Mirrors and hardware
Custom mirrors, cut and hung to fit the room
Bathroom and bedroom mirrors sized to the vanity and the light, not to the width of the wall behind them. The same shop that measures a shower opening measures a mirror, and hangs the towel racks, clips and handrails that go with it.
Chapter 01
Sizing a mirror to the vanity and the light, not to the wall
The easy way to cut a bathroom mirror is to run it wall to wall and call it done. We measure the vanity itself instead: where the sink centers sit, where the sconces or the vanity light actually throw their light, and how much reveal we want to leave at the backsplash. A mirror that is sized to the vanity reads as a fixture that belongs there. One that is sized to the wall reads as a sheet of glass that got left over.
The same thinking applies in a bedroom. A dressing mirror or a full length piece gets placed for where the light in the room falls and where someone will actually stand in front of it, not just set into whatever blank stretch of wall happens to be free.
A full marble bathroom with a hexagon tile niche and a marble vanity, the kind of light and stone a custom mirror has to be sized around
Safety backing, edge treatment and cleat mounting on tile or plaster
Every mirror we hang gets its edges finished properly, polished or beveled, so there is no raw glass edge exposed once it is on the wall. Larger pieces carry a safety backing on the reverse of the glass, which is what keeps a mirror from coming down in shards if it is ever struck or if the adhesive behind it ever fails.
How it goes up depends on what is behind it. Tile and plaster do not hold a screw the way a stud does, so we mount to a cleat system that carries the weight of the glass along a rail rather than through a handful of points that can crack the tile underneath. It takes longer than gluing a mirror to the wall, and it is why ours come back down clean if a bathroom ever gets redone.
Chapter 03
Fogging, silvering and edge-black: what actually kills a bathroom mirror
Fogging is not the mirror failing. It is condensation on cold glass, and it clears on its own once the room cools or the fan does its job. What actually ends a mirror is the silvering breaking down at the edges, usually called edge-black, where moisture works its way in over years and the reflective backing lifts and darkens along the border first.
A mirror with properly sealed edges and good quality silvering behind the glass keeps that moisture out and simply lasts. That is the difference between a bathroom mirror that still looks new after a decade and one that shows a dark ring around its edge after a couple of humid summers.
The glass hardware that goes with it: towel racks, clips and handrails
Mirrors rarely go in on their own. Most jobs also call for towel racks and towel clips, and plenty of showers get a glass mounted handrail or grab bar fitted at the same visit, hardware from established suppliers such as CRL and Portals Luxury Hardware rather than whatever fits the hole already drilled.
Fitting that hardware means the same drilling, backing and mounting questions as the mirror itself: what is behind the wall, how much weight the piece will actually carry, and whether it is going into tile, plaster or a shower wall that stays wet. We handle all of it on the same visit as the mirror or the enclosure.
Blu's — Free consultations. Two year warranty on parts and labor. Call (781) 424-1699.
On the same visit
A grab bar mounted straight into the glass
A handrail or grab bar mounted to the shower glass itself, rather than tacked onto the tile, holds its position for as long as the enclosure does and never leaves a fresh set of holes to patch if it moves later. It is the same measure-first approach we use for the mirror and the door, applied to a piece of hardware most people never think to ask about until they need it.
Related services
Tell us the room. We will measure the mirror, not guess at it.
Free consultations. Two year warranty on parts and labor. Mon to Fri 7:30am to 4:30pm.