How to Style a Wall Mirror in Every Room of the House

A mirror is the cheapest way to make a room feel bigger, and the easiest thing in the house to hang badly. Too high and everyone sees their forehead. Facing the wrong way and it reflects a blank wall back at you all day.

Most advice on this gets written in America, published in inches, and assumes the sun comes from the south. This guide does it in centimetres, for Australian light. It covers what height to hang at, where to put a mirror so it actually brightens a room, how to style one in each space, and the thing nobody checks before drilling.

How High Should You Hang a Wall Mirror?

Hang a wall mirror with its centre 150cm to 155cm from the floor. That puts the middle of the glass at roughly average adult eye level, so most people see their face rather than their hairline. Hanging above furniture changes the rule: leave 15cm to 25cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the mirror instead.

Where does 150cm come from? ABS survey data puts the average Australian man at 175.6cm and the average woman at 161.8cm. Eyes sit roughly 10cm below the top of the head, which lands average Australian eye level around 157cm. Centring the glass slightly below that covers both ends of a household without anyone stooping.

Placement	Centre Height	Or Measure From
On a bare wall	150cm to 155cm	The floor
Above a console or side table	Not applicable	15cm to 25cm above the furniture
Above a sofa	Not applicable	20cm to 30cm above the back cushions
Above a fireplace or mantel	Not applicable	10cm to 15cm above the mantel
Bathroom or vanity	150cm to 160cm	The floor, or centred on the tap

The furniture rule beats the floor rule every time. A mirror hung at a technically correct 152cm that floats 40cm above a console looks wrong to everyone who walks in, and no measurement will save it.

If two people of very different heights share the home, split the difference rather than favouring one. A mirror 3cm too low for one person still works. One that is 15cm too high for the other does not.

Where Should You Hang a Mirror for More Light?

Here is where most advice fails Australian homes.

Every guide tells you to hang a mirror opposite a window. Almost none tell you which window, because almost all of it comes from the northern hemisphere, where the sun tracks south. Australia sits the other way around. According to Your Home, the Australian Government's guide to sustainable home design, the sun's path here runs through the north, and north-facing rooms receive sun for the longest period of the day in winter.

So the rule flips. Reflect a north-facing window and you double the best light in the house, particularly in winter, when the sun sits low and reaches deep into the room. Hang the mirror on the wall opposite, roughly in line with the glass, and the light bounces back across the floor.

South-facing windows give you soft, even light with almost no direct sun. A mirror there brightens a dim room without adding glare, which suits a study or a room where you watch a screen.

West is the one to think about twice. Your Home notes that west-facing glass takes the strongest radiation at the hottest part of the day. A large mirror facing a west window will throw hard afternoon light and heat straight back into a room that is already the warmest in the house at 4pm in February. Hang one there by all means. Just angle it away from the seating, or keep it smaller.

Worth checking before you drill: stand where the mirror will hang, look back at the wall opposite, and see what is actually there.

What Should a Mirror Never Reflect?

A mirror does not add anything to a room. It doubles whatever sits in front of it, which means the view matters more than the frame.

Four things to avoid reflecting:

1. A blank wall. The most common mistake. It doubles nothing and reads as a hole in the room.

2. A doorway into a messy space. A mirror pointed at the laundry door or a cluttered hallway broadcasts it into the room you were trying to make look good.

3. The television. A dark rectangle by day and a distracting flicker by night.

4. Direct afternoon sun in a west-facing room. Comfort, not aesthetics. See above.

Point it at something instead: a window, a plant, a bookshelf, a doorway into a room you like. Rooms feel bigger when the mirror shows depth, so reflecting an opening or a long sightline works better than reflecting furniture.

How Do You Style a Mirror in a Living Room?

Hang it above the console, the sideboard or the sofa, and treat it as the anchor rather than one of several pieces. A mirror competes with framed art in a way two artworks do not, so give it its own wall.

Build a small group underneath. A lamp on one side for height, something low and horizontal on the other, and a clear stretch of surface between them. Our guide to styling a side table covers that arrangement in more detail, and the same logic applies to a console.

Round mirrors soften a room full of straight lines: rectangular sofas, square cushions, boxy shelving. Panel and geometric designs do the opposite and add structure to a room full of curves. Pick the one your room is short of.

How Do You Style a Mirror in an Entryway?

The entryway is where a mirror earns its keep hardest, because it does three jobs at once: it bounces light into a space that usually has none, it makes a narrow hallway read wider, and it lets people check themselves on the way out.

Hang it above a console or a slim side table and keep the surface underneath almost bare. A tray for keys, a small lamp or a candle, and nothing else. Entryway surfaces collect clutter faster than any other in the house, and the mirror puts that clutter on display.

In a hallway with no room for furniture, hang the mirror alone at 150cm to 155cm and let the wall stay empty. Narrow spaces look wider with less on the walls, not more.

How Do You Style a Mirror in a Bedroom?

Two rules, and the second one surprises people.

First, position it where it catches the window rather than facing the bed directly. Bedroom mirrors work best reflecting light and space, not the bed itself.

Second, a lot of people find a mirror facing the bed unsettling to wake up to, and in several cultural traditions it is avoided outright. Nothing stops you doing it. Worth knowing before you commit to a fixing point in plasterboard.

Above a dressing table or beside a wardrobe suits most bedrooms. Leaning a larger mirror against the wall works too, and it is the one place a mirror does not need drilling at all, which matters if you rent.

Frequently Asked Questions

How high should you hang a wall mirror? Centre the mirror 150cm to 155cm from the floor, which sits close to average Australian adult eye level. Above furniture, ignore the floor measurement and leave 15cm to 25cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the mirror.

Where should you hang a mirror to make a room look bigger? Opposite a window, ideally a north-facing one, since the sun's path in Australia runs through the north. Reflecting an open doorway or a long sightline also adds depth. Avoid pointing a mirror at a blank wall, which doubles nothing.

Should a mirror face a window or a wall? A window, in almost every case. A mirror facing glass bounces natural light back through the room and makes the space feel larger. A mirror facing a blank wall reflects an empty surface and adds nothing beyond the frame itself.

How high do you hang a mirror above a console table? Leave 15cm to 25cm between the top of the console and the bottom of the mirror. That gap reads as deliberate. Any more and the mirror looks like it is floating away from the furniture below it.

Is it bad to have a mirror facing your bed? Nothing physical goes wrong, but many people find their own reflection unsettling on waking, and several cultural traditions advise against it. Position a bedroom mirror to catch the window instead, above a dressing table or beside a wardrobe.

Where to Start

Measure to 150cm, check what sits on the wall opposite, and find your north-facing window before you pick up a drill. Height and direction do most of the work. The frame is the easy part.

Have a look at the wall mirrors range, or get in touch if you want help matching a shape to your room.