Mirrors can make such an impact on a space, but how do you decide where to put them? It feels a little more obvious which spots in our home would benefit from prints or art decor, but mirrors sometimes feel like a harder category. If you have your eye on a beautiful mirror but are a bit unsure about mirror placement in your house, we’re here to help! This post is partnered by High & Mighty.
Since mirrors can be some of the heavier and more fragile items in wall decor, you also want to make sure that they are hung securely as well and we have a trick for that too! High & Mighty’s line of wall hangers for various weights and sizes makes installation a snap. Their “Place. Push. Hang.” method of installation (which is great for hanging small and heavy mirrors) means no tools needed, and they also have other accessories like hook rails and floating shelves with that same easy installation process using just your thumbs. These accessories look great paired with mirrors too!
The Bathroom: OK, let’s get this easy one out of the way. We all know that you should have mirrors in bathrooms to see what you’re doing while you style your hair or put on makeup, etc., but here’s one tip to get the most out of your bathroom mirror experience: I find that lighting is by far the most important thing when it comes to bathroom mirror setups. If you’ve ever been in a bathroom where they have awful lighting, then you know that moment of “Hmm, I didn’t think I looked terrible when I left the house, but I guess I do!” I find that soft diffused lighting (lighting that has a white or frosted glass rather than clear glass or exposed bulb) which is placed on both sides of the mirror will give you the most flattering results. The worst placement would be a single fixture with an exposed bulb or clear glass that is placed directly above the sink as this will throw all sorts of weird harsh shadows onto your face and make it look like you are in an interrogation room down at the local police station—no good! I remember going out for a nice dinner at a cute restaurant here in Nashville and I was surprised at how bad the lighting made you look in the bathroom, even though all the decor was stylish. No one wants to be out on a date, go to check your makeup sitch and feel blech just because of bad lighting design—it makes a big difference! I switched out the lighting location in this bathroom from overhead to white glass fixtures on both sides and it made a huge difference.
In addition to having hangers for all your wall decor needs, High & Mighty also has floating shelves that have the most amazing way to hang them perfectly straight the first time. You simply place a strip with stickers and a small level that come in the box with the hardware onto your wall (so you know for sure that it will be straight with the addition of the level) where you want the shelf to go, push in the hardware with your thumbs, and hook the shelf on top—done! The other great thing about these is that I’ve bought and returned floating shelves several times before because they never sit tight and flush to the wall, but these totally do, which was a pleasant surprise.
The Entryway: I love having a mirror in an entryway in my home. It’s a great spot to check makeup before you leave the house or catch any toddler hair clips that you forgot were lovingly “styled” into your hair earlier that day. This house doesn’t have that half-hallway setup that you may traditionally think of when you hear the term, but I consider any area that’s near the door where you hang your coats, keys, or purse to be the entryway. Having a hook rail, like this High & Mighty one, is super helpful to keep all your items organized and together in one spot.
The “Dark Wall”: We all have at least one of these spots in our home (or maybe one in each room!) that’s a little darker than we would like and hanging a mirror is a great way to bounce some light from the rest of the room onto that wall. We have high small windows in our bedrooms, so hanging a mirror on the opposite wall higher up was a great way to lighten that wall and reflect some of the light that comes from the other side. This also works especially well when you have light-colored walls (a big help for small or dark rooms) as that can also help to bounce the maximum amount of light around a room. If you’ve ever painted a small space to change it from a dark to a light color, then you know how much brighter the room can be with just a change of paint!
The Baby/Kid’s Room: If you don’t have kids, you may be thinking, “Really? Why in the baby’s room?” but let me tell you, it’s a super helpful addition to a kid’s room. For one, you can use it to play games with younger babies/toddlers like peek-a-boo by pulling them in and out of sight of the mirror, and I’ve used it a million times when trying to check if my daughter was asleep or not when she was lying over my shoulder. It’s a good decor choice and super useful.
The Dressing Area: This area may also seem like an obvious choice for a mirror (and a full-length one if possible), but I have two recommendations for you here. First, try and place your mirror as close and easily accessible to your closet as you can. In my last house, I decided to have my mirror on the outside of my walk-in closet door (man, I miss that closet!) because the lighting was better, but since the mirror was on the outside of the door I would constantly have to close and open the door to look at something, get another option, look at it, get another option, etc., and it was soooo annoying. In hindsight, I would have found a place in the closet to put the mirror, even though the lighting wasn’t as pretty, just to make the getting dressed process easier and a little faster too. Now you can see my mirror is directly next to the closet for easy outfit decisions. Second tip with full-length mirrors is that if you are short on space, you can make your mirror do double duty by also being a hidden jewelry cabinet to save on space and minimize clutter. Suuuuuch an organizational life saver!
So there you go—the top five places where mirrors can really be a working asset for you (as well as a pretty piece of art). Of course, these are not the only places in the house that I would (or have) hung a mirror, so feel free to put them wherever you like. But I think you’ll find these spots help out the most around the house.
Good luck! xo. Laura
Great article! The “Dark Wall” mirror is a really good idea to bounce light!
Definitely the floating shelves!
Floating Shelves
I love that acrylic dollhouse! Where is it from?
I would love to have some of the floating shelves in my living room!
I was just planning out a workout corner in my home office and looking at how to include mirrors- and how to hand them — so perfect mess post to see. Going to buy.
FLOATING SHELVES 5 ft
In a new home and need the storage area in my small bedroom.
The floating shelves
Love to have more floating shelves!
Floating shelves by our entry way!
Just bought our first home and have been so anxious about hanging anything!!! The floating white shelves are exactly what I am looking for! Brilliant idea!
The floating shelves would be perfect for my rock collection!
I would love the white flat floating shelves! I’m working on a bathroom refresh and those would be perfect!
I would love to try the wall hangers!!
I would like to try the wall hangers! It looks easy to install! ????
I can think of a handful of places that would benefit from those flat white shelves in my house!
I would go with a hook rail—I’m dying to put one by our doors as a catch-all for coats so they don’t end up all over the house!
I’ve just moved into a new place and could use any and all of these products! I’m most in need of hooks in the bathrooms and have a number of heavy mirrors and framed posters to hang!
I live in an apartment, where I can’t use nails or anything that would leave marks on the walls. I’d love to try High & Mighty’s wall hangers!
I’d love to try a hook rail … I got four of their 36” floating shelves to make one long shelf that spans my office ceiling from wall to wall for collectibles and books and it worked wonderfully! Now it’s time to tackle my entry way!