Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

Huw Griffith-Bespoke Mirrors

I love old mirrors when they have become distressed and weathered over the years this is much more interesting than new highly polished pieces. (Quite a lot like people really). With the trend for Shabby Chic a lot of new mirrors and furniture have been made to look older than they are (with various degrees of success) and a lot of beautiful old pieces are re-painted and re-polished totally losing their unique character. One artist who takes old pieces and keeps the character and also adds to the beauty is Huw Griffith who re-works old mirrors, produces artwork and re-works old chairs.  

Huw Griffith is a London-based designer who creates antique décor by covering 19th century mirrors in faded vintage fabric and reworking plywood conservatory chairs with vintage floral wallpaper. His one-of-a-kind mirrors are carefully antiqued and backed with rare textiles so that the papers show through parts of the glass. As he describes it, "Knock off the bits you don't want, and leave on the bits that you do." Many of these old pieces have been overlooked or unwanted at flea/antique markets but Huw brings a new life to these pieces turning them into something beautiful, nostalgic and yet still innovative and modern.

Huw also creates commissioned art pieces such as; mercury glass bottles, painted mirror cabinet doors and mixed media mantel paintings. Huw has developed a small range of reproduction antique furniture piece, carefully covered, sanded and sealed in 1940's wallpapers. These have featured in several design magazines and are really stunning. I would love these pieces in my own home.

The bulk of his inspiration springs from the sourcing and re-working of unusual pieces that most dealers might overlook. Recent commissions have been wide ranging including work for the following clients

Paul Smith Interiors, Jamie Oliver, Designers Guild, Whistles, Quintessentially Soho, Savoy Group, Gordon Ramsey, Avoca, Anthropologie and Seventy-b-antiques.

Huw also finds the time to be an interiors editor for men's quarterly magazine Port, and has written interior pieces on many leading designers like Piero Fornasetti and Joseph Ettedgui.

If you would like to find out more about Huw his website is www.huwgriffith.com

I have posted images of his stunning work and I also have further images of his mirrors in http://pinterest.com/sarabrowndesign/mirrors/