Omaira Gill grew up counting down the days to each Olympic Games. “It was a big deal in our house,” Omaira tells CNN Travel today. “I remember watching with my parents and I used to always think, ‘I’m going to go one day. I’d love to go to the Olympics.’” Omaira wasn’t especially sporty, so she ruled out the prospect of competing pretty early on. But she still harboured Olympic dreams – even just spectating would do. In 2004, the year Omaira turned 22, the Olympics were set to return to their birthplace of Athens, Greece. Omaira grew up near Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. Athens was a little less than four hours away by airplane. “I thought, ‘Okay, Athens, that’s the closest it’s ever come to me in my lifetime,’” recalls Omaira. “I didn’t know then that eventually the Olympics would come to London as well. So I thought, ‘Let me see if I can go to the Athens Olympics. I’ll see if there’s tickets for gymnastics or something like that. Maybe I could go to the opening ceremony…’” Several months before the start of the games, Omaira was finishing up her journalism degree and staying at her parents’ home for the holidays. Noodling around on the family computer, Omaira spent hours researching the logistics of attending the games. Eventually, she found herself on the official Athens 2004 website. “In the corner of the site there was this little banner saying, ‘Volunteers,’” recalls Omaira. “And I thought, ‘Well, that’s even better. Because that puts you inside the Olympics. And you get the full experience of the Olympic Games. That would be amazing.’” Omaira signed up right away, registering interest in the media village – the obvious choice for a journalism student. “And then a couple of months passed. Uni finished. This, that and the other happened…And I still heard nothing back from my application.” Summer rolled around. The opening ceremony was imminent. There was still nothing in Omaira’s inbox from the Athens volunteer team. She was starting to think her Olympic dream wasn’t meant to be. “And then out of the blue one morning, I got a phone call saying, ‘Are you still interested in volunteering at the Olympics?’” The speaker barely finished their sentence before Omaira confirmed that yes, she was definitely still interested. “Would you mind if it’s the shooting center and not the media village, like you requested?” asked the voice on the other end. Omaira didn’t even hesitate. “I don’t care,” she said. “I’d just love to be there.” The unknown speaker told Omaira the job was hers – as long as she could make the necessary travel arrangements, and find somewhere to stay for the duration of the Games. “I think he also gave me a really basic rough outline of where I would need to be for initial training, and where to pick up my uniform,” says Omaira. “Then I hung up and started screaming. My dad was like, ‘What’s happened? What’s the matter with you?’” As luck would have it, Omaira had a friend from college who lived in Athens, who offered her a room for the duration of the Games. Within days, Omaira was on a flight to Greece. Omaira got to watch the final dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games on August 13, 2004. It was an amazing experience. (David Gray MD / DL / Reuters via CNN Newsource) An unexpected opportunity From the moment Omaira landed in Athens, everything was a whirlwind. She was invited to watch the final dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony. Omaira teared up as she watched the opening countdown, in giddy disbelief that she’d finally made it to the Games. And then Omaira was off to work at the shooting center, where the Games’ shooting events were held. “My very first day at work – well, first day of training, let’s say – I was late,” she recalls. “The shooting center was way out in the sticks, around the area where the airport is. I took the train, and later worked out that the bus was actually a lot faster.” Omaira, along with a few other latecomers, eventually arrived that first day embarrassed and flustered. Omaira tried to apologize, but her words were batted away by the guy heading up the shooting center. “These things happen,” he said. Instead of berating them for tardiness, the shooting center manager suggested the volunteers reconvene that evening in the city center, for a city tour and a few drinks. “So then we turn up at Syntagma Square (Athens’ main public square) that evening. And we were all kind of more fresh, more relaxed,”  recalls Omaira. The shooting center manager arrived last. He smiled and waved as he approached the rest of the group. “And that’s what I noticed,” recalls Omaira. “I was like, ‘Oh, he’s