Rectangular & Square Mirrors

Rectangular and square mirrors

A rectangle is the shape that fits a wall rather than decorating it. Where a circle needs space around it to work, a rectangle can run the full width of a chimney breast or the full height of an alcove, and it will look intentional either way.

Long, tall and narrow

A tall, narrow mirror is the most useful shape in an Irish house: it fits the wall beside a front door, the strip between two doors on a landing, or the short wall of a bathroom, and it gives back height in rooms that rarely have much of it. A long horizontal mirror does the opposite job – hung above a sideboard or a radiator, it stretches a narrow room sideways. For anything from 100 cm upwards, see also large wall mirrors.

Sizing and proportion

Over furniture, keep the mirror to 70 to 90 per cent of the width of the piece below, with 15 to 25 cm between them. On a bare wall, a rectangle between one third and one half of the wall width usually looks right. If you want a mirror you can see yourself in head to toe, choose one 140 to 170 cm tall and hang it with the bottom edge 30 to 40 cm above the floor.

Edges, bevels and frames

For the edge we recommend a ground and polished finish, chosen in the configurator. A bevel of 15 or 20 mm adds the look of a border without a frame; an anodised brushed aluminium frame is available in five finishes if you want a real one. Safety film is worth adding on a tall mirror in a hall or a child\'s room.

Exact sizes

This is the shape where cutting to size matters most, because a rectangle either fits the alcove or it does not. The cut-to-size configurator makes rectangles from 10 to 200 cm in both directions, to the millimetre, with a tolerance of ±1 mm. For a lit rectangle, see rectangular LED mirrors, which come from 40 to 200 cm in 10 cm steps.