Sizing a Wall Mirror for a Room

Mirrors are bought on looks and returned on size. A few proportions do most of the work, and none of them require anything more than a tape measure.

Above furniture

A mirror hung over a console, sideboard or bed generally sits best at roughly two-thirds to three-quarters the width of the furniture below it. Narrower than that and it reads as undersized; wider and the arrangement starts to look unbalanced unless the mirror is deliberately the main event. Leave 15 to 25 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom edge of the mirror.

Eye height, not wall centre

The usual mistake is centring a mirror on the wall rather than on the people using it. For a mirror you actually look into, the centre of the glass wants to be around 145 to 155 cm from the floor. On a tall wall that will look low against the paint and correct against the room, which is the trade worth making.

Full-length mirrors

A full-length mirror needs roughly 40 to 50 cm of width to show a whole figure comfortably, and it needs to be tilted very slightly forward at the top if it is leaning rather than fixed. Leaning mirrors must be secured to the wall regardless of weight; a large sheet of glass resting against skirting is not a safe arrangement in a house with children or pets.

What to measure before ordering

• The clear wall area, including anything that will crowd the frame, such as a switchboard.
• The width of the furniture the mirror will sit above.
• The height from floor to the centre of where the glass will sit.
• The route in: a large framed mirror has to get round the staircase turn as well as through the door.

Groups instead of one large piece

Where a single mirror large enough to suit a wall would be too heavy for the fixing, a set of three smaller mirrors covers the same visual area at a fraction of the point load. It is also considerably easier to hang level, and easier to live with if one is ever damaged.

Every listing on this shop gives the overall framed dimensions, the glass dimensions where they differ, the depth of the frame and the weight. Those four numbers are what decide whether a mirror suits a wall, and we would rather give them to you than describe the piece as statement-making.