Long Mirrors

Three names, three different questions. A long mirror is defined by proportion: tall and narrow, with the height at least twice the width, so a 160 x 60cm mirror is long and a 180 x 105cm mirror is not, however tall it is. A full length mirror is defined by what it shows, you from head to toe, which takes 150cm of glass or more at any width. A floor length mirror, or floor mirror, is defined by where it sits: bottom edge on or near the floor, leaning or hung low, rather than centred on a wall at eye height.

Most long mirrors are also full length mirrors, because 160cm of glass shows any adult, and most are sold as floor mirrors because a tall narrow sheet leans well. The ones that are long but not full length are the 100 to 130cm strips sold for consoles and dressing tables, which show you from the waist up; we do not sell those. The ones that are full length but not long are the wide 180 x 105cm and 200 x 120cm mirrors on the large mirror page, which show two people and half the room.

The reason to want long rather than wide is nearly always the gap. A 160 x 60cm mirror fits between a wardrobe and a door frame, on the return of a chimney breast, or on the wall at the end of a landing. The same height at 90cm wide would not, and the same width at 120cm tall would show you to the knees.

As wide as the gap allows, less 10cm, and then no wider than the job needs. At 40cm you see yourself straight on and can turn for a side view, which is why 40cm is the hallway and over-door standard across the market. At 50cm you get air around a single person. At 60cm, which is where our range starts, you can hold a second outfit up beside you and still see both; it is the comfortable bedroom width and the narrowest we would put beside a wardrobe. Beyond 80cm the mirror stops being long in the useful sense and becomes a standard or large full length mirror, a fine thing to own but not what someone typing "long mirror" is after.

So measure the wall between the obstacles, take 10cm off for breathing room, and that is your maximum. If it comes out at 60cm or more, the 160 x 60cm is the one to look at here. If it comes out under 60cm, buy a 40cm or 50cm mirror from a retailer that stocks them; we would rather send you to the right width elsewhere than sell you a mirror that overhangs a door frame. What to check when you do: 4mm glass rather than 3mm, because a narrow 3mm sheet flexes more than any other shape, and two hanging points rather than one.

From two points, into something solid, with the mirror's weight in front of you first. A long wall mirror of 160 x 60cm from this page weighs 14.7 to 15.3kg, which is well past adhesive strips and single picture hooks. The hanging hardware is already fitted to the back of every one of ours; the plugs and screws are yours, because they have to match the wall. Brick or block takes two wall plugs and screws for anything on this page. On plasterboard, find the timber studs with a stud finder and screw into them, or for the 160cm mirrors use two hollow-wall anchors whose maker rates each one above the mirror's full weight. Above 20kg, which is every 180 and 200cm mirror, our rule is timber or masonry, never board alone.

The tall-and-narrow shape adds one wrinkle. A long mirror for wall mounting hangs from points that are close together, so a single fixing or a loose wire lets it swing like a pendulum when a door slams. Use both hanging points, set the screws so the mirror sits snug against the wall, and check it with a level before the last turn. Height is simpler than people make it: for a mirror you dress in front of, the top of the glass should be level with or above the tallest user's head, which for a 160cm mirror means the bottom edge about 20cm off the floor. The hanging guide covers each wall type with the tools named, and the full length wall mirror page is the wall-hung range on its own.

They are the same mirror used three ways. A floor mirror or floor length mirror is any mirror whose bottom edge sits at the floor; a leaner is one that gets there by resting against the wall at a slight angle; a free standing mirror is one that gets there on its own feet. Every mirror on this page leans, none has feet, so here floor mirror means leaner mirror, and the free standing mirror page explains what to look for in a mirror on a stand.

Leaning is the easiest and the most flattering. The backward tilt lengthens the reflection and lifts the light, and a long floor mirror leant beside a wardrobe is the arrangement most bedrooms end up with. It is also how a 15kg sheet of glass ends up on top of a toddler or a dog, so a leaner needs an anti-tip strap or a screw eye and cable at the top. The strap kit is the nylon-and-bracket set sold for chests of drawers, costs a few pounds, takes one screw and four minutes, and is a safety line rather than a hook. Fit it on delivery day; securing a leaning mirror shows how. A large floor mirror of 180 or 200cm follows the same rule with more weight behind it, which is why we would hang anything in a hallway and lean only in rooms nobody hurries through.

Beside the wardrobe, side-on to the window, 160cm tall and 60cm wide. That is the answer for most bedrooms and it is worth saying why. Side-on to the window puts the daylight on you rather than on the glass, so you see colours as they are and not a bright rectangle. Beside the wardrobe is where you stand when you want the mirror. And 160 x 60cm shows anyone up to about 185cm head to toe when hung with the bottom edge 20cm up, or anyone at all when leant, while leaving the wall beside it free for the door to swing.

If there is no wall, the gap between a wardrobe and a door frame is usually 60 to 70cm in a British bedroom, which is exactly what the 60cm width was made for. A long mirror for bedroom use rarely needs to be wider; what it needs is to be hung or strapped, because a bedroom leaner lives next to a bed people get out of in the dark. The three designs at that size are the plain Rectangular for the tightest alcove, the Gentle Arch if the room has a picture rail or you want a softer line, and the Arched if you want the curve to be the point.

