From Snow White’s evil stepmother to Alice in Wonderland, there’s something about mirrors that captures our imaginations. And with the wide selection of looking glasses out there nowadays, there’s a style of mirror to match just about every personality, from loft-dwelling creatives to traditional-minded Shaughnessy residents.

A typical young homeowner in Vancouver, city of the incredible shrinking condo, is likely dealing with some fairly cramped quarters. But with some cleverly positioned mirrors, you can create the illusion of a few extra square feet of space.

“You can definitely use them to make spaces feel larger,” says Eyoälha Baker, owner of interior-design firm Urban Remix ( www.urbanremix.ca ). The trick, she explains, is to “reflect a piece of artwork or a view, or even an area that you want to look at more”.

With many of us living in smaller spaces, laser-cut beauties to sunburst styles (from Urban Remix)

Lawrence Willett, head designer of Bravura Interiors (534 West Pender Street, www.bravura-interiors.com ), suggests using mirrors to create the illusion of an extra window. “The biggest thing that I do is put large mirrors on a picture wall to bring in the outside view, like of the water and mountains, harbour, boats. Then it almost looks like an extra window,” he said. Plus, he adds, this technique will double the amount of natural light in your space.

Dining rooms, if you’re lucky enough to have one, lend themselves especially well to a well-placed, large mirror, according to local award-winning interior designer Patricia Gray. “I like to use a really nice dining-room fixture and a nice dining-room table and chairs, and a mirror doubles that image,” she says. “In a lot of homes the living room and dining room are combined, and the living room is on the window side. The mirror also helps to reflect extra light into the room to visually enlarge it.”

And don’t feel you’ve got to stick with a classic rectangular shape to get the benefits of added light and space. New etching and cutting technologies have transformed the lowly mirror into a work of art in and of itself. At Bravura Interiors, Willett carries a line of BDI mirrors ($498 to $798) that feature patterns such as alternating circles and squares.

“You can put as many together as you want and the patterns all bleed into each other,” he says. “I use them in long hallways because it broadens the space.…It will double the width.”

Baker likes some of the laser-cut mirrors now available where various patterns are literally cut out of the mirror, creating an interplay with the background wall colour.

“Instead of always putting a picture up, it’s kind of fun to have a unique-looking mirror. You can use it as an art piece,” she says.

Another increasingly popular style is the convex mirror, a focus of Vancouver’s Reflecting Design ( www.reflectingdesign.com ), whose styles range from 23 inches to 46 inches in size, retail from $400 to $2,000, and are available locally at Liberty (various locations) and Koolhaus (1 Water Street).

The appeal of these mirrors, explains company founder and designer Matthew Buck, is their inclusiveness. “If you put this mirror above a fireplace in a living room and look at it, you’ll always see something in the reflection. Whereas if it’s a flat piece of glass, the chances are what you’re going to see is the ceiling. With these, you’re always getting something back from the mirror.”

Even if you prefer your mirrors flat and functional, you can still have fun with them: Willett is fond of leaning, rather than hanging, them up against walls, while Gray has taken to layering them.

“I’ll set a mirror on a mantle and then I put another mirror in front of it, of a smaller size,” Gray explains.

If there’s one spot where mirrors don’t belong, according to Willett, it’s the bedroom wall. “Mirrors above dressers and things like that is quite passé,” he insists. But, he jokes, “I never said anything about not having them on the ceiling!”

What would Alice have made of that?