How to buy a mirror

You could think of a mirror as a piece of reflective art for your home. With appeal beyond the practical, a mirror can change the look of your room instantly. And mirrors are everywhere. In our bathrooms, in hallways, on top of dressing tables, above the mantelpiece. In all shapes and sizes, plain and fancy and sometimes freestanding, mirrors have an important role to play in the decoration of your home, adding interesting focal points and making rooms look bigger and brighter by bouncing light around.

Things to consider

Do you want your mirror to complement the furniture that’s already in your room? Or do you want to make a bit of statement to liven up your space?
How big do you want the mirror to be? A large mirror in a small room will really help create the illusion of space and light but be wary of it dominating or reflecting so much light it causes glare.
Think where you are going to put it. Are the walls up to the job? Mirrors can be heavy so check what your walls are made off and use the correct fixings. Also check for electrical cables and pipes before drilling holes for screws.
How are you going to use it? If it’s for checking your appearance rather than decorative purposes then it needs to be at a level where your whole face can be seen.
If you are using a mirror as a decorative feature, hold it up in a few different positions until you’re happy that you’ve chosen the one that maximises light and reflects the most attractive view. Opposite a window is usually good.
Consider a round mirror to break up the straight lines of furniture.

Styles

The most common type, they are suitable for any room and available in a wide range of sizes and finishes to complement or contrast with decorating schemes both modern and traditional. They can usually be hung either portrait or landscape and full length versions are ideal for bedrooms or hallways so that you can check your appearance from top to toe.

Usually found in bedrooms, their benefit is they can be easily moved around if you decide to rearrange the furniture. And of course, being full length, you can see how good you look when you’re all dressed up with somewhere to go.

Wall-mounted
Freestanding

It’s all done with mirrors

Mirrors can be used and displayed in any number of ways. You could create a wall of mirrors by mixing up different shapes and styles. Hang small mirrors next to big ones, even hang lots of small mirrors to make one big one. Take a look at the following article to get your creative juices flowing.

Keep your mirror the fairest

If your mirror has a wooden frame, a weekly wipe with a damp cloth will keep it free of dust. And good quality beeswax applied every few months will keep the wood nourished and protected.

To clean the glass and keep it streak-free, use a lint-free microfibre cloth and a little warm water or glass cleaner, then buff up to a shimmering shine with a dry lint-free cloth.