Mirrors with a Bevelled Edge

Mirrors with a bevelled edge

A bevel is a band around the edge of the glass, ground at an angle and polished. It refracts light, so the rim picks up a faint prism line as you move past it, and it gives a frameless mirror the visual weight of a framed one without adding anything to the wall.

How wide should the bevel be?

We grind bevels in two widths, 15 mm and 20 mm. At 15 mm the band is discreet and suits a modern room where you want the effect but not the decoration; at 20 mm it reads more clearly and holds its own against panelling, a period fireplace or a hall in an older house. On a small mirror even 20 mm can dominate, so scale it to the glass.

Which mirrors can take a bevel?

Bevels are ground on rectangular and square mirrors only. On circles and shaped mirrors the edge is ground and polished instead, which is the cleaner finish on a curve and the reason we do not offer a bevel there. That is worth knowing before you set your heart on a bevelled circle.

Bevelled or plain edge?

A plain ground and polished edge disappears; a bevel deliberately does not. If the mirror is there purely to open up a room, plain is the cleaner answer – see plain frameless mirrors. If the mirror is a feature in its own right, over a fireplace or on a hall wall, the bevel earns its place.

Bevel and lighting

The bevel is ground into the face of the glass, so it belongs on mirrors without lighting – on an LED mirror the lit edge already does the work of a border. In practice that means you choose a bevel either on one of our ready-made plain mirrors or in the cut-to-size configurator, where you can add one to any rectangle or square up to 200 cm, to the millimetre. We make every mirror in our own workshop, dispatch within 2–4 working days and delivery is free.