Arch Mirrors

An arched mirror is a rectangle with a curved top: a true half circle on the classic version, a flatter curve on the contemporary one. The shape is borrowed from Georgian windows and chapel doors, and it does one thing a square mirror cannot. It takes the hard corner out of a wall that is already full of straight lines, the wardrobe, the door frame, the radiator, without adding any pattern. That is the whole trick, and it is why "arch mirror" is typed into Google 18,000 times a month in the UK while every other shape sits in the low thousands.

The curve costs you almost nothing in reflection. On a full arch the curve is a half circle, so it begins half the mirror's width below the top edge: 30cm down on a 60cm wide mirror, 45cm on a 90cm one. That is above the head of anyone standing in front of it, so you see exactly what you would see in a rectangle of the same size. What you lose is the two top corners, which is why a wide arch of 90cm or more looks so generous: the eye reads the full width while the curve stops it feeling like a slab.

Two curve profiles cover the market and the names vary by shop. A full arch, sometimes sold as a Roman arch, is the half circle. A gentle arch, which our Gentle Arch range uses, has a shallower curve that reads as more modern and sits more comfortably under a low ceiling or a picture rail. Our Arched range is the full semicircle. Both are the same glass, the same frame and the same price size for size, so the choice is purely the line you prefer, and the next two sections help you make it.

The rule is the same as for any mirror, because the arch sits above your head: the glass needs to be at least half your height, and comfortably 150cm or more once you allow for shoes, the gap above the floor and some air over your head. An arch mirror full length enough for an adult therefore starts at 150cm of glass, and anything shorter sold as a full length arch mirror is really a dressing mirror with a curve. The average British man is 175.0cm and the average woman 161.3cm, so a 150 x 60cm arch hung with its bottom edge 20cm off the floor shows the average man to the top of his head and no further. If anyone in the house is over 170cm, buy the 160. The 180s and 200s are not about height at all; they are about width and about what the mirror does for the room.

Width is where people under-buy. At 60cm you see yourself with a little air around you. At 90cm you see yourself and the outfit you are holding up. At 105cm two people fit side by side, and at 120cm the mirror is reflecting the room as much as the person, which is the point of a large arch mirror in a hallway or a living room.

Depth of curve, and nothing else that matters. The Arched range is a true semicircle: on the 160 x 60cm the curve starts 30cm below the top and the top of the frame is a single continuous bend. It is the shape people picture when they say arch mirror, and it looks right in a period house, a bathroom-adjacent dressing area, or anywhere with other curves to echo. The Gentle Arch range flattens that curve so the top edge rises only a few centimetres at the centre. It reads as softer than a rectangle but quieter than a full arch, and in a room with a picture rail or a sloping ceiling the shallow curve tucks in where a semicircle would fight the line above it.

Which to buy comes down to the wall. If the mirror is going on a plain wall with a wardrobe or a door beside it, the full arch gives you the most shape for the money. If it is going under a rail, a beam or a low ceiling, or into a room that is already busy, the gentle arch is the one you will not get tired of. Both come in black and gold at every size, the Gentle Arch adds a 150 x 60cm at the bottom of the range, and the Arched adds a champagne 180 x 90cm. A rectangle with no curve at all is on the long mirror page, and the arched designs with window bars live with the window mirrors.

The country cannot decide, and the data says so. "Gold arch mirror" is searched 2,200 times a month in the UK and "black arch mirror" 2,100, as near a dead heat as this kind of data produces. The choice is about the wall behind the mirror rather than the mirror. A black arch mirror reads as a window frame, disappears against white and grey walls, sharpens a pale room and hides fingerprints and scuffs better than any other finish. A gold arch mirror warms up sage, navy, terracotta and off-white, and photographs as dearer than it is.

One thing to know before you order a gold one, from us or anyone: nearly every gold arch mirror sold in the UK, ours included, is a satin champagne-brass tone rather than a bright yellow metal. Against a dark or coloured wall it looks gold. Against a white wall it drifts towards warm silver. If you want unmistakable brass you are looking at a brass-finished wooden frame at a different price. For rooms where even satin gold is too warm, the champagne Arched 180 x 90cm is a paler, cooler version of the same idea. Eight of our nine arches come in both black and gold, so the shape and size decision never forces the colour, and each finish has its own page with those eight: gold arch mirrors and black arch mirrors.

Every arch here does both. The hanging hardware is already fitted to the back, so an arch wall mirror is a drill and two fixings away, and an arch leaner mirror is the same mirror stood against the wall at a slight angle. None of our arches has feet, so an arched floor mirror in the free standing sense, a frame on splayed legs, is covered on the free standing mirror page rather than here.

Leaning is the easy option and the flattering one: the backward tilt lengthens the reflection and lifts the light. It is also the way a leaner mirror ends up on top of a child or a dog, which is why a leaning arch needs an anti-tip strap or a screw eye and cable at the top. Strap kits are the same nylon-and-bracket sets sold for chests of drawers, they cost a few pounds, and one screw holds them. The strap is a safety line and not a hook: it stops the mirror being pulled forward, it is not rated to carry the weight.