quite good-looking. He’s quite cute.’” She also learned his name: Dimitris Athanasiou. Early thirties. Born and raised in Athens. Warm, friendly, welcoming. Omaira liked him right away. “But I didn’t make anything of it,” says Omaira. “Because I thought, ‘Okay, you’re young, free and single. It’s great. It’s summertime. Just enjoy your time here.’” Later that evening, Omaira found herself seated at one end of a long table filled with excited Olympics volunteers. Dimitris was at the other end. “He kind of waved, saying, ‘Come sit over here,’” recalls Omaira. “And I would have never done that normally, but I got up and sat next to him.” Right away, Omaira found Dimitris easy and fun company. “I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, he’s really interesting to talk to,’” she says. “I was quite a sheltered person growing up. I was raised Muslim, my family is modern, but they’re still quite conservative about things like dating and stuff like that. So I didn’t really talk so much to guys. But I found Dimitris really interesting to have conversations with.” Over the course of the Athens Olympics, Omaira worked in spectator services at the shooting center, checking tickets, pointing Olympic visitors toward the bathrooms. She loved soaking up their excitement and enjoyed the insight into the Olympics’ behind the scenes. But she also spent a lot of time thinking about Dimitris. “I would live for those two minutes when he would come and change my shift,” she recalls. “I’d be like, ‘What time is it? What time is it? Have three hours passed yet? When is he coming?’” And then I’d see him walking towards me and I’d be like, ‘Act normal, try and act normal.’” Omaira and Dimitris always exchanged a few friendly words. But the conversations were brief. Dimitris was busy heading up the volunteers, and Omaira was busy working. “We spent no time together, really,” Omaira says. “I don’t know why we clicked.” Meeting Dimitris As Omaira got to know Dimitris, she learned he didn’t grow up with the same reverence for the Olympics as she had. He told her he saw the Games more as a “good job opportunity” than anything else. But Dimitris was happy to see Athens abuzz with activity. And he enjoyed sharing his city with the shooting center volunteers – he took the group out most nights, guiding them around his favorite Athenian spots. “It was exciting knowing that the games were in Athens,” Dimitris tells CNN Travel today. “The public was a little split about the cost of hosting the Games, and as we know, they eventually were a big factor in how much debt the country got into. But at the time they kicked off, people were excited. It felt like a chance to present modern Greece to the world.” Dimitris’ official job title was Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre venue manager. Early on, he realized shooting hadn’t attracted the same numbers of volunteers as some of the other Olympic sports. In a quest to increase headcount, Dimitris ended up going through the other centers’ applications. He discovered Omaira’s application right at the end of this process. It was Dimitris who’d called her that day earlier in summer 2004, to ask if she was still interested in volunteering. Omaira was the last person he recruited. Once he’d gathered his shooting center group together, Dimtiris was determined “to make sure they had fun.” Sure, they needed to work hard – but this was also a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Dimitris encouraged the volunteers to make the most of it. That’s why he was lenient when Omaira and some of the others were late that first day – and why he suggested going out later that evening. He enjoyed getting to know all the volunteers – who hailed from across the world and ranged in age. Everyone seemed fun and friendly. But Omaira stood out. “I do remember walking up to the fountain in Syntagma Square, where they were all waiting that first night and thinking she was cute,” Dimitris recalls. Dimitris liked speaking with Omaira that first evening. And he enjoyed their brief workday interactions, and looked forward to their friendly chats on nights out. But while Omaira was cultivating a pretty heady crush, Dimitris didn’t really have time to engage with his potential feelings. “I thought she was pretty,” he says. “But I was so busy I didn’t really have time to pay much attention.” Working the Olympics was “busy and exciting,” Dimitris recalls, unlike anything he’d done before. And as well as working constantly, Dimitris was also hosting several of the volunteers at his apartment. Plus, the shooting center gang were regularly going out until the early hours of the morning. On