Full Length Mirrors

Half your height. That is the whole of the physics: a flat mirror reflects a path twice its own length, so a 180cm person is fully visible in 90cm of glass, wherever they stand. Nobody buys 90cm of glass, though, because the mirror does not sit on the floor, you want to see your shoes rather than your ankles, and you want a few centimetres of air above your head so the top edge is not cutting across your fringe. Add those margins and the practical answer for adults becomes 150cm of glass at the least, 160cm for comfort.

How tall is "most adults"? The Scottish Health Survey put the average man at 175.0cm and the average woman at 161.3cm, and the Health Survey for England lands within a centimetre of both figures. So a 150cm mirror hung with its bottom edge a hand above the skirting board shows a head-to-toe view to anyone up to about 175cm, which is the average man exactly and no taller. If anyone in the house is over 170cm, buy the 160. The extra 10cm of glass is rarely what anyone regrets.

Width is the measurement people underestimate. Sixty centimetres frames one person comfortably. Ninety shows you and the outfit you are holding up next to you. From 105cm two people fit, which is why our 180 x 105cm and 200 x 120cm mirrors end up in hallways and dressing rooms rather than beside a bed.

Yes. People type "mirror full length", "full body mirror", "tall mirror" and "big mirror" into Google and mean the same object: glass tall enough to show a whole person. The search figures tell you how the UK talks about it. "Full length mirror" is looked up about 27,000 times a month, "mirror full length" 3,200, "full body mirror" 2,100 and "tall mirror" 1,700. Retailers follow the biggest number, which is why the shelf label says full length even on a mirror that is really a tall wall mirror for a hallway.

Two of those phrases do carry a hint. "Tall mirror" is often a slim one, 30 to 40cm wide, bought for a narrow strip of wall. "Big mirror" usually means area rather than height: the 180 x 105cm and 200 x 120cm sizes that make a room look twice its size. If either of those is closer to what you want, the long mirror and large mirror pages are sorted for exactly that.

Most mirror pages will sell you anything. These are the combinations we would talk you out of, with the number behind each one.

Shape is taste first, but each one has a practical side, and the search numbers show which way the country is leaning. "Arch mirror" is looked up 18,000 times a month in the UK, more than every other shape put together, and it earns that: the curve sits above head height, so an arch mirror loses almost no usable reflection while taking the hard corner out of a room. A plain rectangle gives the most glass per centimetre and slips into an alcove that an arch will not. Window mirrors, with their black or gold metal bars, borrow the look of a Crittall window and suit a hallway or living room where the mirror is on show all day; the bars cost you a little reflection and add 3 to 4kg. An oval is the most flattering outline and slimmer than its headline width suggests. A wavy or pond mirror is decoration first and a mirror second; the usable area is well inside the overall dimensions, and we have none in stock until one passes our glass test.

If the mirror is mainly for checking an outfit, buy a rectangle or a gentle arch. If it is mainly for the room, buy whatever you would hang as art and then check the glass height still clears 150cm.

For a framed mirror under 180cm, yes, and 27 of the 28 mirrors here use it. The one exception is the champagne Arched 180 x 90cm, which is specified at 5mm. Every mirror on this site is float glass with a silver coating on the back, the same construction a glazier would sell you; what separates a good one from a hotel-wardrobe one is the thickness of the sheet, how flat the frame holds it, and what sits behind the silver.

Thickness is a weight question before it is a quality question. Float glass weighs 2.5kg per square metre for every millimetre of thickness (Pilkington publishes the density), so a 160 x 60cm sheet is 7.2kg at 3mm, 9.6kg at 4mm and 12kg at 5mm. A 3mm sheet that tall flexes in its frame, and a flexed mirror stretches or squashes you a little. At 4mm the sheet is stiff enough that a welded steel frame of 15 to 20mm, which is what ours use, keeps it flat. Five millimetres is stiffer again and it is the right call for frameless designs and for anything over 180cm where the frame is slim. Above that height the frame is doing more of the work than the glass is, which is why our 200cm mirrors weigh 33 to 39kg rather than 24.

