Gentle Arch Full Length Mirror 180 x 90cm

Anyone with a wall to fill and a reason to fill it: a hallway that needs the daylight from the door glass thrown back down it, a dressing room where one person wants to see the whole outfit and turn, a living room end wall with nothing else on it, a bedroom over 3m long where the mirror can sit beside the wardrobe without crowding the bed. At 180 x 90cm the Gentle Arch is a large mirror by our definition and by the market's, and the shallow curve is what keeps a 1.62 square metre sheet of glass from reading as a slab; the full Arched at this size is the semicircle in a single champagne finish, and the gentle curve is the one that fits under a picture rail or coving.

It is not for a small bedroom, where a 180 x 90 mirror reflects the bed and the Gentle Arch 160 x 60cm does the dressing job at half the weight; not for a plasterboard wall with no stud where you want it, because 29.8kg does not hang on cavity anchors; and not for a hallway as a leaner, where a 30kg mirror resting on friction is a bad bet. Hang it in a hall. Lean it in a dressing room.

Float glass weighs 2.5kg per square metre per millimetre, so the 180 x 90cm sheet of 4mm is 16.2kg on its own, and the frame and backing that keep a sheet that size flat are the other 13.6kg. That makes this the heaviest 180 x 90cm mirror we sell, 9kg more than the champagne Arched at the same size, and the extra is the backing and frame section rather than the glass. What it changes is everything about getting it on the wall. Everything 180cm and taller travels on a two-person service; it takes two people to hang, lifting from the frame sides and never the top of the arch; and above 20kg our rule for plasterboard is timber or masonry and never board alone, because a 30kg mirror on two standard plasterboard plugs comes down, usually at night.

It also changes the route in. Allow the mirror's height plus about 10cm for the carton, carried on its long edge, and measure the half landing and the headroom over the stairs before you order an upstairs mirror of this size; the large mirror page has the clearance figures and the guide to moving a large mirror the carrying technique.

Brick or block takes two nylon plugs and screws sized to them and rated above 29.8kg, into the brick rather than the mortar, and will carry this mirror on its two fitted hanging points for as long as the house stands. Plasterboard needs the timber studs behind it: screw into two studs, or where the stud spacing does not suit the hanging points, fix a timber batten across two studs and hang the mirror from the batten, which spreads the weight and lets you level the wall half before the glass comes near it. Dot-and-dab wants long frame fixings through the board and the cavity into the masonry. Nothing on this list is a cavity anchor. Measure from the hanging points, which on an arch sit well below the top of the curve, set the top of the glass level with or above the tallest user's head, mark both points with a level, and offer it up with two people. The hanging guide covers each wall type with the tools named.

Leaning is the dressing-room option and a good one: felt pads under the base, 20cm or so out from the wall for five to eight degrees, and an anti-tip strap or a screw eye and cable at the top fitted before anyone leaves the room, because 30kg pulled forward is a serious accident. The strap is not in the carton and is not rated to carry the weight; it stops the mirror coming forward. The securing guide covers the strap and the cable, and the leaner mirror page the angle and the carpet.

At this size the colour is a decision about the room rather than the mirror. A black Gentle Arch mirror of 1.62 square metres reads as a window: on white, pale grey and sage walls it adds light without adding an object, and in a hallway it hides the fingerprints a mirror this size collects. A gold Gentle Arch mirror in satin champagne-brass is a feature at this size whatever is reflected in it; it glows on sage, navy and cream, lifts a mid grey, and on a pure white wall it drifts to warm silver. Both are powder coat on the same steel at the same price. For most hallways and living rooms we would pick the black; for a dressing room or a dark hall that wants warmth, the gold. The black arch mirror and gold arch mirror pages have the eight arches in each finish.

Hallway: hung flat facing the front door or on the long wall, so the daylight from the door glass comes back down the hall. A 180cm mirror here needs a wall a little over 90cm wide with nothing on it, and black so it reads as architecture. Dressing room: leant with a strap, where the tilt is flattering and the 90cm width shows the whole outfit; this is the room the size was made for. Living room: hung on the wall opposite the window or leant against a chimney breast, where it doubles the light and makes the room read longer; aim it at the window or a lamp, never at the television or a radiator. Bedroom: only if the room is over 3m long and the mirror can sit beside the wardrobe rather than facing the bed. The full length wall mirror page covers the hallway hang and the large mirror page the living-room placement.

The 160 x 60cm is half the weight at 15.3kg, £40 less, one-person courier, cavity anchors acceptable, and does the bedroom job for anyone up to about 185cm; buy it if the mirror is for dressing in front of and the room is ordinary. The 180 x 105cm is 15cm wider at 28kg and £309.95, two people side by side rather than side-on, for a dressing room shared by two or a living room wall that can carry it. The 200 x 120cm at 35.3kg and £399.95 reflects a wall rather than a person and wants 2.2m of clear height. Against the other 180 x 90cm mirrors here: the champagne Arched is the full semicircle at 20.8kg in one paler finish for the same £239.95, and the four window designs at this size are 27.3 to 27.9kg from £299.95.

Dispatched within one working day from UK stock and delivered in two to seven working days on a two-person service to your door, and into a ground-floor room where the route allows; free to mainland UK, offshore postcodes quoted by email. One carton: the mirror with its hanging hardware fitted and the safety backing behind the glass, no plugs, screws or strap. Open it the day it arrives with the carton upright and a second person steadying it, check the glass edge to edge and the frame corners, and photograph anything cracked, chipped or marked with the carton and the label within 24 hours; a replacement is dispatched free and the damaged one stays with you. Change of mind is 14 days, unused and in its packaging, at your carriage cost, which at 30kg is the honest reason to measure the wall and the stairs first. The delivery and returns pages have the detail, and every mirror we sell is on the full length mirrors page.