the final night, the group went out together for the last time. As they weaved in and out of bars, walking through the cobbled Athens streets, Omaira and Dimitris ended up side by side. They were chatting, flirting. Omaira talked about how much she liked Greece, Dimitris quizzed her on whether she enjoyed camping, and asked about her thoughts on dogs. “Okay,” he concluded. “Will you marry me then?” “Yeah, okay,” said Omaira, laughing. She’d bought a “tacky, souvenir ring” during her time in Athens. Now, Omaira pulled it off her finger and handed it to Dimitris. “If you’re going to propose to me, you have to do it properly, with the ring,” she said. “Okay, will you marry me, with this ring?” he said, laughing and holding out the ring. “Sure,” said Omaira. And Dimitris slipped the ring onto her wedding finger. It was just a light-hearted conversation. But to Omaira, the words felt charged. “That evening, as we were parting ways, I kept thinking, ‘I should say something to him. I really like this guy. I should say something because I’m leaving the next day and I have literally nothing to lose right now. If he says no, I’m never going to see him again…’” she recalls. But Omaira couldn’t bring herself to speak her feelings aloud. “So I didn’t say anything. And I returned back to the UK.” As for Dimitris, he was moving straight from working the Olympic Games to working the Paralympic Games. He didn’t really have time to fully register how he felt about Omaira leaving. But as they said their goodbyes, Dimitris found himself thinking about the previous night’s marriage conversation. “I remember looking at her and thinking ‘I could really marry her,’” he says. “I’d never felt that before.” Dimitris and Omaira still live in Greece, where they’re bringing up their three children. (Omaira Gill via CNN Newsource) Staying in touch When Omaira landed back in the UK, her mother picked her up at the airport. Omaira got into the car passenger seat and her mother looked at her, narrowing her eyes. “You’ve met someone,” she said. “No, don’t be ridiculous,” said Omaira. Her mother just raised her eyebrows in response. “She clocked on straight away,” says Omaira today. “She knew.” A couple days later, Omaira caved, and confided in her mother about Dimitris. “You’re right,” she said. “I did meet someone. I want to go back to Athens, I have to find out how he feels about me.” Omaira’s mother was sympathetic, but practical. “You can’t do that,” she said. “You don’t know this person.” So instead of jumping on another flight, Omaira resorted to keeping in touch with Dimitiris over MSN Messenger. Social media was in its infancy back in 2004, but instant messaging had taken off. It was an easy way of communicating with people across the world. Still, Omaira also went old school – she handwrote Dimitris a letter from the UK, enclosing a photo of the two of them – both grinning into the camera lens, arms around each other. The picture was taken the night they met, on the first evening in Athens. A few friends commented that Omaira and Dimitris looked like a couple in the picture. One of the other Olympics volunteers scrutinized the picture, and then asked Omaira if anything happened between her and Dimitris. Nothing happened, replied Omaira, truthfully. Because nothing actually had happened. It was all what ifs, should haves, could haves. Then one evening, Omaira was chatting with Dimitris on instant messenger. They both sat at desktop computers, typing messages back and forth. “How are you doing?” asked Omaira. “I’m a bit sad today,” wrote Dimitris. “What’s up?” asked Omaira. Dimitris’ reply made Omaira pause, her heart beating fast: “I’m missing someone.” “Who are you missing?” Omaira wrote back. “You,” said Dimitris. After that, their messages became more frequent. Omaira and Dimitris started chatting on the phone. They talked about their feelings for each other, and wondered aloud if they could make it work. International visits After a few months of regular instant messaging and phone calls, Dimitris came to visit Omaira in the UK for a few days in October 2004. By then, Omaira had left her parents’ house and moved south to London to pursue a journalism masters degree. In the lead up to his visit, Omaira practiced her favorite recipes, with the idea she’d impress Dimitris with her cooking skills. “But then just before he arrived, I came down with this horrible cold – so he ended up cooking for me – and he cooks really well,” says Omaira. “So eating this food I was like, ‘Okay, now what? I played my ace and his cooking is better than mine. So that’s not going to work.’” But Omaira didn’t need to worry about impressing