Hanging an arched wall mirror is the cleanest look and the only sensible choice in a narrow hallway or a toddler's path. Our lightest arch is 14.7kg and the heaviest 35.3kg, so the fixing has to match the wall, not the picture-hook habit. Brick or block takes two wall plugs and screws for anything on this page. Plasterboard wants the timber studs behind it, or for the 150 and 160cm arches a pair of hollow-wall anchors each rated above the mirror's full weight. Over 20kg, which is every 180 and 200cm arch, our rule is timber or masonry, never board alone. The arch changes one practical thing: the hanging points on the back sit well below the top of the curve, so measure from the D-rings or plate to the floor, not from the top of the arch, when you mark the wall. The hanging guide covers each wall type, and securing a leaning mirror covers the strap.

Our 180 x 105cm arches weigh 26.5 and 28kg and the 200 x 120cm pair weigh 33.2 and 35.3kg. Those are the numbers that decide whether a large arch mirror is a joy or a chore. Everything 180cm and taller comes on a two-person delivery, and once it is in the room it needs two people to hang, a wall with 2.1m of clear height for the 200s, and fixings into brick, block or timber. A 200 x 120cm arch leant in a hallway is the best-looking thing on this site; the same mirror hung on dot-and-dab plasterboard with the wrong anchors is a problem waiting for a door slam.

Go large when the mirror has a job to do for the room: a dark hallway that needs the window reflected into it, a living room wall with nothing else on it, a dressing room where two people get ready at once. Stay at 160 x 60cm when the job is checking an outfit beside a wardrobe. Every size over 170cm, arched or not, is gathered on the large mirror page with its weights beside it.

In a bedroom the arch belongs beside the wardrobe, side-on to the window so you are lit evenly rather than silhouetted. It is the one room where leaning is sensible, because nobody is rushing past with a bag, so a 160 x 60cm Gentle Arch leant against the wall by the wardrobe, strapped at the top, is the arrangement we would start with for most bedrooms.

In a hallway an arch opposite or beside the front door makes the space feel taller and gives you a last look on the way out. Hang it; hallways are where leaners get knocked. Choose black or champagne so it reads as a window rather than a decoration, and go to 180 x 90cm if the wall allows, because the point of a hallway mirror is the daylight it throws back. In a living room a large arch above a sideboard or against a chimney breast becomes the focal point, and this is where the welded steel frame earns its price: a 33kg mirror that stays flat and square for years is a different object from a flat-pack one that twists.

A bathroom is a different purchase. Bathroom arches are 60 to 100cm tall, hung over a basin, with frames and backings made to cope with steam; the quality standard for interior mirror glass, BS EN 1036-1, specifically excludes constantly humid rooms. The full length arches on this page are for dry rooms. If you want the arch look over a basin, buy a bathroom-rated piece rather than parking a 160cm mirror in a wet room.

No. A curved top is cut from the same float glass as a straight one, so everything that matters about a flat mirror applies to an arch: thickness, how flat the frame holds the sheet, and what sits behind the silver. Every arch here is specified at 4mm with a reinforced safety backing, except the champagne Arched 180 x 90cm, which our specification lists at 5mm. Float glass weighs 2.5kg per square metre per millimetre, so the 4mm sheet in a 160 x 60cm arch is 9.6kg of the mirror's 15kg, and the 15 to 20mm welded steel frame does the job of keeping it flat. Budget arches use 3mm glass, which over 150cm flexes enough to ripple the reflection, and that ripple is the difference you are paying for between a £60 arch and a £200 one.

The backing is the safety part. A film bonded to the back holds a broken mirror together instead of letting it fall as shards; it does not stop the glass cracking. Impact-tested backings are classified under BS 6206 or BS EN 12600 and the glass quality standard is BS EN 1036-1, so those are the three things to ask any retailer about. Ours is described by the maker as a reinforced safety backing. The one check that is specific to arches: a well-made arch has the glass cut to the curve and the frame formed to follow it with an even gap all round. A cheap one has a rectangular sheet behind an arch-shaped frame with a painted board filling the corners, which looks fine from the front until the light catches it from the side. The glass thickness guide goes into the rest.

These are the arches we would talk you out of, with the number behind each.

From about £40 to over £400 for a full length one, and the spread comes down to frame material, glass thickness and size. At the bottom, The Range lists arched mirrors from about £39 for a small wall piece to £189.99 for a full length lean-to. The £150 to £300 band is where the specialists live: William Wood's arched metal mirrors sit at £199 for a 160 x 50cm or 170 x 80cm, Daals' free standing gold and black arches run £179.99 to £269.99, and our nine arches run £149.95 to £399.95. William Wood's frameless arched 179 x 110cm and our 200 x 120cm pair meet at £399. Above that it is solid wood, bevelled glass and made-to-measure.

Our view: a 160 x 60cm welded steel arch at around £200 is where the value sits in this market. It keeps 4mm glass flat, it leans or hangs, and it is the piece people take with them when they move. Below £100 you are buying something you will replace; above £300 you are paying for width and presence, which is worth it when the room needs it and not when it does not.

Arches leave UK stock within one working day and arrive in two to seven working days with couriers who handle glass every day. The 180 and 200cm arches travel on a two-person service. The delivery page has the detail, including the offshore postcodes we quote separately.

Unwrap the mirror the day it arrives and look at the glass, the corners and the frame. If anything is cracked, chipped or marked, photograph it with the box and the label and email us within 24 hours; we send a replacement free and you keep the broken one for disposal rather than posting glass back. Change of mind is 14 days from delivery, unused and in its packaging, at your cost, which with a 30kg carton is the honest reason to measure the wall twice. The returns page spells both out. If an arch turns out not to be the shape for you, every mirror we sell is on the full length mirrors page with the rectangles, ovals and window mirrors beside it.