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What size mirror should go over a 36 inch vanity in a powder room?

8 years ago

We are putting in a powder room in our addition. The powder room will have a 36 inch vanity. How big should the mirror be? I plan on putting a sconce light on either side of the mirror. The electrician said he could give me enough room for either a 27 inch mirror or a 32 inch mirror (depending on where he places the boxes for the sconces). What should I do?

Featured Answer

chispa

8 years ago

Narrower framed mirrors are hard to find, so I would do some searches online to see if you find one you like and go from there. You'll be annoyed if you pick 27" and then the only mirror you like is closer to 32". Pick the mirror first.

If you are just doing a frameless mirror glued on the wall, then you can have any mirror/glass store cut it to the exact size you need.

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Comments (6)

User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Is the vanity in an alcove? If so, mirror the entire alcove and have the glass company cut the mirror for mounted sconces on the mirror. You could also do this if there's no adjacent walls or one wall, and you may have to. You have 38" to fit a mirror and two sconces (countertop overhangs an inch or so). I would want at least 3" between the sconce shade and mirror and the sconce and the wall, so 3" + 3" + width of sconce. I have a 24" mirror over a 36" vanity, which is a fine size for the mirror, but that leaves only 7" for a sconce between the mirror and wall. If you used a smaller than 24" mirror, the sconces might be too close together. I read that 30" - 36" is the optimal spacing for sconces.

I always draw this stuff up on graph paper to check spacing and proportions.
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A few suggestions... There's a Restoration Hardware outlet at the Tulalip Outlet mall so you might find a few deals there. ( I remember you mentioned living in Edmonds, so it might be worth the drive up north.) Or, as Babs suggested, having a glass and mirror shop custom make a nice beveled mirror is very reasonable. When we remodeled our master bath we made a frame with some nice trim/molding that we bought from our cabinet maker (to match our cabinets) and had a mirror with an extra large bevel to fit in the frame. For our guest bathroom I found a simple, wide, solid wood, oversized picture frame at Aaron Bros. on sale for $20, and a local glass shop put a beveled mirror in it for me for $40. It looks fabulous! (We used a metal bracket called a hangman which makes it easy and safe to hang large, heavy objects.) In regards to the size, personally I think bigger is better, especially vertically. I've always noticed nicer hotels have wonderfully large mirrors - they really add a feeling of spaciousness to what are usually small rooms.
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I have a pedestal sink in my powder room and am replacing it with a vanity for storage. Even just a place for extra toilet paper would be great. But it also had no deck space even for a bottle of hand soap. My toilet/sink wall is 5-2, and we debated whether to use a 24 or 30 inch vanity. We decided the 24 would be better since I did not want the vanity right up against the wall. We also decided on an 18" deep vanity to keep it as small as possible, so not to overwhelm the space. And we opted to replace our toilet with a wall mounted toilet to make it seem more roomy. It will only project 21" from the wall. Your room is a little bigger, If you center the toilet on 34" of wall space (30" is minimum code, 36" is ideal), you will have 31" for a vanity, so you could easily do a 30" vanity. And there are some that come in sizes like 26 or 28.
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You could use pendants hung from the ceiling or you can have the sconces mounted on a full wall mirror if you want to avoid over mirror lights. I used a double swag lighting fixture in a small powder and people mention it every time they see it. The junction box has been centered since this picture was taken.
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Both our bathrooms have that setup--narrow mirrors (both have recessed medicine cabinets) with wall sconces. With the new bathroom we considered doing a wider mirror with an overhead light instead, but I really prefer the lights at the side. One is over a 42" vanity--for that one we pulled the vanity 6" off the wall so that there would be a little clearance between the sconce and the wall--and the other is over a 24" pedestal sink. (For that one of course the sconces are outside of the sink area, but I think it works that way too, as long as it's balanced.) I'd have to measure but I think both sets of sconces are in the 4-5" range.
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Tranquil Garden
8 years ago
I'm dealing with a similar problem - 36" vanity with sink offset to the left (wall on the right) with a plan to use a 30" wide mirror (that we already have) and two sconces - left sconce will not be over the vanity of course, rather to the right of the toilet.

The sconces are 5" wide so I'm thinking of 8" between mirror and wall which would center the right sconce 4" from the wall and mirror, so 1.5 inch clearance. I will be using LED bulbs in the sconce so heat should not be an issue. I've seen other similar setups on Houzz and it looks okay. I need to though draw this up in Sketchup to make sure it will look okay and also see what my electrician thinks - local codes may not allow it to be that close to the wall.
fnmroberts
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Powder Room

Our vanity measures 26" wide. Mirror is 16" x 48" including the 2" sandblasted border. We had is made by a local glass shop.
Michelle Moss
last year
What if you have a 36” vanity and no sconces? What size mirror should you use?
Michelle Moss
last year
Would this mirror work over a 36” vanity?

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