Dimitris with elaborate meals. It was clear he liked her. They spent a happy few days in each others’ company, and Dimitris went back to Greece hoping to see Omaira again soon. “I didn’t know what role I would play in her life but I hoped it would be a good one,” he says. Then, a month or so later, Omaira flew to Athens to visit Dimitris. Even though the London visit had gone well, she was still nervous. Her friends and family were a little skeptical about the relationship’s longevity. “I remember my housemates were like, ‘Oh my god,’” says Omaira. “And I broke out in spots, I was so anxious about it.” But on the plane over to Athens, Omaira told herself: “Even if it turns out to be a total disaster, go out in a blaze of glory, have this adventure – you keep saying nothing interesting happens in your life. So go for it.” And as soon as Omaira reunited with Dimitris, the nerves vanished. The ease and comfort she’d felt during his London visit returned. “He was very kind and reassuring and I just felt that same sense of ‘This is really familiar and very comfortable,’” she recalls. Dimitris was excited to host Omaira in Greece. “By then we’d built a strong emotional connection talking every day on the phone, so I felt close to her,” he says. From there, Omaira and Dimitris committed to a long distance relationship, traveling back and forth between the UK and Greece to visit one another. In between, they spoke on the phone, sent emails and instant messages – and Omaira wrote Dimitris handwritten letters, which she sprayed with her perfume. Dimitris looked forward to her mail. “Omaira has a strong creative streak, she pours herself into any task and the letters were like that too,” he says. “She took a lot of care in all of the process.” While letter writing wasn’t Dimitris’ thing, he did mail Omaira a copy of his favorite book, “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. “When I read that book it struck me that sometimes the thing you searched the world over for was always right in front of you,” says Dimitris. Sharing the novel with Omaira felt important. Omaira and Dimitris also got to know one another’s loved ones on their respective trips to the UK and Athens. “I began to introduce her to my closest friends, and they all remember this because I would tell them ‘There’s someone I want you to meet. It’s serious, tell me what you think’ as they’re great judges of character,” recalls Dimitris. “They all adored her straight away.” In between trips they missed one another, but both Dimitris and Omaira felt it was important for them not to rush their romance. Dimitris was especially conscious of this, given he was a little older than Omaira. “I missed her, but I also knew that I would be taking something away from her if I moved things too fast,” he says. “Omaira has said when she met me she felt like she was at a crossroads trying to figure out where to go next. I wanted her to figure that out on her own with her own time and space, her own job, social circle etc. I didn’t want to push those decisions for her.” Here’s Dimitris and Omaira on their wedding day in Athens, in 2009. (Omaira Gill via CNN Newsource) Next chapter Cut to 2006. Omaira finished her journalism postgraduate studies and started working in a bank – not her dream job, but a job that paid the bills. She was moving into the next stage of her life, and so she started looking into the logistics of moving to Greece to be with Dimitris. He was excited to welcome her to Athens. “Six months before I actually moved, I started Greek lessons in London, just so I’d have a language base when I moved,” Omaira recalls. “My bank let me keep my job remotely, so I was one of the remote working pioneers.” From there, Omaira and Dimitris settled into life in Athens together, making regular trips back to the UK to see Omaira’s friends and family. It was on one of these UK visits that Dimitris proposed. Omaira jokes that it wasn’t the most romantic moment – they were barbecuing in her parents’ garden and she had “smoke in my hair, grease all over me.” But she was delighted to take this next step. Omaira and Dimitris got married in Athens on the hottest day of 2009. “We did the ceremony in the morning at the mayor’s office with lots of friends and family. And then in the evening, we did a beach party with our nearest and dearest friends – so less than 50 people. The beach party was really nice, super casual,” says Omaira. Omaira designed her wedding dress herself. Her father is from Pakistan, and her mother is from India, and she wanted to wear something that nodded to traditional dress, wasn’t too heavy in the heat, and felt true to her. “She