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Hanging a Mirror to Make a Room Feel Larger
Hanging a Mirror to Make a Room Feel Larger
The advice to hang a mirror in a small room is repeated so often that the reason gets lost. A mirror does not add space; it adds a view. Where it is hung decides whether that view is daylight and depth, or a blank wall reflected back at you.
Reflect a window, or reflect a long view
The two placements that genuinely work are opposite a window, which doubles the daylight entering the room, and at the end of a long sightline, which extends the apparent depth of the space. A mirror on the wall adjacent to a window catches light at a glancing angle and does much less.
Before you commit to a position, hold the mirror up and look at what appears in it from where you normally sit or stand. If the answer is a doorway into a dark hall, move it.
Height: centre at eye level, not at wall centre
The usual mistake is centring a mirror on the wall vertically, which typically places it too high. A mirror is centred correctly when its middle sits at roughly fifty-seven to sixty inches from the floor — standing eye level for most adults.
Above a console or a side table, leave four to six inches between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the mirror so the two read as a group rather than as two separate objects.
Size relative to what is beneath it
Over a piece of furniture, a mirror should be roughly two thirds to three quarters the width of the piece. Wider than the furniture and it looks unmoored; much narrower and it looks lost.
On a bare wall, scale up rather than down. A single generous mirror does more for a small room than three small ones, which fragment the reflection and add visual clutter.
Decorative shapes and where they suit
A sunburst or rustic wood-framed mirror carries more visual weight than its glass area suggests, because the frame reads as part of the object. That makes it a good choice above a console where you want presence, and a poor choice where you actually want reflected light.
For maximum light gain, choose the largest plain or thin-framed mirror the wall will take. For character, choose the frame and accept less reflection.
Fixings for plaster, drywall and rented walls
Most apartment walls are drywall or plaster over lath, and neither holds a plain screw. In drywall, use a toggle or self-drilling anchor rated well above the mirror's weight. In old plaster, find a stud where you can, and drill slowly to avoid cracking the surface.
Weigh the mirror before you choose a fixing. Manufacturers publish the weight, and doubling it when selecting an anchor is sensible rather than cautious.
Hanging without drilling
For lighter mirrors, heavy-duty adhesive strips rated by weight will hold on a clean, sound wall. Clean with alcohol, press for the stated time, and respect the cure period before hanging. Do not use adhesive strips on wallpaper, textured paint or lime-washed plaster.
An alternative in a rental is to lean a large mirror against the wall on the floor. It reflects a full-height view, needs no fixing at all, and is a deliberate look rather than a compromise.
Two mirrors, and when not to
Facing mirrors on opposite walls create an infinite reflection that most people find disorientating in a room they live in. If you want mirrors on two walls, place them on adjacent walls instead so the reflections do not oppose each other.
In a narrow hallway, a run of two or three identical mirrors along one wall works well and reads as intentional, provided they are evenly spaced and identically hung.
Keeping the reflection worth having
A mirror shows the room honestly, including the pile of post on the console beneath it. It is the one piece of decor that rewards keeping the surface below it clear.
Clean the glass with a microfibre cloth and a little water rather than a spray that runs into the frame joint. Moisture wicking into a wooden frame is what lifts the finish and eventually the silvering at the edge.
Where to go next
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