Really, I am such a contrarian, anti-authoritarian, pain-in-it, yes I am. If I have any sense whatsoever that the design powers-that-be believe something is *hideous*, I will go out of my way to find a way to say that it is fantastic. Sometimes I think I can cloud my own vision. But not in the case of: Mirror tiles from the 1970s. My vision is not clouded, it is clear: These are so much fun. Life is short. Have A LOT of fun. And if you Go Too Far with Decorating — Heck, It’s Only Decorating. I recently went on the hunt for vintage mirror tile, and here is what I found, along with lots of artsy fartsy photos of two boxes of New Old Stock diamond coppertone mirror tiles that are now mine all mine *buwaha* or however you spell it evil laugh…
I got the idea to use mirror tiles when I began thinking about decorating ideas for my office/studio remodel. As regular readers know, I have become a bit obsessed with the 1970s. My office/studio will be My Hippy Place.
I don’t know exactly how mirror tiles entered my consciousness. For sure, I’ve seen quite a few of them, for example, in time capsule houses. Usually, they are discussed with derision. Definition of derision, from The Free Dictionary:
However, I thing that they are pretty darn cool. You can use as many or few as you like. They are DIY. They reflect light back into a room. They have texture. Why the heck not.
I originally went looking for gold vein mirror tile. The classique. However, I could not find any new. Well, correction: My glass guy here in Lenox, Carl at Lenox Glass, did find me some new. It was just what I was looking for, but OMG, it was $80 per tile. Yes: $80 per tile.
I also found some on craigslist — gold vein tiles, vintage, 44 pieces for $88 dollars, or something like that, in Cranston, Rhode Island. That’s a three-hour drive for me. I thought about it. But my tusch hurt just thinking about it. Update: They are still there, price is down to $1 a tile. That’s a great deal!
I searched ebay and etsy. Etsy – Bingo! – I found the little motherlode that I was looking for: Several styles of New Old Stock mirror tiles from seller cosasraras. There was a big stash uncovered that is now being unloaded.
Cosasraras has faux bois woodgrain mirror tiles (above). These were very tempting.
Cosasraras has black vein mirror tile.
She has mirror tiles with little diamonds outlined in white. There are two “colors” of mirror in this design: plain mirror inside white-painted diamonds, and coppertone mirror inside the white diamonds. I took a chance and ordered the coppertone. It’s kind of pinkish copper — the photos up higher and thumbnailed on the right are pretty true. I like my tiles a lot. They are weird.
Oh, cosasraras has scenics, too — like the sailing ship, above. Note how it is framed with the faux bois.
There are even Miro-esque scenes. Miro Mirro mirror tiles, hahaha. The come-hither poses on these boxes: priceless. Mirror tiles must have been 70s codes for … swingers? Cover your eyes, under-18s!
Airplane tiles. Ukelele. You gotta love the 70s. You gotta.
Repita: New Old Stock 1976 Mirror tile from cosasraras on etsy, still some left.
Dave makes mid century modern wall panels for his living room for $250 
Atomic clock and sign art by Stevotomic 
Tambour — where to buy this decorative wood for doors or trim 
Retro Renovation 2013 Color of the Year: Broyhill Premier Chapter One Lime Green 
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JKaye says
In the mid-90s, I bought an early 70s ranch that had a short wall of gold vein mirror tiles in the living room. I decided they just had to go, and off they went. Looking back, I think I was way too hasty. But I was too worried about what other people would think — adult people, who might have laughed at them. But I bet my kids would have found them to be great fun. Moral of the story is to take time making changes to a house, so you can find out if you just might like some feature or other. (But I never have regretted removing the dark green and burgundy wallpaper and Victorian-style light fixture from the bathroom of that house!)
