By Elizabeth Betts Hickman
The Tennessean

In the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the most glamorous of bedrooms and the most luxurious of bathrooms often contained a piece of mirrored furniture or a mirrored accessory.

With their sparkling edges and lightness of feel, these pieces set off everything around them, and lent an air of elegant ease.

With design trends flirting between mid-century modern and early 20th-century glamour, mirrored pieces are back in vogue, big-time.

"Right now, people are into the vintage feel," says interior designer Gary Alexander.

And that means if you're looking for something to perk up your parlor or brighten your bedroom, you're in luck: mirrored pieces, both large and small, are becoming more available.

One appeal of a dash of mirror, be it on a tray or a table, is that the pieces look good in a super-traditional setting, or fit beautifully in more pared-down environment.

"It's an optical illusion, too," Alexander says. "It adds depth to the room."

It's important, though, to use mirrored pieces in small doses. Nobody, for instance, would want more than perhaps one carefully chosen item in any given room. On a dressing table, though, you could get away with a few mirrored accessories placed together.

"You only need a touch of it," says decorator Rozanne Jackson. "You don't want to go overboard."

While a vintage early 20th-century table or nightstand might run into the thousands of dollars, the new accessories available today make it easy to get the glamour without making a huge investment.

But if you are looking for a dramatic piece for your house, it's hard to beat mirrored furniture. Usually, whether old or new, the pieces have a darkened, antiqued finish that softens them and makes them less reflective. Designers note that mirrored pieces also are rising in popularity because of the interest in silvery finishes, such as brushed chrome and pewter rather than metals such as brass and gold.