Catch the Light: Using Glass
and Mirrors to the Max

By Leslie Banker

The quality of light on the East End is, at the end of the day, what makes it such a special place. Yes, the beaches are nice and the villages are charming. The restaurants, the scene, the farm stands and the shopping are all appealing and part of the draw for so many people. It's the light, though, that's the backdrop to all of this. It's the light that makes everyone look sun kissed and a little healthier. It's what, in part, at least, drew so many artists out to the East End to begin with.

The question is how to describe the light. Silvery, clear, clean - are all words that come to mind. The realist painter Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), who spent many years on the East End, described it as "knife like." Whatever adjectives you attach to it, you'll want to bring as much of it as possible inside your house to work its magic within your walls.

The brilliant English architect Sir John Soane (1753- 1837) used circular convex mirrors placed high on the walls to bounce light around his house (which is now a museum) at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. With London being a rather overcast place, the need for such mirrors may seem more acute than on the East End. The trick works anywhere though. The mirrors add a decorative element to the interior while circulating the light so it hits neglected dark places in a room.

A bull's eye mirror has a round convex shape that is likely to be a bit bigger than what Soane used, though it will maximize the light in a space just the same. These come in a variety of styles, from Federal to Regency to ultra modern, and can be found at local antiques shops. English Country Antiques in Bridgehampton has a Regency style example for starters.

A pair of bull's eye mirrors could be hung above a sideboard in a dining room or in a front hall over a console table. A collection of simple smaller ones could be hung in a grouping on a wall or else, like Soane, hung around the top of a wall like a bathtub ring.

Regular mirrors, neither convex nor necessarily round, can also be used for this purpose. While it's probably not in keeping with "Hampton's Style" to cover walls in floor to ceiling disco-style dance studio mirroring - especially smoked glass disco style mirroring - a couple of tastefully placed mirrors will do much to catch and reflect the light around a room. Consider a mirror over a mantelpiece, a sofa, or on the wall in the dining room.

The best time to think about catching the light in a house is before the space is completely finished, while plans for change are still on the drafting table. Given the exceptional quality of the light on the East End, especially if you live near the water, it pays to focus on windows, doors, skylights and other such points of entry.

Eastern light in the morning is most beautiful, so a breakfast table is probably best placed in front of an east facing window. In the evenings, the western light will be most spectacular, so your place to sit and enjoy a cocktail and dinner is best placed near western facing windows or on a deck at the western side of a house. Southern exposure is the most intense while northern light is the most consistent all day. Skylights bring in tons of light, though they also bring in a lot of heat. French doors with glass panes help light to flow in, whether it's from the outdoors or from room to room.

Besides mirrors, windows, and doors, other small accessories will help to make light zip and zoom around a space. Consider crystal decanters on a side board or a dining table. For a more formal setting, a crystal chandelier over a dining table or in a front hall would sparkle. In a less formal setting, more of a beach house, a decorative glass bowl filled with shells as the center piece on a table will also ping about the light. Those with bigger budgets might consider adding a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture to their collection, placed on a table in the front hall, on a side board or somewhere in front of a window where it can send light refracting about (Marlborough Gallery in NYC is one gallery that represents him).

When the sun goes down, keep a good thing going by using candlelight wherever you can. Hurricane lanterns on a dining table, side board or even a coffee table provide a glow that will carry on the excellent lighting until the sun rises again.

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