MirrorHouse

Know Your NOLA: Magazine Street mirror house offers the perfect chance to #ReflectYourself

A tiny house on Magazine Street pulls you in with reflections of yourself and the world around you.

by Mary Staes | January 7, 2019

It’s the beginning of the new year, a time many people take to look inside themselves and reflect.

At a tiny house on Magazine Street, there’s a perfect place to do just that. It’s the Porter Lyons Mirror House, a mobile art installation that doubles as a shop.

Usually, when people think “mirror house,” a kiddie carnival image comes to mind. This version is all grown up, with crisp, clean lines, stone steps and a white interior lit up by LED lighting inside the jewelry cases.

Porter Lyons first location is in heart of the French Quarter, on Toulouse Street.

“I came up with this idea for the mirror house about a year ago, in concept,” said artist and designer Ashley Porter. “I was ready to build our second store. I wanted something that would be a little more flexible in terms of location so I could move it at any time.” 

Porter’s creation took her from designing jewelry to designing an entire tiny house.

“The mirror house reflects everything that’s around and really preserves the culture that it’s around,” said Porter. “A part of Porter Lyons mission is to preserve culture, and so this house is an offshoot of that idea.”

Aside from the front porch, the mirror house reflects everything. The hustle and bustle of Magazine Street, you, the person you’re talking to, literally everything. But Porter says that’s part of the allure.

“The whole hashtag for the mirror house is ‘Reflect Yourself,’ said Porter. “What I design on an everyday basis is jewelry, wearable art. I wanted the house to be an extension of that. The things you put on your body, your jewelry, is like your armor. They should reflect who you are and your identity, not the other way around. I really wanted to capture that in the design concept.”

Porter says since the house is mobile, moving it to another location is definitely in the plans.

“Well, the world is our oyster,” said Porter. “We will keep it around New Orleans for festival season, and potentially Dallas.”

The Porter Lyons Mirror House is located at 2230 Magazine Street. It’s open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Click here to visit the Porter Lyons website or here to follow the PL Mirror House on Instagram.

2230 Magazine St
Getting there
2230 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70130, USA

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Mary Staes

Mary Staes

Mary Staes is Digital Content Lead for Very Local. She works with our freelancers and crafts content for our social media platforms and website. Before Very Local, she worked with CBS affiliate WWL-TV as a web producer and weekend assignment editor for about 4 years. She has also handled broadcast coverage for 160 Marine Reserve training facilities while she served as an active duty Marine. As a native New Orleanian, she takes being "very local" to heart. She loves being intertwined with the culture and figuring out how there are less than two degrees of separation between us all, whether we're natives or not.

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