People use bathroom mirrors a lot more than they realize. You may not need your bathroom mirror to do your makeup in the morning or to shave, but you surely see yourself in it frequently. Seeing ourselves provides an extra level of orientation. It’s only when your mirror breaks or cracks that you realize how much you miss that sense of grounding each time you walk into the bathroom. Well, if your bathroom mirror is cracked or broken, it’s time to replace it. How do you replace a bathroom mirror? Let’s take a look at the steps!
Decide How to Hang It
The first step when you want to replace a bathroom mirror is deciding how you want it to be hung. There are many ways to hang a mirror and many mirror styles to choose from. Here are the most popular ones:
- Clipped Mirrors
These mirrors are frameless. You’ll see, usually, 4 clips holding it to the wall. These clips are usually pretty small and made of metal or clear plastic. Typically, they hold the mirror in place with 2 on top and 2 on bottom. - Framed Mirrors
Framed mirrors are more like pictures in the way they’re hung. The pane of mirror is held in a frame like the glass in a picture frame. There is usually a wire or some sawtooth hangers that will grip the heads of nails or screws. - Frameless and Clipless Mirrors
These mirrors are frameless, just like those using clips. However, they use no clips to hold them up, having a sleek, frameless appearance when installed.
When you’ve decided which style you like best, it’s time to buy the appropriate mirror. Today we’ll be discussing how to install a clipped mirror. Otherwise, check out our guide on clipless mirror installation, or check back next month for a guide on framed mirrors.
Buy a New Mirror
When you know what kind of mirror you’re looking for, it’s time to buy one! Luckily, for those living in or around Toronto, Keystone Home Products offers quality mirrors for vanities and other locations. Our mirrors are frameless, though they can have a frame added to them very easily. We also offer mirrors of many different sizes, so give us a call if you’d like to order one or check our size limitations.
Prepare the Wall
The first step to hanging a clipped mirror is preparing the wall. If there are old mirror clips that won’t fit the size of the new mirror, remove them with a screwdriver. You’ll also want to fill in any holes in the wall before installing the new mirror. That way, you don’t have to work around the new setup to fill them later.
If you’re planning on painting your bathroom walls, now is also a great time to get that out of the way. If you weren’t planning to, maybe reconsider. A fresh coat of paint in an accent color can make the vanity wall a great focus wall.
Picking a Spot
Now that you have your frameless mirror and your wall is prepared, the first step is checking where you want to place the mirror. For mirrors that are larger than 2 feet in either direction, it’s recommended that you get some help. Hold the mirror up to the wall. Move it gently up or down the wall until it’s about where you want it. Then, use a pencil (or chalk, for dark walls) to create a line on the wall where the top and bottom of the mirror are. It’s okay if they’re not exact, as long as you know where the edges were. To replace a bathroom mirror in a way that looks nice, you have a lot of measuring and marking to do, so buckle up!
Height Markings
Next, you’ll want to use a level alongside a ruler, yardstick, or meter stick, depending on what you have and how big the mirror is. Another straight edge will also work. It just needs to be perfectly straight. This will be used to get a more accurate line for where the bottom of the mirror will be.
When you’ve got your straight-edge, hold it up to the wall horizontally. Line up the upper edge with where you marked the bottom of the mirror’s desired location. Place or hold the level on top of the straight edge and adjust it until it’s level. Then, create a line with your pencil along the straight edge, either all the way across or, to minimize later erasing, in lines a few inches long about where the clips will be going.