George K. says
I bought a 1966 ranch two years ago. I have recessed shelves in the basement, and the backs of them are lined in gold veined mirrors. They are easily falling off, so I’ve been taking them down. I think that they are not original to the house but were added when the second family moved in after 1973. (I’m the third owner). My mom designed and my dad built a mirrored tile wall section (in our 1941 tudor entry way) about 1970 or ’71. It was 4 squares x 6 squares all gold veined tiles with smoked gold veined tiles in the four corners. A few years later, my mom found small elongated diamond mirror shapes with adhesive on the back and applied them to the intersections of the mirrored tiles in the center of the overall display. (We also had Christmas ornaments that looked exactly like the diamond shapes as well as elongated ovals circa ’76). Eventually, at my mom’s request, I took the whole thing down in the mid-’80s. (My dad had mounted it on plywood).
Jocelyn says
We have a 1968 ranch. The master bedroom has a chair rail and the area below the chair rail is painted baby blue. Above the chair rail is a light blue and yellow floral wall paper. The “feature wall” was covered with 12″x12″ gold veined mirrors above the chair rail… the entire wall. They were mounted right on the drywall with the wallpaper put up around them, which makes me think they were put in when the house was built.
I took them down when our first child was born and was sleeping in the room. I wish I knew what I did with them, there were so many! We’ve never been able to completely remove the adhesive from the wall, it’s these puffy double sided stick squares.
Tasha says
Our living room wall is decked out with mirrored tiles! Two panels (I guess that would be the term). 3 tiles wide by 7 tiles tall, with the outer tiles on the top curved to make an arch. They are clear with gold veins.
The previous owners even left an almost full box in the basement (5 out of 6 tiles), they are Hoyne Mirro-Tiles. I looked them up recently and found them in newspaper ads in the late 70s through to the early 80s. Our box is much more plain (no groovy gals) so it could be one from the early 80s I suppose. We think they’re a kitschy addition in our 50s ranch so we’ll be keeping them up, at least for a good long while (and saving the extra box in case of accidents). 🙂
Tasha says
For fun I snapped the front/back of the box of leftover mirrored tiles from the previous owners…click on View All Sizes to see biggie version:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whoanellie/7110283003/in/photostream
pam kueber says
Yup, that’s it. Mirro-Tile. Hence my miro-mirro-mirror joke!
Kim Harayda says
Oooh THANK you! I have been looking for these! When I was little my parents had a 10 x 10 wall of these (gold veined) in their bedroom and I loved them ! Unfortunately they took them down for drywall & texture (greige too- mom is a big fan of greige)- I’ve been looking for these off and on for our 1964 ranch….now…where to put them… 🙂
ChrisH says
I know we’re not supposed to be negative, so I’ll just say “To Each, His Own”.
I do wonder if it’s possible to decorate in a ’70s theme w/o having to be “ironic” about it.
pam kueber says
You know, ChrisH, I have been thinking about your question all morning. I think it’s not *ironic* if you really love it and are using it for what it is. Ironic implies an opposite. That is: Ugly but you use it to make some kind of point. I don’t think the mirror tiles are ugly. I think they are fabulous. Which is what they thought in the 70s when originally installed. I need to make a whole blog post about this! Maybe Friday noon and I’ll let people opine all weekend! Thanks for the provocative question!
Jon Hunt says
We have a rather 70s house — more late 60s, really, but our basement is FULLY in the full-on 1970s — and I can tell you there ain’t a hint of irony about it. We just full-on love it. It’s COLORFUL AND FUN. What the heck is wrong about colorful and fun, I ask? Nothing.
ChrisH says
Pam,
Thanks for taking the question seriously. It wasn’t meant to be completely dismissive of ’70s decor, and it seems you recognize that.
I’m not saying mirror tile is ugly, I’m saying it falls under the heading of a guilty pleasure. Even if you genuinely like it you can’t really help thinking it’s a bit over the top. I mean is this your home or a stately pleasure dome? It seems to me that much of the decor (and fashion, and cars, and….) of the ’70s is like that. But maybe it’s just me.
Perhaps a few more examples would help. Suppose someone puts orange shag carpet in their ’70s RetroReno. It’s possible to genuinely like shag, and at the same time chuckle a bit – I mean, it’s hairy carpet, who could fail to see the humor?
