How to Secure a Leaning Mirror: Restraints, Skirting Boards and Floor Contact

To secure a leaning mirror, set the bottom edge 16 to 24cm out from the wall so it leans at 5 to 7 degrees, put rubber or silicone grip pads under the base, and fix a restraint into a wall stud at the very top of the mirror, such as a small bracket whose arm rests on the top of the frame. The lean alone will not hold it. We worked through the numbers for four of our own leaning mirrors, and at a 5 degree lean each one starts to tip forward with a pull on its top edge of about 1kg or less. A toddler pulling up on the frame, a knock from a vacuum or a decent earthquake is more than that.

This guide is for mirrors that stand on the floor and rest against the wall. If you are still deciding between leaning and hanging, start with freestanding or wall mounted. If you want the mirror on the wall, see our plasterboard hanging guide or the concrete and brick guide. If you are checking whether a 180cm mirror will fit the room at all, our 180cm floor mirror fit guide covers the footprint and viewing distance.

How a leaning mirror actually falls

A leaning mirror is held up by three things: its weight, the floor under the bottom edge and the wall behind the top edge. It can fail in two ways.

It tips forward. Something pulls or bumps the top edge toward the room. A child hauling themselves up on the frame is the classic one, but a pet, a snagged bag strap or earthquake shaking will do it. Once the top leaves the wall, a 2m mirror comes down fast.

It slides out. The base skates away from the wall and the top runs down it until the mirror drops onto its back. This one happens on smooth floors, when a vacuum or a foot catches the bottom edge, or when the mirror has been leaned on a rug.

To show how little it takes, we worked out how hard you would need to pull on the top edge, straight toward the room, to start each of these mirrors tipping. We used the height, depth and weight listed for each one.

Mirror	Size and weight	Pushed tight against an 18mm skirting	At a 5 degree lean	At a 7 degree lean
Grandeur X (arched)	200 x 100cm, 32kg	about 0.3kg	about 1.1kg	about 1.7kg
Aldren X (rectangle)	200 x 100cm, 28kg	about 0.2kg	about 1.0kg	about 1.5kg
Rachelle (frameless arch)	180 x 80cm, 22kg	almost nothing	about 0.9kg	about 1.3kg
Zenith X (rectangle)	180 x 80cm, 19kg	about 0.2kg	about 0.7kg	about 1.0kg

How we worked these out: each mirror treated as a rigid panel with its top edge resting on a smooth wall, its base on a firm floor and the pull applied at the top edge, using the listed height, frame depth and weight. Real floors, frames and bumps vary, so read the figures as a sense of scale, not a safety rating.

Three things stand out. First, even at a sensible lean it is roughly the weight of a 1 litre bottle of milk. Second, a steeper lean helps, but not much: going from 5 to 7 degrees adds half a kilo at most. Third, the mirror pushed hard up against the skirting is almost balanced on its bottom edge, which is why "tuck it in close so it can't go anywhere" is exactly backwards.

The same arithmetic applies to earthquakes. At a 5 degree lean, a sideways jolt of about 7 percent of gravity is enough to lift the top off the wall, which is a small fraction of what strong shaking produces. The Natural Hazards Commission's advice is to secure tall and heavy items to the wall studs, and a 2m mirror is a tall, heavy item.

Step 1: Set the lean, and measure from the wall, not the skirting

Aim for a lean of 5 to 7 degrees. Less than that and the mirror is close to balanced, as the table shows. Much more than that and the base has to work harder to stay put, and your reflection starts to tip toward the floor, because tilting a mirror back by 6 degrees swings the view it gives you by 12.

You do not need a protractor. Set the bottom edge this far from the wall:

Mirror height	5 degrees	6 degrees	7 degrees
160cm	14cm	17cm	19.5cm
180cm	16cm	19cm	22cm
200cm	17cm	21cm	24cm

Measure from the face of the wall above the skirting to the back of the mirror's bottom edge. The top of the mirror drops less than 1.5cm at any of these angles, so the lean barely changes how tall it looks.

The skirting board is not your measuring point. Skirting varies from a thin modern profile to a deep villa board, so a measurement taken from it will give you a different lean in every room. Measure from the wall, and the skirting simply sits inside the gap.

Do not push the base back against the skirting. It feels tidy and it makes the mirror stand nearly upright, which is the least stable position it has. If your floor has a scotia or quad bead along the bottom of the skirting, keep the bottom edge on the floor itself, clear of the bead, so the mirror sits level on both corners.

