Gold Arch Mirrors

Because the two ideas cover for each other. An arch removes the hard top corners that make a rectangular mirror read as a door; gold adds warmth to a room without adding visual weight, because the frame is a 15 to 20mm line. Put them together and you get the mirror that has sat at the top of every "bestselling" sort since the arch took over bedrooms, and the one most people have seen in a photograph before they have seen one in a shop. The numbers: "gold arch mirror" 2,200 searches a month, "black arch mirror" 2,100, "full length arch mirror" 1,000 and "gold arch mirror full length" 600, with the gold terms edging the black ones in every pairing we can find.

There is a practical side too. A gold frame draws the eye, so a gold arch can be one size smaller than a black one and still hold the wall; a 150 x 60cm gold Gentle Arch does the job in a bedroom that a 160 x 60cm black one does. The reverse applies at the top of the range, where a 200 x 120cm gold arch is a very loud piece of furniture and wants a large room and a plain wall behind it.

Gold on a frame is a colour rather than a metal, and the word covers four finishes that do not mix well. Every gold arch here is satin champagne-brass: a pale, muted gold with a low sheen, powder coated onto welded steel, which means pigment baked into a hard skin with no bare metal to tarnish. It reads as gold against sage, navy, grey and cream, and drifts towards warm silver against pure white. Bright polished brass is yellower and glossier, suits art deco and maximalist rooms and shows every fingerprint; antique gold is darker with a wash in the recesses and belongs on carved frames; rose gold leans pink and is now rare.

A brass arch mirror in the true sense, solid or plated brass, is a different purchase: rare at full length, heavy, prone to tarnish unless lacquered, and priced as a specialist piece. We do not stock one. If a listing anywhere says "gold" without a photograph showing a high shine, assume satin champagne, and match it to the room's other metals: champagne handles want a champagne frame and a polished brass tap wants a brighter frame than ours.

The curve sits above your head, so the rule is the same as for any mirror: at least half your height in glass, and comfortably 150cm or more once you allow for shoes, the gap above the floor and some air over your head. The average British man is 175.0cm and the average woman 161.3cm, so a 150 x 60cm gold arch hung with its bottom edge 20cm up shows the average man to the top of his head and no further, and the 160 shows anyone up to about 185cm. Leant, either shows anyone, because the tilt lifts the view. The 180 and 200cm sizes are about width and about the room, not about height; a gold arched mirror full length enough for anyone in the house is the 160, and everything above it is bought for the wall.

Width is where the gold matters most. At 60cm a gold frame outlines one person; at 90cm it frames a person and an outfit and starts to be a feature; at 105 and 120cm the gold line is a big warm shape on the wall whatever is reflected in it, which is wonderful in a dressing room or a dark living room and a lot in a small bedroom.

Depth of curve, and in gold the difference shows more than it does in black, because a gold line is a line you look at. The Arched range is a true semicircle: on the 160 x 60cm the curve starts 30cm below the top and the whole top of the frame is one continuous golden bend, the shape people picture when they say arch mirror and the one that looks right in a period room or anywhere with other curves to echo. The Gentle Arch range flattens the curve so the top edge rises only a few centimetres at the centre; in gold it reads as a quiet warm outline, and under a picture rail or a sloping ceiling it tucks in where a semicircle would fight the line above it.

Which to buy comes down to the wall. A plain wall with a wardrobe or a door beside it takes the full arch and gets the most shape for the money. A wall under a rail, a beam or a low ceiling, or a room that is already busy, wants the gentle arch. Same glass, same frame section, same price at each size; the Gentle Arch adds the 150 x 60cm at the bottom and is the only gold at 180 x 90cm, and the Arched is the full semicircle at 160 x 60, 180 x 105 and 200 x 120cm.

Gold is warm, so it does its best work against cool or muted walls where it has something to push against. On sage and olive the frame glows and the curve reads as a window into a warmer room; on navy and inky blue it is the classic dark-hallway statement; on mid grey it lifts a scheme that black would flatten; on warm white and cream it blends in and the arch reads soft and traditional. On a pure white wall a satin gold frame drifts towards warm silver, which is either the understated look you wanted or the reason to choose the black arch there. Yellow and mustard swallow gold; very warm terracotta makes it muddy.

