Cafe Nouveau, Pinelands

The mirrored alcoves in Cafe Nouveau

This was a large installation completed in early May 2013. Charisse Rickson, owner of Cafe Nouveau requested dark, heavily-antiqued mirrors to heighten the drama of the interior of this little gem in Pinelands. The mirrors were heavily distressed and set into alcoves along the length of the entire wall of the coffee shop. The result is nearly as fantastic as the coffee Charisse serves. Stop by and have a look sometime - Cafe Nouveau is just a few minutes beyond the Pinelands off-ramp.

Cape Mirrors at Vergelegen Estate

In 2011 John Jacob Interiors refurbished the private accommodation wing to the main house at Vergelegen Estate. Cape Mirrors provided the antique mirrors to screens, feature mirrors and furniture in the house. The project was featured in the January 2013 Conde Nast House and Garden and aired recently on Top Billing.

Stills from the Top Billing slot feature below showing the main mirror in the dining room, cupboards in the bedroom and a detail of one of the screens.

The main mirror in the dining room

Detail of edge antiquiing in screen

The pair of antique-mirrored cupboards in one of the guest rooms

Private Client, de Zalze Estate, Stellenbosch

This was a lovely project for a private client in the exclusive de Zalze Estate outside Stellenbosch. The antique mirrors were specified by Eben Rall Architects of Somerset West, and the joinery was by Sylvan Furniture, also of Somerset West. The mirrors were aged fairly heavily and darkened towards the top and bottom edges. They looked particularly dramatic in an otherwise mostly white interior.

Kitchen cupboards with antique mirror insets

The full kitchen unit...beautiful!

Detail of antiquing

Antique mirror panels framing the fireplace in the living room.

Dark Antique Mirrors for John Jacob Interiors

I've spent quite a lot of time perfecting a much darker, more aged-looking antique mirror for John Jacob Interiors. While I fuss a lot about the antiquing effect- the grain in the silvering, achieving beautiful creamy, almost "bright" silvering,  John was far more interested in the quality of the reflection that the mirrors achieved. He wanted people to appear almost silhouetted in the mirrors, like the one pictured above.

Now to achieve this in straight silver is easy, but to manage it in two layers - one silver, one copper -that's quite tricky. Copper has a tendancy to overpower a thin silver layer, giving you a bright, coppery-pink mirror.  Yet an oxidised copper properly worked into the silver creates blooms of brightness and gives my mirrors their unique atmospheric signature.

To get John's mirrors right, I thinned out the silver substantially, maintaining the weathered 'speckling' that makes antique mirrors look aged. To retain the cuprous layer that gives my antique mirrors their unique feel, I completely reworked the formula and application of the copper backing. The resulting mirror looks great. People reflected in the mirrors look silhouetted, almost candle-lit, Rembrandt-esque. I'm looking forward to seeing these mirrors framed in their respective interiors.

Private Client, Camps Bay

Late November 2011 two large mirrors were installed in the guest bathroom of a prestigious new home in Camps Bay. The client requested heavily distressed antique mirror to reflect and blend with a black and white damask wallpaper. Mirrors were framed in timber by Franco and Son Joinery. Architects: Van Biljon Barnado of Tyger Valley.

3D visualisation by architects showing antique mirrors and early wallpaper theme. The mirror behind the pedestal basin is 2.5m high

The smaller of the two mirrors, this one installed above the WC, reflecting the damask wallpaper pattern.

Private Client, Newlands

The four panels in the workshop shortly before installation. Note the rippled edge treatment.

 
These full-length antique mirrored panels were installed into the doors concealing the main dressing room at a private residence in Newlands. The client, an artist, wished for mirrors that were "silvery, but cloudy" with swirling blooms and shapes discernible in the surface. Having seen a sample with a rippled edge, she asked for the same treatment along the edges of her mirrors. The resulting effect is of antique silver mirrors floating like puddles on the sheets of glass.

Cape Mirrors at Decorex 2011

We, the slave-owners of Cape Mirrors just completed a successful Decorex from 29 April to 1 May at the ICC in Cape Town. At just 4 sqm, our stand was tiny. Tiny. The challenge: how to maximise the effect of our beautiful mirrors in such a pigeonhole? I built a scale model at 1:10, sketched in eye-level, and then Shelley and I played around with mirrors and reflections to see how best to display our surface texture.

The most important design criterion was ensuring that passers-by could see the tone and texture of our antique mirror finish. This meant displaying mirrors on only one of the side walls, so that they reflected the opposite white surface.  Doubling the perceived volume of the stand was an added bonus.

Then, to catch the over-stimulated visitor’s eye, we decided to stencil a set of words on the opposing wall. Again, a caveat: the words had to be written in reverse. We were the only stand on Decorex with a whole wall dedicated to mirror-writing. Some of our words were fairly obvious: atmosphere, stillness, meditation. Others were meant to make the intelligent visitor think: simulacrum (copy), puddle (reflection), chimney (for smoke...and mirrors).

The antique mirror wall was done in square panels. I silvered them in two sets, eight at a time. This kept the continuity of the design. The result was magnificent: areas of blackened, antiqued silver drift from panel to panel in a loose, organic fashion. The whole mural gradually softened and cleared to plain smoky silver at the top. Shadow gaps top, side and bottom delineated the whole thing.

So much for left wall, right wall. The rest of the stand was a simple affair. It centred on our beautiful Cigar Store Mirror, which we borrowed back for the occasion. The oxblood of our reverse lettering was picked up by the retro colouring of silk roses, and a luxuriant handmade rug found by Shelley completed the stand with its inviting, creamy warmth.

The effect was exactly as planned. Visitors loved the look, stopping for long moments to soak up the atmosphere of our tiny cubicle. I’d like to thank the following for the help they gave so generously: the ‘Three Girls’, most especially Shelley, for their ideas, inputs and insistence on keeping the stand simple and practical. Thank God for the female touch. I’d also like to thank Chris, for his muscle, his cool, and his insistence on getting it right. Chris helped me install and undo the whole thing and without him, I couldn’t have done it.