Arched Full Length Mirror 160 x 60cm

A semicircle. On a 60cm wide frame the top of the Arched is half a circle of 30cm radius, so the curve begins 30cm below the top edge and the whole top of the frame is one continuous bend. That is the shape people picture when they type "arch mirror", and an arch mirror 160 x 60cm with a true semicircle is the one that earns its keep on a plain wall: beside a wardrobe, beside a door frame, in an alcove with nothing curved near it, the semicircle supplies all the softness the wall was missing. The Gentle Arch at the same size and price flattens that curve to a few centimetres and is the better buy under a picture rail or in a room that already has a lot going on; this is the better buy where the mirror is the only curve in sight.

The curve costs you nothing in reflection. Thirty centimetres below the top of a 160cm mirror is 130cm up the glass when the mirror stands on the floor, or 150cm when it hangs with the bottom edge 20cm up, and either is above the eye line of anyone who will stand in front of it. What you lose is the two top corners, and the eye reads the frame as the full 60cm width anyway.

For a bedroom, almost always: a 160 x 60 mirror is the size most households should start at. Hung with its bottom edge 20cm off the floor, a 160cm mirror has the top of its glass at 180cm, and a flat mirror shows a person at half their height, so anyone up to about 185cm sees themselves from head to shoes with a hand of air to spare; the average British man is 175.0cm and the average woman 161.3cm. Leant at seven degrees it shows anyone at all, because the tilt lifts the view. Sixty centimetres is one person with an outfit held up beside them, and the standard gap between a wardrobe and a door frame in a British bedroom.

It is the wrong size if you want two people in it, which is the 180 x 105cm at 26.5kg; if the room is large and the mirror is meant to be the feature, which is the 200 x 120cm at 33.2kg; or if the gap is under 60cm, in which case nothing we sell fits and we would rather say so.

Float glass weighs 2.5kg per square metre per millimetre, so the 0.96 square metre sheet in this mirror is 9.6kg on its own, and the 15mm steel frame and the safety backing add only 5.1kg. That is why this is the lightest mirror on the site, under the Gentle Arch at 15.3kg and the Rectangular at 15kg, and why it is the arch we would choose for a flat with stairs, a rented room that will move, or a wall where cavity anchors are the only option. Fifteen kilos is still a sheet of glass, mind: two people to carry it up a staircase, and the strap if it leans.

The slimness is the maker's doing: a 15mm face on a welded frame, finished so the joints barely show, which keeps the frame a line rather than a border. A thin frame holds 4mm glass flat at 160cm only because it is welded steel; the same section in extruded aluminium with plastic corners would bow, which is the difference between this and the £60 arches on the market.

Hang it from the two points already fitted to the back, with the wall side bought to suit your wall: plugs and screws into brick or block, wood screws into studs, or two metal cavity anchors each rated above 14.7kg where no stud is in reach, which at this weight is acceptable. On an arch the hanging points sit well below the top of the curve, so measure from the hardware, not the top of the frame, and set the top of the glass level with or above the tallest user's head. The hanging guide walks each wall through.

Lean it on felt pads with the base 15 to 20cm out, five to eight degrees, and fit an anti-tip strap or a screw eye and cable at the top the day it arrives. Neither is in the box. The securing guide covers the strap and the L-bracket for a toddler's room, and the leaner mirror page covers carpet and skirting. In a hallway, hang it.

The full arch shows its colour more than the gentle one, because a semicircle in a dark or warm line is a shape you look at. A black Arched mirror turns into a window on white, off-white, pale grey and sage walls, hides fingerprints, and vanishes on navy. A gold Arched mirror in satin champagne glows on sage, navy and cream, lifts a mid grey, and turns to warm silver on pure white. Both are powder coat on the same steel at the same £199.95, so choose on the wall and the room's other metals. The black arch mirror and gold arch mirror pages show the eight arches in each finish; the arch mirror page has every arch together.

One carton, the mirror with its hanging hardware fitted and the safety backing behind the glass; no plugs, screws or strap. Open it the same day, lay it face up on the flattened carton, look along the glass edge to edge in good light and check the corners of the frame, then do the ten-second test: look at the reflection of a door frame from one side and make sure the line stays straight. Anything cracked, chipped or marked gets photographed with the carton and the label and emailed within 24 hours, and a replacement is sent free; the damaged mirror stays with you. Dispatch is within one working day, delivery two to seven working days, free to mainland UK, on the delivery page; change of mind is 14 days, unused, at your carriage cost, on the returns page. Every mirror we sell is on the full length mirrors page.