style.  And for bronze, try the Bronze Wave in the Venetian style or the Grandezza frame in Bronze.  They're all styles that will add warmth to the bath.

Pemaquid in Old World Gold

MirrorMate Featured on Canada's City Line Talk Show

Designer Jackie Glass of J. Glass & Associates in Ontario is a regular on Canada's national talk show, City Line. She's also a fan of MirrorMate. On Thursday, she took viewers through a demo of how a MirrorMate frame is assembled and some of the range of finishes for the frames. The entire show is online for viewing and featured home improvement ideas throughout - so it is fun to watch. The MirrorMate segment is about 25 minutes in too if you want to skip right through! Enjoy! http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/260879096001.000000/CityLine-July-29-2010-Home-Day/

MirrorMate's New Styles: Providence, Cherokee Slim & Bellemeade

MirrorMate has added eight new frame options to the line.  There are now more than 45 styles to choose from, ensuring there is a frame for every style and decor!   

The Providence frame is a traditional style full of detail, including beading, ribbing and the ever-classic egg and dart pattern.  This frame is available in both bronze and silver.

The Cherokee Slim line adds four rich finishes for deliciously different looks, including nougat, dark chocolate, licorice and cherry chocolate. These looks are simple and can go from modern in the dark, and currently offered chrome styles, to downright beachy in the vanilla nougat color. These styles are value-priced, too.

Finally, the Bellemeade line now features a new design with bead and scroll edges in either champagne or cherry finishes, for a rich look in a classic frame.  Silver will also be coming soon in this ever-popular line.  

We’re seeing growing interest from customers in slimmer, simpler styles.  Cherokee Slim has widths of just two inches and are an excellent choice for the commercial sector, including hotels and condos.

Metallic and rich wood finishes are also extremely popular. We’re adding more metallic options with the Providence line and deep, warm tones with Bellemeade and Cherokee Slim.  

And coming this fall...Casco Bay. More info to come!

"Say Goodby to the '90s"

A great new high-gloss, heavy stock, home remodeling magazine for Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and the South Coast of Massachusetts called "home remodeling," included MirrorMate in the "Just In" section of their Summer 2010 issue.  If you can get a copy, I promise you'll LOVE perusing all the pretty photos and info on New England home remodels.  Who knew an outdoor shower could be so pretty!  In the meantime, here's the MirrorMate snip it from page 14 of the issue...

Infarrantly Creative Gets Creative with a MirrorMate Makeover

Beckie at Infarrantly Creative recently made over her bare bathroom mirror with a MirrorMate frame in Venetian Silver Wave and shared it on her blog at http://infarrantlycreative.blogspot.com/2010/06/mirrormate-frame.html

You can see a quick preview of the beautiful end result below - but don't miss all the details on just how she did it at Infarrantly Creative! Great work Beckie!

An Inch of Gray Blog Bathroom Makeover

An Inch of Gray completed her bathroom makeover with a MirrorMate frame in Acadia White. Lisa helped to select the frame featured in the makeover.  Check out the before and after images, courtesy of an Inch of Gray, and for the full makeover visit http://aninchofgray.blogspot.com/2010/05/you-complete-me.html

Reinvented blog reinvents her MirrorMate frame...

There are a lot of MirrorMate makeovers happening in the blogosphere lately and we love it! Our friend Kimm at Reinvented just reinvented her bare bathroom mirror with a MirrorMate frame in the Pemaquid style in Porcelean White. Here's a sneak peek below and you can see the whole step-by-step process on her blog. Great job Kimm!

Under the Table and Dreaming Blog's MirrorMate Transformation

Blogger Stephanie Lynn recently showcased her addition of a MirrorMate frame to the bare mirror in her son's bathroom in her blog "Under the Table and Dreaming."  It was the start of a bathroom makeover project which she'll continue to showcase in the coming weeks - and what a great start it was! Click here to see the step-by-step transformation in her blog posting.  Stephanie Lynn used Pemaquid in Porcelain White to frame the mirror in the before and after seen below (photos courtesy of the Under the Table and Dreaming blog).

'Tis the Season for Decorating

We're just coming off the heels of National Decorating Month, and isn't it true? The spring just makes you feel like sprucing things up! Take off those extra blankets, dark bedding and heavy drapes.  Open the doors and windows and place some fresh flowers at the table. The extra day light and warmer temperatures inspire us to finish up those projects we've been meaning to do.  What easier project than freshening up the bathroom with a quick coat of paint and a MirrorMate frame.  If it's been on your to-do list, now's the time.  Through May 18 at http://www.mirrormate.com/ you can get 15% off the first frame and - as an added bonus - 20% off additional frames.  Happy Spring!

A Soft Place to Land Features MirrorMate

Today's A Soft Place to Land blog featured a great MirrorMate transformation done in Acacia Dove White. It's always so fun to see the before and after...pretty!!

To see more on the step-by-step transformation, check out Kimba's blog! (She's also got a MirrorMate coupon code for her readers!)

Before & After Photos from the Centsational Girl Blog

We wanted to share these beautiful before & after photos from the Centsational Girl blog! Check out her entire post with her step-by-step detail of how she did and and what else she has planned for her bathroom makeover, as well as all the wonderful reader comments at Centsational Girl.

More on removing mirrored trim...

Jane at Finding Fabulous wowed us with her removal of the mirrored trim around her vanity mirror and replacement with a MirrorMate frame on her blog last week.  That dated trim CAN be removed.  In the case of her mirror it was simply taped on.  Jane was kind enough to share her step-by-step photos with us as well - and you can see them on her blog where we are so thrilled with the results, and wonderful comments from so many readers. 

You can see how she gently pulled the trim away from the mirror and then removed the tape strips and wiped it down with rubbing alcohol to clean off any residue.

Once finished, the standard installation of the MirrorMate frame took place - putting together the corners and taping it to the plate glass mirror.  Here is the before & after to showcase the transformation!

Did you know you can remove the mirrored trim?!

Jane at Finding Fabulous did a wonderful job detailing her MirrorMate transformation - that included first removing the mirrored trim from her vanity mirror - and what a difference it makes! Check out her blog at...

http://decormamma.blogspot.com/2010/03/mirrormatea-mirror-transformation.html

A Design Delight...

I am so happy HGTV finally has some new decorating shows. I know my sister loves watching people look for a house, but I think it is b-o-r-i-n-g! I love the new Australian gardener guy, Jamie Durie. He's brilliant and cute! And of course there's our favorite, Candace Olson. There's also the new show Home Rules, that gets your life and house in order- two things that really do go hand in hand. Don't you just feel better when your home looks good?

Lisa's Guidance for Choosing a Frame Style

We get a lot of calls about what frame styles to choose for your bathroom - after all we have 40 to choose from!  Not that I'm a designer, I sure do pretend I am one!  What I tell people is to frame their mirrors in the same style they would choose to frame a piece of art and put it in that room.  You do not have to match your faucets especially if you do not like their color.  Bring up a color from your floor, your vanity, or countertops instead.  Some of the most popular selections today? Metallics and black - they're always in style. And order samples to be sure you're selecting the one you like best.  If you have questions or thoughts comment here, call us or email becky@mirrormate.com.  We're always happy to help!

A special TGIF Sale just for you...

As a blog, Facebook or Twitter fan, we wanted to welcome you to the weekend with a special sale, just for you.  At www.mirrormate.com, just enter HOUSE at checkout and receive 15% off everything at the site this weekend.  Happy weekend & happy shopping!