Oval Full Length Mirror 180 x 80cm

It curves at both ends. An arch takes the hard corner out of the top of a wall; a capsule takes it out of the bottom as well, so the mirror has no corners at all and reads as a soft upright shape rather than a doorway. The maker calls the form a discorectangle, straight sides with a semicircular top and bottom, and builds the frame so the curves and the sides flow into each other without a visible joint. The effect on a reflection is the one stylists use: an outline that narrows at the shoulders and the shins flatters almost everyone, and an oval mirror 180 x 80cm shows you with the room softened around you rather than framed.

It is also the slimmest tall mirror we sell by proportion, 2.25 times as tall as it is wide, and the second lightest 180 at 21.7kg, which makes it the large mirror for a narrow wall: the return of a chimney breast, the strip between a wardrobe and a window, the end of a landing. For a wall that wants a window rather than a shape, the Gentle Arch 180 x 90cm is the quieter buy at the same price.

A 180 x 80 mirror hung with its bottom edge 20cm off the floor has its glass topping out at 200cm and shows anyone to about 205cm head to toe; the 80cm width frames a person with an outfit held up. The bottom curve is the one thing to think about: the glass narrows towards the floor, so your shoes sit in the rounded end rather than a square corner, which is flattering and loses you nothing, and when the mirror leans the curved base rests on the floor at a single flat section rather than two corners. A 180cm mirror leant at seven degrees shows anyone from a pace back and the tilt lifts the view. Black or gold, the oval is a bedroom and dressing-room mirror first, and a living-room one on a narrow wall.

The two hanging points are fitted and, as on an arch, sit below the top of the curve, so measure from the hardware to the floor and not from the top of the frame when you mark the wall. At 21.7kg this mirror is just above the line where our fixing rule for plasterboard becomes timber or masonry: wood screws into two timber studs, or a batten across two studs, or two nylon plugs and screws rated above the weight into brick or block; dot-and-dab wants long frame fixings through to the masonry; no cavity anchors. An oval is kinder to hang than a grid, because there is no horizontal bar to show a lean, but a straight-sided capsule still shows one at its sides, so level it. Two people lift from the frame sides. The hanging guide covers each wall.

Leaning is where the shape looks best, and the curved base is the one thing to manage: it meets the floor on a short flat section rather than two corners, so a felt pad under that section and a second check of the lean a day later on carpet are worth doing. Base about 20cm out for five to eight degrees, and an anti-tip strap or screw eye and cable at the top on the day it arrives; neither is in the box and neither carries the weight. The securing guide covers the strap, and the leaner mirror page the angle and the carpet.

A black oval mirror is the softer cousin of the black arch: on white, pale grey and sage walls it reads as a dark capsule of light, hides fingerprints, and matches black handles and taps; it vanishes on navy. A gold oval mirror in satin champagne-brass is the more decorative of the two, a gilded capsule that warms sage, navy and cream and drifts to warm silver on pure white, and the finish the maker hand-finishes to an even warm matt. Same joint-free steel, same powder coat, same £239.95. Choose on the wall and on the room's other metals. The black full length mirror and gold full length mirror pages make each case, and the long mirror page has the other tall, narrow options.

There is one oval, so the comparisons are with other shapes. The Gentle Arch 180 x 90cm at the same £239.95 is 10cm wider, 8kg heavier and reads as a window; the champagne Arched 180 x 90cm at the same price is a semicircle in a paler finish at 20.8kg. The Rectangular 160 x 60cm at £189.95 is the plain tall mirror for a tighter gap. None of them has the oval's curved base, which is the whole reason to buy it. The large mirror page covers the 180cm sizes together and the arch mirror page the curves at the top only.

Dispatched within one working day from UK stock and delivered in two to seven working days on a two-person service, 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 someone steadying it, check the glass edge to edge and run a hand around the whole curve of the frame for chips in the powder coat, 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. The delivery and returns pages have the detail, and every mirror we sell is on the full length mirrors page.