Gentle Arch Full Length Mirror 150 x 60cm

Buy the 150 if the room is small, the people in it are of average height or under, or the mirror will lean. A 150 x 60 mirror hung flat with its bottom edge a hand above the skirting has the top of its glass at 170cm, and by the half-height rule that shows someone up to about 175cm from head to shoes, with a hand of air above the head for anyone up to 165. Leant at seven degrees the face points slightly upward, so the same glass shows a 190cm person head to toe from a pace back. For a box room, a child's room, a flat where the mirror goes up a narrow stair, or a household of two people under 175cm, the 150 is the sensible purchase and £50 cheaper than the next size up.

Spend the extra on the Gentle Arch 160 x 60cm if anyone who will use it hung is over 175cm, or if you want the margin that stops the top edge sitting across a tall person's fringe. The weight is the same 15.3kg and the footprint is the same 60cm; you buy 10cm of glass and 10cm of ceiling clearance for £50. If the gap is under 60cm, nothing here fits and the long mirror page says what to look for elsewhere.

The glass is 0.9 square metres of 4mm float, 9kg of the 15.3kg at 2.5kg per square metre per millimetre, with a reinforced safety backing and the maker's slimline welded steel frame around it. Hung flat the mirror is honest and a little unforgiving: a 150cm mirror at a 20cm bottom edge shows everything up to 175cm and then stops. Leant, the geometry works for you. A mirror tilted back shows more of what is above you and less of what is below, which is why a leant 150 shows a tall person head to toe that a hung 150 would crop, and why your legs look a touch longer in a leaner. The cost is at the floor: lean it steeply and stand close and the glass stops at your ankles; step back a pace and the shoes come back.

The average British man is 175.0cm and the average woman 161.3cm, so for most adults this size is enough, and for most it is enough hung as well as leant. It is the one size on the site where we say the extra 10cm is worth buying if there is any doubt.

The finish costs nothing either way. A black Gentle Arch mirror in matt powder coat reads as a window frame on white, pale grey and sage, hides fingerprints and goes with the black handles most homes have; it disappears on navy. A gold Gentle Arch mirror in satin champagne-brass glows on sage, navy and cream, lifts a mid grey, and turns to warm silver on a pure white wall. On a small mirror in a small room the gold is the one that makes the wall feel furnished, which is why we would lean towards it for a box room with a cream wall and towards black for a white one. The black arch mirror and gold arch mirror pages show the eight arches in each finish.

At 15.3kg this mirror sits in the one band where plasterboard anchors are acceptable, so it is the arch for a stud wall where you cannot find the studs. The two hanging points are already fitted; buy the wall side to suit the wall and measure from the hardware, which sits below the top of the curve, rather than from the top of the frame. Set the top of the glass at or above the tallest user's head, which for this mirror on a 20cm bottom edge means a user of 175cm or under. The hanging guide covers each wall type.

Leaning needs felt pads under the base, 15 to 20cm out from the wall, and an anti-tip strap or a screw eye and cable at the top on the day it arrives; a few pounds, one screw, not in the box and not rated to carry the weight. The securing guide covers the strap and the L-bracket for a child's room, which at 150cm is the room this mirror often ends up in.

Beside the wardrobe and side-on to the window, so the daylight falls on you and not on the glass, is the answer in any bedroom, and in a small one the strip of wall beside the door frame is the spot that costs nothing. In a box room the trick is to aim the mirror at the window or a lamp so it doubles the light you have; a 150 x 60cm mirror reflecting a window makes a 2.5m room read as deeper, and one reflecting a blank wall adds nothing. In a child's room it is the right height for the child and still shows an adult leant, and it wants hanging or an L-bracket rather than a plain lean. In a hallway, hang it: a 15kg leaner where people carry bags is a knock waiting to happen, and the full length wall mirror page has the hallway advice.

One carton: the mirror with its hanging hardware fitted and the safety backing behind the glass. Not inside: wall plugs, screws or a strap, which have to match your wall. Open it the day it arrives, because the damage window is 24 hours. Lay it face up on the flattened carton, look along the glass edge to edge in good light, check the four corners of the frame, and look at the reflection of a door frame from one side to confirm the line stays straight. Anything cracked, chipped or marked: photograph the damage, the carton and the label and email us, and a replacement is dispatched free with the damaged one staying with you. A visibly crushed carton can be refused at the door.

Dispatch is within one working day from UK stock, delivery two to seven working days on a tracked courier, free to mainland UK; offshore postcodes are quoted by email. Change of mind is 14 days, unused and in its packaging, at your carriage cost. The delivery and returns pages have the detail, and every mirror we sell, this one included, is on the full length mirrors page.