Behind the silver you want a safety backing: a film bonded to the back so that if the glass does break it holds together instead of falling as shards. Ours is described by the maker as a reinforced safety backing. Impact-tested backings are classified under BS 6206 or BS EN 12600, and the quality standard for the mirror glass itself is BS EN 1036-1, so those are the three things to ask any retailer about. No backing stops glass cracking. It changes what happens afterwards, which is the bit that matters when a child is in the room. The glass thickness guide goes further.

Three ways to get a mirror upright, and ours do two of them. None of the 28 comes with legs, so if you need a full length mirror with stand in the strict sense, a frame on splayed feet that tilts, you will not find it here yet. What every one of them does is lean and hang: the D-rings or hanging plate are already on the back, so you can rest it against the wall on the day it arrives and drill the holes when you have made up your mind. Wall plugs and screws are yours to choose, because they have to match your wall, and so is the anti-tip strap if you lean it.

Leaning is the simplest. A leaner mirror rests against the wall at a slight angle, which tilts the reflection upward and flatters most people, and the only tool you need is a screwdriver for the strap. The cost is about 15cm of floor at the base and the small, permanent job of keeping that strap fitted. A free standing mirror with its own feet avoids the wall entirely and moves house with you, at the price of floor space and a stand you need to trust. A full length wall mirror is the cleanest and, once fixed, the safest, and in a narrow hallway it is the only sensible choice. It asks for a drill, a level and the right fixings for your wall, which is the next section.

Start from the weight, because it is bigger than people expect. Our lightest mirror is 14.7kg and our heaviest 39kg, and nothing on this page is under 14kg. A picture hook holds a picture. An adhesive strip holds a poster. Whatever the packet says, neither is a fixing for a sheet of glass that weighs as much as a bag of cement.

The fixing has to match the wall, not the mirror. Solid brick or block takes wall plugs and screws and will carry anything we sell on two fixings. Plasterboard is the problem wall. The best answer is to find the timber studs behind it and screw into those; the second best, for the lighter mirrors, is a pair of hollow-wall anchors whose maker rates each one above the whole weight of the mirror. Our own rule is simpler: over 20kg, go into timber or masonry, never into board alone. Dot-and-dab plasterboard over brick needs long fixings that reach the brick. Not sure what you have? Tap it. A dull thud is solid, a hollow drum is board.

On the back of the mirror you will find D-rings, a wire, keyhole slots or a split batten. For anything over 15kg prefer keyholes or a batten, because the weight then hangs straight down onto the screws instead of pulling outward on a wire. Hang it so the top of the glass is level with or above the top of the tallest user's head, check it with a level before the last screw goes home, and lift anything over 20kg with two people. The hanging guide covers every wall type with pictures; securing a leaning mirror covers the strap.

Where the light falls on you, not on the glass. Side-on to a window is the ideal spot: you are lit evenly and the mirror is not throwing a bright rectangle back at you. Beside the wardrobe is the practical one, because that is where you are standing when you want it. If floor space is short, hang it beside the door frame or on the back of the bedroom door, where it costs nothing.

In a hallway a tall mirror opposite or beside the front door makes a narrow space feel wider and gives you a last look before you leave. Hang it rather than lean it; hallways are where leaners get knocked by bags and shoulders. In a dressing room, if you have to choose between tall and wide, go wide. You will want to turn and see the whole outfit, and 180cm of height is plenty for anyone.

The small-room trick is to aim the mirror at a window or a lamp so it doubles the light you already have. A big mirror in a small room works. A big mirror reflecting a blank wall does not.

Let the room decide, not the mirror. A black full length mirror is the safe modern pick; a slim black frame disappears against most walls and reads as a window rather than a decoration. A gold full length mirror warms up grey, sage and navy schemes and looks dearer than it is, though be clear about the shade: most "gold" frames, ours included, are a satin champagne-brass rather than a bright yellow metal, and we sell one 180 x 90cm arch in a paler champagne for rooms where even that is too warm. The search figures say the country cannot choose between them. "Gold arch mirror" is looked up 2,200 times a month and "black arch mirror" 2,100, which is as close to a tie as this data gets, and 24 of our 28 mirrors come in both so you do not have to pick a shape first.

