Which Mirror for Which Room — A Coastal Home Guide

A mirror is one of those pieces where the decision feels small until you've made the wrong one. Too small for the wall and it disappears. Too high and it reflects the ceiling. Wrong frame and it argues with everything else in the room. Then it sits there for years because nobody wants to admit it's not working.

Most of the mirrors we carry are rattan, Malawi cane, raw timber, or floor-leaning fir — all natural frames, all doing the job of reflecting light and finishing a wall without adding visual weight you'd have to design around. What changes between rooms is the shape, the scale, and whether it hangs or leans.

The hallway and entry

A round mirror above a console is almost always the right answer here. Round softens a corridor. Rattan or fine cane suits a narrow entry because the frame stays light visually even when the diameter is large. The Malawi mirrors with their thicker, bound frames are a good pick if your entry opens into a larger room — the heavier frame holds the wall without disappearing.

Hang the centre of the mirror at roughly 150–160cm from the floor. If your console is below it, leave around 15–25cm between the top of the console and the bottom of the mirror. Too close and they read as crowding each other.

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The bedroom

The bedroom is where leaning mirrors come into their own. A full-length mirror that leans against the wall — instead of being drilled into it — reads more lived-in. Less formal. Like the room arranged itself over time rather than being put together in an afternoon.

The Manto Floor Mirror does this well. A chunky fir wood frame with raw, unfinished timber, sized to lean rather than hang. The pale timber sits quietly against any wall colour, and the frame has enough weight to anchor a corner of the room without taking it over. Lean it against the wall opposite the window if you can — it'll pull light all the way across the bedroom in the morning.

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If you'd rather hang one, position it to one side of a chest of drawers or above a bench — not directly over the bed. A mirror reflecting your bed at you while you're trying to sleep is not what you want.

The living room

A large mirror in a living room is mostly about light and proportion. You're not checking your reflection from the sofa. The job is to open the wall up and add depth to the room.

If the wall is big and the rest of the room is timber-heavy, go with a Malawi or a larger Nala. The mirror takes a wall that would otherwise need art or a gallery arrangement and lets you stop there. If the rest of the room is already restrained, a rattan frame keeps the energy quiet — the eye doesn't need to fight for attention.

The dining room

The least common spot, but underrated. A mirror on a dining room wall, opposite a window, doubles the light at every meal. It also reflects the candlelight in the evening, which is something you don't realise matters until you've sat at a table that has it.

A rectangular mirror works best here — horizontal if the wall is wide, vertical if it's narrow. Avoid round in a dining room. The round shape competes with the table, and dining rooms already have enough circles in play.

What to avoid, anywhere

A mirror that's not big enough for the wall. A frame that argues with everything else in the room — sharp black metal next to a rattan pendant, for example. Hanging a mirror so high you can only see your forehead in it. Buying a mirror because the frame is interesting on its own — the frame has to relate to the room, not just exist as an object.

A mirror does two things: reflects light, finishes a wall. Get the frame right, get the scale right, get the height right — and you're done. Less coordinated. More collected.

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