looked so beautiful,” says Dimitris. “Neither of us felt nervous on our wedding day. It felt like a new chapter in what we had already started together.” Omaira and Dimitris welcomed their first child, Hermes, in 2011. They were over the moon, but parenthood wasn’t without its challenges. At just over a year old, Hermes was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle degenerative disease. People with Duchenne usually don’t live past their 30s. “We were in shock,” says Omaira. But she and Dimitris were determined their son would enjoy a full, fulfilling life – and Hermes’ diagnosis lit a fire in them both. “I’d studied journalism, but I ended up working in financial marketing,” says Omaira. “I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to work on journalism really aggressively now. Because I have to prove to my son that if you really want something, you can get it, you just have to work hard. I can’t just tell him, I have to prove it to him – be the living example.” Omaira left her fulltime job and started working as a freelance journalist, writing about politics, culture and her personal experiences. “I’m very proud of her,” says Dimitiris, who has since become a Duchenne patient advocate. As Omaira and Dimitiris came to terms with their son’s diagnosis, they only felt more solid in their certainty in each other. “It’s a tough thing,” says Omaira. “But we picked the right person to go through it with.” This feeling was compounded when the couple went through two miscarriages. Omaira and Dimitris now have three children, with their sons Hector and Orion rounding out the family. Dimitris calls fatherhood, “the greatest feeling in the world.” “They are the best pieces of Omaira so they are very precious to me,” he says of his children. The couple are raising their kids speaking a mix of Greek and English, and highlighting Greek, British, Indian and Pakistani traditions. “The kids have been very aware of both halves of where they come from,” says Omaira. When they started raising their children, Omaira and Dimitris also realized the similarities between their respective cultural backgrounds – they’d both been raised with an emphasis on community and family. “And accepting that family is going to interfere in your business,” says Omaira, laughing. 20 years later This year marks 20 years since Omaira and Dimitris crossed paths at the Athens Olympics. As someone who grew up loving the Olympic Games, it’s special to Omaira that her life is now forever entwined with the Games. “I get very sentimental every time the Olympics roll around, because I’m like, ‘That’s where we met,’” says Omaira. “Every time I watch the Greece Olympic opening ceremony, I will always cry because I remember how nice it felt to be there. It’s where our story started.” “The Olympics have a special place in my heart,” agrees Dimitris. “They’re the reason we met and why I have the family I have today.” It seems appropriate, says Omaira, that there are five Olympic rings and she and Dimitris and their sons are a family of five. “Although sometimes I joke with Dimtiris, ‘You gave me one ring. I need four more, because there’s five Olympic rings.’” Omaira and Dimitris excited to watch this year’s opening ceremony in Paris. And coincidentally, they’ll be in the city during the Games – although not at the Stade de France. Omaira, Dimitris and their kids will be at Disneyland Paris, Paris’ Disney theme park, with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which facilitates memorable moments for children living with incurable illnesses. “Hermes asked for a trip to Disney,” says Omaira. “So it just so happens we’ll be in Paris during the Olympics.” Twenty years after her volunteer experience, Omaira is still an advocate for the Olympic volunteer program – and always encourages people to sign up. “It was spectacular,” she says. “I still have friends from volunteering. We’re still in touch, spread around Europe –  spread around here, there and everywhere. It was wonderful, because it was really what I wanted, which was to experience the Olympics, from the inside.” And of course, volunteering led Omaira to Dimitris – and to a marriage of 15 years and counting. “It’s by no means a perfect marriage, but if I was to say a final word to someone reading this, it would be, in addition to my other comments to you, that there are times when you are madly in love and there are times when you wake up and choose to love that person, because things are hard,” says Omaira. “You can experience multiple shades of a relationship with the same person. And also, go forth and volunteer, kids, you never know what might happen.”