A hung one. A hallway is where leaners get knocked by bags, buggies and shoulders, and where 15cm of floor at the base of a leaner is 15cm you do not have. Hang the mirror on the long wall or facing the front door so it throws the light from the door glass back down the hall, with the top of the glass at head height or above. At 160 x 60cm the three rectangular and arched designs here fit a hall a metre wide without crowding it. If the hall is wider and the wall is clear, the 180 x 90cm window mirrors are the natural hallway piece, their bars reading as a second window; the large mirror page covers those.

Finish matters more in a hall than anywhere, because the mirror is seen all day rather than only when you dress. Black reads as architecture and hides fingerprints; gold reads as decoration. The one thing to avoid is hanging a long mirror directly opposite the front door glass at the same height, where it throws glare straight back at whoever walks in.

Because a long thin sheet of glass flexes more than a square one of the same area, and a flexed mirror stretches or squashes what it shows. Float glass weighs 2.5kg per square metre per millimetre, so the sheet in a 160 x 60cm mirror is 7.2kg at 3mm, 9.6kg at 4mm and 12kg at 5mm. At 3mm a sheet that tall bows in its frame and you get the faint funhouse wave of a hotel wardrobe door: slightly wider from here, slightly narrower from there. That is the mirror, not you. At 4mm in a welded 15 to 20mm steel frame, which is what every mirror on this page uses, the sheet stays flat, and the frame is doing as much of that work as the extra millimetre.

Behind the glass you want a safety backing, a film bonded to the back so that if the mirror breaks it holds together instead of falling as shards. Every mirror here has one, described by the maker as a reinforced safety backing; 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 things to ask any retailer about. The glass thickness guide has the ten-second flatness test and the rest.

Slim. Whatever the colour, a long proportion wants a frame of 15 to 25mm, because a chunky frame on a narrow mirror eats the glass you bought it for; every frame here is 15 to 20mm welded steel. Within that, a black long mirror is the finish that disappears: it reads as a window frame against white or grey walls and hides the fingerprints a hallway collects, and "black long mirror" and "long black mirror" between them are searched about 900 times a month in the UK. A gold long mirror lifts sage, navy and off-white rooms and is searched about as often, 500 for "long gold mirror" and 350 for "gold long mirror", so the country is split here too.

Two things to know before you choose gold. Nearly every gold frame sold in the UK, ours included, is a satin champagne-brass rather than bright yellow metal, and against a white wall it drifts towards warm silver. And on a narrow mirror the frame is a thin line, so the finish matters less than it does on a wide one; if you are torn, the black full length mirror is the safer choice. All three 160 x 60cm designs come in both.

At about 180cm tall and 80cm wide, which is where weight starts to decide things. An extra long mirror or long length mirror of 180 or 200cm weighs 20.8 to 39kg here, travels on a two-person delivery, and needs fixings into brick, block or timber rather than plasterboard anchors. The proportion also changes: our 180 x 90cm mirrors are exactly 2:1, long by the strictest reading, and the 180 x 105cm and 200 x 120cm ones are wider than that, which is why they appear on this page by height but belong to the large mirror page by nature.

If you want extra long and still narrow, the Oval 180 x 80cm at 21.7kg is the slimmest tall mirror we sell, and the Wooden 200 x 100cm at 35.4kg is the slimmest at two metres. Both are leaners with a strap or hung from a batten, never from two plasterboard plugs.

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

From about £39 to £400 for a full length one, with the spread explained by glass thickness, frame material and width. At the bottom, The Range lists full length mirrors from £38.99 for a small arched wall piece to £189.99 for a lean-to, and Wilko has a black metal floor mirror at £39 and a 198 x 76cm vintage gold frame at £143. Those are 3mm or thin 4mm glass in light frames, and at £40 they are fine for a spare room. Our three 160 x 60cm long mirrors are £189.95 and £199.95, in welded steel with 4mm glass; the 180cm mirrors run £239.95 to £369.95 and every 200cm mirror is £399.95. Solid wood frames and bevelled glass start around £350 elsewhere and climb.

Our view: between £150 and £250 you are paying for the glass staying flat and the frame staying square, which on a tall narrow mirror is the whole difference between one you keep and one you replace. Above £300 you are paying for width and presence, which is a large mirror decision rather than a long one.

A long mirror is an awkward parcel: tall, thin and all glass. Ours leave UK stock within one working day on couriers who handle glass every day, arriving in two to seven working days, and everything 180cm and taller travels on a two-person service. The delivery page has the detail, including the offshore postcodes we quote separately.

Unwrap it the day it arrives and look at the glass edge to edge, then the corners. A crack, chip or frame mark gets photographed with the carton and label and emailed to us within 24 hours, and a replacement goes out without the broken one coming back. Change of mind is 14 days from delivery, unused and in its packaging, at your carriage cost because of the size, so measure the gap twice. The returns page has both policies in full.