Window Mirrors

The style copies the slim steel windows that Crittall made first for factories and then for 1930s houses: a dark frame, narrow glazing bars, glass divided into a grid of panes. On a mirror the bars are laid over one sheet of glass, so you are not looking at twenty small mirrors but at one mirror with a frame on top of it. That matters for the reflection, which stays whole, and for the price, which is driven by the frame and not by the glass.

A Crittall mirror is the same thing by another name. Crittall is a company, so no mirror maker can sell one as such, and you will see them listed as window pane mirror, industrial window mirror, lattice mirror, window style mirror or plain black window mirror. About 2,800 people a month search for "window mirror" in the UK, 600 for the black version, 450 for "window pane mirror" and 300 each for the arched and large versions, which tells you the look has settled into a category rather than a trend.

What makes it work is proportion. A real steel window has slim bars, and a cheap imitation gets this wrong with fat flat bars and square panes that read as a mirror with a grid stuck on. The frames here are 15 to 20mm welded steel, powder coated, and the slimness of the bars is most of the reason they cost what they cost.

An arched window mirror has a curved top with the bars following the arch. A rectangular window mirror is a straight grid in a straight frame. The arch is the softer, more decorative of the two; it suits bedrooms, landings and anywhere the mirror is meant to warm a room up, and because the curve sits above head height it costs you nothing in reflection. The rectangle is more architectural and truer to the Crittall original. It suits living rooms, dining rooms and hallways with straight lines, and it is the one to choose if the mirror sits near a real steel-framed window or door.

Our range covers both. Two designs are arched, the Arched Window with plain panes and the Arched Lattice Window with the finer grid, and two are rectangular, the Window Pane and the Lattice Window. All four come in black and gold; the 180 x 105cm size of each adds a black frame with gold bars. Every one arrives with the hanging hardware fitted for portrait, so none of ours is made to hang landscape, arched or not.

Within the window style there are two grids. A plain pane grid uses a small number of larger panes. A lattice mirror doubles the bars so the panes are smaller and the frame reads as a finer, busier pattern, closer to a leaded cottage window than a factory one. The choice is mostly about how much frame you want to see. In a small room a lattice can feel busy and the plain grid is calmer; in a big hallway or a room with plain walls the lattice gives the eye more to hold. The glass and the construction are identical, and the price difference at each size is zero to £40, so pick on the room rather than the specification.

One practical point: more bars means more edges. A plain grid wipes in a minute with a microfibre cloth. A lattice takes a few minutes longer because each pane is cleaned on its own, and a small square of cloth over a finger beats a spray across the whole face, which pools at the bar edges. The cleaning guide covers streaks and the bar joints.

Heavier than a plain mirror of the same size, because the frame carries a grid as well as an outer edge. Our 150 x 60cm plain Gentle Arch is 15.3kg; the 150 x 60cm Lattice Window is 17.6kg. At 180 x 90cm the four window designs are 27.3 to 27.9kg, at 180 x 105cm 30 to 31.8kg, and at 200 x 120cm 38 to 39kg. Those numbers decide how it is delivered (two-person from 180cm), how many people lift it (two, always) and what holds it to the wall (the next two sections).

The glass across the range is 4mm safety-backed float, and float glass weighs 2.5kg per square metre per millimetre, so the sheet is 9kg of the 150 x 60cm mirror's 17.6kg and 24kg of the 200 x 120cm mirror's 39kg; the rest is steel and backing, which is why the grid stiffens the sheet in a way a plain frame cannot. For height, the rule is the same as any mirror: 150cm of glass shows the average adult, 160 is not a size we make in the window style, so 180cm is the step up, and it shows anyone. The size guide does the maths; for a window mirror the usual answers are 150 x 60cm beside a bedroom wardrobe, 180 x 90cm in a hallway or living room, and 200 x 120cm when a large window mirror is the feature of the room and the large mirror page applies.

Because of the weight and the frame. Every mirror here leans as well as hangs, but a 28kg mirror resting at five degrees puts real force on whatever stops it sliding, and a frame only 15 to 20mm deep gives the base almost no footprint. If a leaning window mirror is knocked it does not wobble, it goes. Hung on two fixings into something solid, the same mirror is as safe as a radiator, and the grid, which is the whole point of the design, hangs dead square instead of leaning back and catching the ceiling in every pane.

If you do want to lean one, and in a dressing room or living room with nobody hurrying past it looks very good leant, fit an anti-tip strap or a screw eye and short cable at the top on the day it arrives, keep it out of hallways and children's rooms, and keep the 200cm sizes on the wall. The strap kit is the nylon-and-bracket set sold for chests of drawers, costs a few pounds and takes four minutes; it is not in the box, and neither are wall plugs or screws, because those have to match your wall. The leaner mirror page covers leaning and securing a leaning mirror covers the strap.