TOKYO –

Kudos to you if you can speak perfect Japanese and order food at a neighbourhood sushi bar in Tokyo.

If you can, chances are that on your next trip to Japan, you may be able to score a better deal by blending in as a local.

Japan has never been a destination known for hiking up prices for foreigners. But overtourism – fuelled by a combination of pent-up post-COVID demands (aka “revenge travel”) and the weak local currency – has recently prompted restaurants in the country to consider the merits of differential pricing.

“People say it’s discrimination, but it is really hard for us to serve foreigners, and it is beyond our capacity,” said Shogo Yonemitsu, who runs Tamatebako, an all-you-can-eat seafood grill in Shibuya, Tokyo’s bustling shopping district.

He maintains that he doesn’t charge tourists extra. Instead, he offers a 1,000 yen (US$6.50) discount to locals.

“We need (this pricing system) for cost reasons,” Yonemitsu said.

Japan only completely reopened in the fall of 2022 following the removal of pandemic travel restrictions.

This year, spurred by a weak yen that has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar in decades, the tourists are back — in big numbers.

Visitor arrivals to Japan hit a record 17.78 million in the first half of 2024, according to government data — and are on track to break the country’s 2019 record of 31.88 million tourists.

In response, places around the country have begun implementing tourist taxes, imposing visitor caps and even banning alcohol sales in an attempt to curb the effects of too much tourism.

Earlier this year, a resort town in the foothills of Mount Fuji erected a giant net to block views of the iconic peak after tourists flocked to a photo-viewing spot, causing litter and traffic problems.

Meanwhile, tourism authorities in Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost prefecture known for its scenic views and ski resorts, this month urged businesses to set lower prices for locals.

And a mayor in western Japan said he was considering charging foreign tourists more than six times the local entry fee to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Himeji Castle.

Elisa Chan, associate director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s hospitality research centre, said differential pricing can be an effective way to combat overtourism.

“The owner may want to make sure that the sudden surge in tourist demand does not drive away all its loyal and frequent local customers. Charging tourists more may be seen as a solution to this,” she said.

Yonemitsu, the restaurateur, said the influx of tourists isn’t simply an issue of adding extra tables.

He said his seafood grill had to hire additional English-speaking staff to take orders, handle bookings and explain to tourists everything from how to tell the difference between sashimi and grilled food items to where to put their luggage. Failing to do so results in “mayhem,” he said.

“Some people say, ‘We don’t do this in our country.’ But think about how bad Japanese people’s English skills are. We aren’t at that level where we can call ourselves a tourism powerhouse yet. We just can’t speak English, and yet we can’t say the wrong things. It’s really stressful,” he said.

While it’s a new phenomenon in Japan, differential pricing is quite common in other parts of the world. As the less-expensive resident prices are often written in the local language, foreign tourists may not even know they paid more.

In Japan, it’s up to every business to decide for themselves if they want to implement two-tiered pricing. That’s not always the case elsewhere, as governments can step in.

In Venice, for example, officials introduced a fee to enter the Italian city and an online reservation system to cope with overtourism.

Meanwhile, some Japanese business owners are trying to be creative.

Shuji Miyake, who runs an izakaya, or informal pub, in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district, offers ramen topped with lobster for 5,500 yen (US$35) — four times the price of the shrimp noodles his regulars often order. The premium dish is marketed to tourists, who he said have a higher budget to try new things.

Australian tourist Phoebe Lee said she spent less on a recent two-week trip to Japan than on her previous trips to the country — and she wouldn’t mind paying a little extra if the weak yen is making life difficult for locals.

“This helps support local businesses to continue providing us lucky visitors with amazing experiences and preserve important parts of Japan’s culture, like tiny mom-and-pop restaurants or authentic ryokans (traditional inns),” she said.

Some people love to wash their car, and for others, it’s their most hated chore. It’s a necessity for car owners, so no matter where you fall on the love-hate spectrum, you want a car wash that’s going to give your car a deep clean that lasts. Automatic car washes are at almost any gas…

  When you take your car to the car wash, there are multiple add-ons available, and one common choice is spray-on wax. It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference, but there are some important benefits. And these benefits go beyond how shiny your will car looks. What Are the Benefits of Waxing Your…

Even when you are lucky enough to start with an empty room, it can be overwhelming to design an interior that you can enjoy for years to come. Following some basic interior design principles, you can transform your space into a relaxing room you will be comfortable and happy with. Decide what your focal point will be and build out from there.  For best results, keep proportion and scale in mind as you decorate as well as these tips!