Wood is the furniture option. Our Wooden 200 x 100cm comes in walnut, natural oak, grey oak and black oak, weighs 35.4kg, and belongs in a living room rather than against a bedroom wall. White suits coastal, Scandinavian and children's rooms and we do not stock a white full length mirror yet; when the next tier of the range arrives it will be listed here, and in the meantime the thing to check on any white mirror is whether the frame is painted steel or a plastic wrap, because paint on steel ages better than a wrap. Silver and chrome are searched for far less than black or gold these days and are the easiest to match to a bathroom or a dressing table.

Frame width matters as much as colour. Fifteen to 25mm is the current standard and sits in any scheme. Forty millimetres and up belongs to ornate and traditional styles and needs a bigger wall to carry it.

About 800 people a month in the UK search for a full length mirror with storage, and another 500 for a standing mirror with storage, and nearly all of them mean the same thing: a slim cabinet for jewellery or make-up with a mirror as its door. We do not sell one yet, and we would rather say so than hide it. They are cabinets first and mirrors second, the glass is often thinner than you would accept on a wall mirror, and because the door swings on hinges the whole unit has to be fixed to the wall or it tips when the door is open.

If that is what you need, the three things to check wherever you buy are glass thickness (ask for the millimetres), whether the fixing kit is in the box, and the depth of the cabinet against the depth of the bit of floor you have for it. When one passes our glass test it will appear on this page with the same specification table as everything else.

Anywhere from about £25 to well over £600, and most of that spread comes down to three things: how thick the glass is, what the frame is made of, and how big it is. A cheap full length mirror at £25 to £50 is a 3mm sheet in a plastic or thin aluminium frame; the IKEA full length mirror so many people start with sits in this band, and when we measured IKEA's large mirror category this week it ran from £13 to £129 across 17 products. The £60 to £120 band buys 4mm glass in an aluminium frame with a stand, which is the mainstream bedroom mirror. From £150 to £400 you are into 4mm or 5mm glass in a welded, powder-coated steel frame with a design behind it, the arched, window and oval mirrors that survive a house move. Above £400 it is solid wood, bevelled edges and made-to-measure.

Our 28 mirrors run from £149.95 to £399.95, so we sit squarely in the third band and nowhere else for now. If your budget is £50 we will not pretend a £149.95 mirror is the same purchase. What we will say is that the thing you pay for between £50 and £150 is the glass staying flat and the frame staying upright, and for a mirror you look in every morning that is the difference you notice.

Mirrors are the one category where the delivery is part of the product. Ours leave UK stock within one working day and arrive in two to seven working days on tracked couriers who handle glass every day. Everything 180cm and taller goes on a two-person service, because a 30kg mirror is not a parcel for one pair of hands and a doorstep. The delivery page has the full detail, including the offshore postcodes we quote separately.

When it arrives, unwrap it the same day and look at it properly: glass, corners, frame. If anything is cracked, chipped or marked, photograph the damage, the box and the label and email us within 24 hours. A replacement is dispatched and the broken one stays with you for disposal; you never pay to send glass back. If the box is visibly crushed at the door, refuse it and tell us. Changed your mind? You have 14 days from delivery to tell us, and the mirror goes back unused in its packaging at your cost, which with a 30kg glass carton is the honest reason to measure twice before ordering. The returns page spells both out.

Because specialists can be specific. Every product page here gives you the glass thickness, the backing, the delivered weight to a tenth of a kilo, how it hangs and the lead time, and we only list mirrors that pass two tests: safety-backed glass of 4mm or more, and a supplier who replaces transit damage on the strength of a photo without an argument. A general retailer with 400 categories cannot write a page like this one for each of them. We have one category, so we did.

That focus has a cost and you should know it before you scroll back up. There are 28 mirrors here, not 400. There is no white, no storage, no stand on feet and nothing under £149.95 yet. If what you want is on that list, we would rather point you to the right section of a general retailer than sell you the wrong mirror.