Into something solid, from two points, with two people. The fixing has to match the wall, not the mirror, and with a window mirror the wall has to be up to it. On brick or block, two nylon plugs and screws sized to them, rated above the mirror's weight, will carry any mirror on this page; drill into the brick, not the mortar. On plasterboard, find the timber studs and screw into them, or fix a batten across two studs and hang the mirror from that; above 20kg, which is every 180 and 200cm window mirror, our rule is timber or masonry and never board alone, and even the 150 x 60cm at 17kg wants two rated cavity anchors at the least. Dot-and-dab plasterboard, where the board is glued to masonry with a gap behind, catches people out because short screws grip only the board; use long frame fixings, typically 80 to 100mm, that pass through to the block.

The hanging hardware is already on the back; the maker calls it pre-installed mounting hardware. Hang the mirror with the bottom edge about 20cm off the floor so the top of the glass is level with or above the tallest user's head, lift from the frame and never the bars, hook both points on before anyone lets go, and check the top bar with a level before you tighten. Window grids show a lean of half a degree that a plain mirror would hide. The hanging guide covers each wall type with the tools named; the full length wall mirror page has the fixing tables.

The hallway is the natural home. A tall window mirror facing the front door or at the end of a corridor reads as a window where there is none, which is exactly the trick the style was invented for; it widens a narrow hall and gives you the last check on the way out. Wall mounted, 180 x 90cm if the wall allows and 150 x 60cm if it does not, black if the woodwork is white, gold if the hall is dark. In a living room a rectangular Window Pane or Lattice Window on the wall opposite a real window doubles the light from it, and in a dining room the same mirror makes the table feel as if it sits in a larger room; candlelight in a pane grid is one of the better effects a mirror can give. In a bedroom the arched version beside the wardrobe is the common choice, and because it is wall hung it costs no floor space.

Two places it does not belong. Outdoors: garden window mirrors are a separate product with weatherproof backing and galvanised frames, and ours are indoor mirrors. And a small, steamy bathroom, where moisture reaches the silver through the glass edges and the mirror spots from the edge inward; the glass standard for interior mirrors, BS EN 1036-1, excludes constantly humid rooms, and we sell these as dry-room mirrors.

A black window mirror is the one most people picture and the one that suits most rooms, because the frame reads as a window and windows are not usually gold; it is also the version people search for by name, 600 times a month against a handful for gold. Matt black on white or pale walls is the classic contrast and it hides fingerprints on all those bar edges. Gold frames, a satin champagne rather than bright brass, lift grey, sage and navy rooms and read as a more decorative object than a window. The two-tone version, a black outer frame with gold glazing bars, gives a hint of warmth without committing to a gold frame; we would pick it for a dark hallway, and it is available on all four designs at 180 x 105cm.

Every window mirror here is powder-coated steel, which is the finish you want on a frame with this many edges, because painted or plated finishes tend to chip at the bar joints. The black full length mirror and gold full length mirror pages show the plain-glass mirrors in the same finishes if you want the colour without the grid.

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

The price of a window mirror is almost entirely frame. The glass is the same 4mm sheet as a plain mirror. What you pay for is a welded steel frame with a dozen or more bar joints, each ground and powder coated, which is why £230 to £400 is the honest range for a full length one and why the much cheaper versions on marketplaces tend to be pressed aluminium with the grid glued on. For comparison, Mirror Outlet listed a 174 x 110cm black window-style leaner at £259.99 when we checked on 23 October 2026, which sits where our 180 x 90cm Lattice Window and Window Pane do at £299.95.

Our 14 window mirrors run £229.95 for either 150 x 60cm lattice to £399.95 for any 200 x 120cm design, and every one is over £75, so delivery is free to mainland UK. Across that band the differences worth asking any retailer about are frame depth, whether the bars are welded or glued, and the stated weight; a listing that will not give the weight does not know what fixing to recommend either.

Window mirrors leave UK stock within one working day on couriers who handle glass daily and arrive in two to seven working days; the 180 and 200cm sizes go on a two-person service. Delivery is free to mainland UK on every mirror here. The delivery page has the detail and the offshore postcodes we quote separately.

Unwrap it the same day. Check every pane for cracks, run a hand along the bars for a loose joint, and look at the corners of the frame for chips in the powder coat; a window mirror has more edges to catch a knock than a plain one. If anything is wrong, photograph it with the packaging and email us within 24 hours and we send a replacement free, with the broken one staying with you for disposal. Change of mind is 14 days from delivery, unused and in its packaging, at your carriage cost. The returns page spells both out.