 Deciding on Your Focal Point
Do you have a magnificent bay window with an incredible view?  Is there an ornate mantle that is the reason you fell in love with your home? Or is there something you absolutely MUST HAVE in the room? Situate your furniture around your chosen focal point to create balance and equilibrium. If your room does not already have an existing focal point, create one with oversized art or add an accent point like a free-standing fireplace, they come in a variety of sizes and styles. Symmetrically balance the room evenly so that both sides mirror one another.  This will help your chosen focal point stand out all the more! Use matching accent tables to flank your sofa or use different pieces of furniture to create a copacetic visual impact, like two similar armchairs to balance a sofa.
Repetition for Rhythm
Rhythm creates a flow and helps direct the eye to the differing visual elements in your room. Just as the notes of a favorite song repeat to create the rhythm, repetition in decor will create a rhythm throughout a home. Establish visual interests with a rhythm throughout your space by placing similar colours or patterns at intervals and repeat in artwork, cushions or area rugs.

Perfect Proportion and Suitable Scaling
Who doesn’t love a large, overstuffed chair? But if your room is on the smaller size it may look out of place and make your room seem even smaller than it is. Keep proportion in perspective. Proportion is the ratio between a piece of furniture and the size of a room. Scale is the size of a piece of furniture in relation to the other pieces of furniture in the room. A super large chair will overpower an apartment of loft size sofa or loveseat and create a sense of unbalance in the room.

Have your room humming harmoniously
Creating harmony will enhance how much you will continue to love your finished. Pull the room with a subdued colour palette for a pleasing, harmonious vibe.   together for a pleasing, harmonious look with a subdued color palette. You can also use a single colour for elements that vary in size and shape. Check out our blog on Doing White on White Right! for more tips!

What is the focal point in your room?  What is your best tip to find harmony and balance through your home?

Mirrors are a handy decor tool, but did you know they also serve clever purposes? From making your space feel larger and lighter to providing an opportunity for guests to check themselves; mirrors can be found in more than just the bathroom.

You know that feeling when you finally get a chance to move into your first apartment and have total control over how it looks? The only downside is there are so many design decisions. It can actually be overwhelming! Well, fear not because we’re here with some of our favourite tips for hanging mirrors in an easy way.

I’m always getting mixed up when it comes to how high I should hang my mirrors. It’s not like they’re wall art, right? Ha! No one knows what height is best for them because everyone has different needs and preferences in their space. For example, if you have a tall piece of furniture like the chest over there (points) then 4-6 inches below that will be perfect so people can still see themselves while they walk by or look at anything on top of the chest without feeling uncomfortably close to a mirror hanging too low above them – but keep in mind this may vary depending on where most people are sitting around your room; such as with an end table next to your couch or chair.

There are two easy ways to introduce more natural light into your living room or bedroom – strategically place mirrors. Consider the angle of the sun and hang a mirror opposite south-facing windows, east-facing windows, or on both walls if you want even more sunlight shining through!
Coming or going, guests are certain to check their reflection in your mirror when they enter. Add a well-placed console table with some seating for comfort and style without sacrificing space of the entryway!

Make sure you mount hardware properly to keep mirrors safe. There’s nothing as tempting as adding wire to the back of a mirror, but each D-hook or keyhole mount on the back should attach to its own hook for safety and stability.

Finding a mirror that fits your space’s aesthetic can help you achieve the perfect cohesive design style. Whether it’s windowpane pattern in your modern farmhouse bedroom, wood frames for spaces with rustic style and organic shapes for mid-century homes or even textured glass to match an industrial loft – each one will make sure everything feels like it belongs together.

If finding the right frame is difficult consider how important light reflection is when choosing which type of mirrors are best suited to be placed on top of furniture such as dressers or side tables: if you want all reflections visible choose mirrored ones; If displaying decorative items atop then opt instead for framed options so they don’t get blocked out by glare from any nearby windows.
You don’t have to limit the use of mirrors to indoors.  Using old mirrored shower doors or adding shutters to a wood framed mirror can enhance your outdoor spaces and make your garden appear bigger and more lush!

Have you gotten creative with mirrors?  Share your ideas below!