Match the metals. If the room has brass taps, cabinet handles or a brass pendant, match the tone: satin champagne hardware wants this frame, polished brass wants a brighter one. A gold arch beside a chrome radiator valve is the single most common way a good mirror looks cheap in an expensive room, and it costs nothing to check before ordering.

Both, from the same box. Every gold arch here arrives with its hanging hardware fitted and leans as well as it hangs, so a gold arch wall mirror is a drill and two fixings away and a gold arch leaner is the same mirror rested at five to eight degrees. Leaning suits gold best, because the tilt puts the frame at an angle to the light and makes a satin finish catch the room; it also lifts the reflection and shows more of your head. It needs a strap: an anti-tip kit, a few pounds and one screw, fitted on the day the mirror arrives, because a 15 to 35kg mirror that tips lands with all of it. The leaner mirror page covers angle, carpet and the strap.

Hanging is the cleanest look and the only sensible choice in a hallway or a toddler's path. Wall plugs and screws are yours to buy, matched to the wall: two plugs and screws in brick or block carry anything here; on plasterboard the 150 and 160cm arches take two rated cavity anchors at the least and the 180 and 200cm ones want studs, a batten or masonry. The arch adds one practical step: its hanging points sit well below the top of the curve, so measure from the hardware to the floor, never from the top of the arch, when you mark the wall. The full length wall mirror page has the fixing tables and the hanging guide the steps.

A large gold arch mirror is a different object from the 150 and 160. Our 180 x 90cm Gentle Arch is 29.8kg, the two 180 x 105cm arches are 26.5 and 28kg, and the two 200 x 120cm arches are 33.2 and 35.3kg. All of them come on a two-person delivery, want two people to hang, and need a wall with no picture rail or coving low enough to catch a curve that reaches 2.2m when hung with the bottom edge 20cm up. Go large when the mirror has a job for the room: a dark hallway that wants the window reflected into it, a living room end wall with nothing else on it, a dressing room where two people get ready at once. In gold at two metres the frame is a feature before anything is reflected in it, so the wall behind should be plain and the room should be able to carry a big warm shape. The large mirror page has door and stair clearances and the weight-to-fixing table.

The ones we would talk you out of, with the number behind each.

From about £65 to £400, and the colour adds nothing to the price; the frame construction is the whole spread. At the bottom, B&Q lists a HOMCOM aluminium full length mirror at £64.99 and Wayfair a slim 162 x 53cm aluminium arch in gold or black: light frames, fine in a spare room. In the middle, the specialists: Mirror Outlet's Arcus gold arched leaner is £199.99 at 180 x 60cm (£189.99 at B&Q) and £299.99 at 200 x 100cm (£279.99 at B&Q), with keyhole fixings welded on, and William Wood's Theo in gold was £141.75 on sale from £199 at 160 x 50cm when we checked. Our eight gold arches run £149.95 to £399.95 in welded steel with 4mm safety-backed glass, the same price as the black ones at every size.

Our view: gold is the finish where the cheap version shows most, because a thin sprayed aluminium frame in gold reads as exactly that, while a thin black one gets away with it. A welded steel gold arch at £150 to £240 is the price of one you keep; above £300 you are paying for width, which is a room decision rather than a colour one.

Every gold arch here leaves UK stock within one working day on couriers who handle glass daily and arrives in two to seven working days; the 180 and 200cm sizes travel on a two-person service. Delivery is free to mainland UK on all of them. The delivery page has the detail and the offshore postcodes we quote separately.

Unwrap it the day it arrives. If the glass is cracked or the gold frame is chipped or marked, photograph the damage and the packaging and email us within 24 hours; we send a replacement free and you keep the damaged one for disposal rather than posting glass back. Change of mind is 14 days from delivery, unused and in its packaging, at your carriage cost. The returns page sets both out.