Choosing a Mirror: Thickness, Tint and Where Each Works
Mirror is simpler than most glass decisions. There are really two choices: how thick, and what colour.
4mm or 6mm
4mm suits small panels, wardrobe doors and anything up to roughly a metre square. It is lighter, cheaper and easier to handle.
6mm suits larger wall mirrors and anywhere rigidity matters.
The reason to step up is distortion, not strength. A large thin mirror follows whatever is behind it. Fixed with adhesive to a wall that is not perfectly flat — which describes most walls in most houses, particularly older plaster — a 4mm sheet takes on the wall’s undulations and the reflection warps.
You see it as a slight stretching or bending in your reflection as you move past. Once noticed it is hard to unsee.
Rule of thumb: over about 1200mm in either direction, or on any wall you would not describe as flat, use 6mm.
Standard silver
The everyday choice, and right for most jobs — bathrooms, wardrobes, hallways, gyms, dance studios. Available in 4mm and 6mm.
Standard mirror carries the same faint green cast as ordinary clear glass, because that is what it is made from. In a bathroom, that slightly shifts how skin tones read. Most people never notice, but if you are someone who checks makeup or colour in the mirror, it is real.
Tinted mirrors
Bronze and dark grey are through-tinted mirrors used as feature panels, bar backs and cabinet fronts. They give a warmer or darker reflection rather than a neutral one.
They are not a substitute for a functional mirror. Nobody wants to shave in a bronze mirror. Use them where the mirror is a surface treatment — a feature wall, the back of a bar, a joinery insert — rather than something you look at yourself in.
Both are toughened as standard, which matters if they are going anywhere they might be knocked.
Where mirrors go wrong
Edges. Any mirror not sitting in a frame needs polished edges. An unpolished mirror edge is sharp and sits at eye level where nobody can miss it. This is the most common regret we hear.
Adhesive. Use mirror-specific adhesive. Ordinary construction adhesive can attack the silver backing chemically and produce dark patches within a year or two. The damage starts at the adhesive contact points and spreads.
Moisture at the edges. The classic black creeping edge on an old bathroom mirror is backing damage from water sitting along the bottom. Ventilation matters, and so does wiping the bottom edge dry. See cleaning and care.
Holes. If you are fixing with screws or standoffs, the holes must be specified when you order. They cannot be drilled afterwards on a finished mirror without a serious risk of cracking it.
Measuring
Mark the outline on the wall with masking tape and leave it a day. Mirrors look considerably larger installed than they do on paper.
Measure the clear wall area rather than the wall — power points, switches, tile edges and cornices all reduce what you actually have. Leave a deliberate gap rather than butting up against something: 5mm short of a tile edge looks intentional, touching it looks like it did not fit.
Full detail in how to measure for a mirror.
Getting it into the room
Check the route before you order. A large mirror will not go round a tight stair landing, and it cannot be trimmed on site. Measure the narrowest point — doorways, corners, stairwells — and tell us if access is awkward.
Prices on the mirrors page, or email us at info@affordableglassonline.com.au.