One of my brothers has a couple leisure suits that he’s had since the ’70s. He still puts them on once in a while, and we all laugh – with him. He genuinely likes the leisure suits, and they have a lot of good memories for him. But he can’t help laughing too. There is a certain silliness to a leisure suit that can’t be denied, and that’s true even for those who appreciate them.
I genuinely like the Levi Gremlin. (I like any AMC car for that matter). But it’s a Hornet chopped off at the trunk and upholstered in denim. How can I not laugh at that ?
’70s stuff -decor, fashion, cars, electronics, etc., were not meant to be timeless. They were not meant to be the epitome of good taste. They were meant to be groovy, happening, now, with it, etc. It’s great to have fun, and enjoy things. I’m all for that. But it seems that one needs a sense of humor to do ’70s decor. By contrast Arts and Crafts, Deco, MCM can all be done without humor, and often are.
pam kueber says
This will be a future topic.
mimi says
Are you sure you aren’t thinking that because 70’s are still not antique yet? I personally think mirror tiles DO serve a purpose. Yeah, maybe ship tiles are over the top, but a nice veined mirror tile is neither tacky nor ironic. Mirrors serve to enlarge a room and reflect light-without using electricity nor costly renovation to enlarge a room-there is a purpose to them.
mimi says
I forgot to add, a lit Christmas tree looks absolutely beautiful next to a wall of mirrors-unironically, of course.
BrianD says
Much to the dismay of most readers here, my question is how to safely remove the mirror tiles OFF a wall.
We have 1976 ranch (there is a bicentennial beer can in the crawlspace left by the original builders). Our master bath has a raised tub, shag carpet and three walls of mirror tiles with gold veining. No shower, no storage whatsoever. Just a tub surrounded by all those self-conscious tiles.
We are planning a more useable remodel with the storage we need and an ergonomic shower/tub for my arthritic self, so the tiles need to go. How would we go about it? Smash & grab? Or is there a way to safely soften the mastic that holds them up and pry them off whole?
pam kueber says
Hey BrianD, I don’t let people give safety advice like this. Consult with a proper professional on this, okay?
BrianD says
Oopsie.
We’ve got one of those “local handyman” services in our neighborhood, but for some reason he’s reluctant to even touch the wall. I guess I’ll head for the big city to find someone with more know-how.
Brian T says
Last year I sold my 100-year-old house. In the foyer is an area where there once was a potbelly stove. There’s still a round metal plate covering where the stovepipe hooked into the wall; underneath is a vertical area (three feet wide, nine feet tall) that’s kinda lumpy. Some previous owners had covered the lumpy area with gold-vein mirror tile — the veining was supposed to look like marble. I eventually pried the tiles off and covered the area with texturized wallpaper painted to match the rest of the room.
Pam, there were at least four, maybe eight of the gold-vein mirror tiles left over, never applied, on a shelf in the basement. If you’re that hungry for them, I could see whether the new owners have thrown them out.
Natalie S says
My grandparent’s 1950s ranch had the mirrored tiles with gold veins running through as well. My husband helped them take down the wall they were on to open up the dining and living room, but we kept them. We’ve been thinking of a great project to use them on. On the other side of the wall there was wood paneling and once it was removed an awesome flocked wallpaper in green and yellow was revealed. How they lived without that wallpaper showing, I don’t know. We managed to remove some larger pieces that I was able to frame. My husband has some photos of both on his blog (hope it’s ok to add the link)
http://jsworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/04/diningliving-room-remodel-part-1.html
pam kueber says
Wow, there is a whole lot of fabulous going on in that house!!!
Dulcie says
I remember my mom installing the gold-veined tiles on a wall in the bathroom. The condensation from the bath got in the cracks between tiles and ruined the mirroring on the edges. So, warning, if you install these in a bathroom, or any place where condensation builds up, maybe you should look into some kind of crack sealer or something to prevent your marvelous finds from being ruined.