Check it with your phone. Hold your phone against the side of the frame and read the angle off the level in its measure app or any level app. Nudge the base in or out until it reads 5 to 7 degrees.

Step 2: Fit a restraint, high up and into a stud

This is the step that actually stops a leaning mirror falling, and it comes down to one rule: the restraint goes at the top. A mirror tips by pivoting on its bottom edge, so a fixing near the floor has almost no leverage. On a 2m mirror, a fixing at skirting height has to hold about 20 times the pull on the top edge. At 1.5m up it is about 1.3 times, and at the top it is about the same as the pull. A screw eye in the skirting, which you will still see recommended, is working at its worst possible height, and skirting is trim that is nailed or glued on rather than built to hold a load.

The wall end goes into a stud. Find the timber stud nearest the top of the mirror with a stud finder. If there is no stud where you need one, use a plasterboard anchor rated for the job. Our plasterboard guide covers finding studs and choosing anchors, and the concrete and brick guide covers masonry.

Option A: a bracket over the top edge (nothing fixed to the mirror)

This is the restraint we would use on any of the mirrors in this guide. You need one small steel angle bracket with arms of about 40 to 50mm, a stick on felt or rubber pad, and screws to suit the wall.

Set the mirror at its lean first. Then screw the bracket to the wall directly above the mirror, with its arm pointing into the room and resting lightly on the top of the frame, pad in between. It carries no weight. Its job is to stop the top edge rising, and here is why that works: a leaning mirror has to lift slightly on its way to upright before it can fall forward. On our numbers, the top of a 2m mirror at 5 degrees climbs about 5mm before it passes upright, and at 7 degrees about 11mm. Take that room away and it cannot start to tip.

• Arched mirrors: one bracket over the crown, the highest point of the arch.
• Rectangles: one bracket anywhere along the top edge works, so put it where the stud is. Two, near each corner, looks more deliberate.
• No gap. The arm should just touch the pad. A few millimetres of gap can be all the room the mirror needs.
• Taking it out: slide the base out a few centimetres further. The top drops clear of the bracket and you can lift the mirror away.

Option B: an anti-tip strap to a proper fixing point

If your mirror has a D ring, an eye or a solid timber frame made to take a screw on the back, a furniture anti-tip strap from that point to a stud does the same job. Keep it at the top of the mirror, keep it short, and leave only enough slack for the lean. The Natural Hazards Commission also points to straps that attach with adhesive for furniture you would rather not drill, but the wall end of any strap still wants a stud.

What not to do: don't drill into an aluminium frame, where a slipped bit can crack the glass; don't screw into the backing board; and don't tie a strap to the hanging plates. Here is what is on the back of three of our leaning mirrors, and why Option A is the one for all three.

Step 3: Give the base grip for your floor

The base has to resist the outward push of the lean. It is small, about 1kg for our 200cm mirrors at 5 degrees and 1.5 to 1.7kg at 7, but it is always there, and a knock from a vacuum or a foot adds to it. What works depends on the floor.

Floor	What happens at the base	What to use
Timber, laminate, vinyl	Smooth. The bottom edge can skate out if it is bumped.	Rubber or silicone grip pads on the bottom edge. Not plain felt pads, which are made to let furniture slide.
Tiles, polished concrete	Hard and smooth. An uneven tile or a grout lip under one corner lets it rock.	Grip pads, with both bottom corners on the same level surface.
Carpet	Grips well, but the base sinks into the pile and underlay, so the lean creeps.	Press the base down, then check the angle again after a day or two.
A rug	The rug slides on the floor underneath and takes the mirror with it.	Don't. Keep the base on the floor itself, clear of the rug.

Grip does not replace the restraint and the restraint does not replace grip. The bracket stops the top coming forward; the pads stop the bottom going out. On a hard floor you want both.

The 10 minute setup, start to finish

1. Pick the spot. Clear of door swings and walkways, on the floor rather than a rug, and ideally with a stud near where the top of the mirror will sit.
2. Fit the grip pads. With two people, lay the mirror face down on its carton or a blanket and stick pads under the bottom edge, one near each corner.
3. Mark the base line. Run painter's tape along the floor at your distance from the wall, using the table in Step 1.
4. Stand it up. Two people for anything over about 20kg. Set the bottom edge on the tape line and rest the top on the wall.
5. Check the angle. Phone against the side of the frame, 5 to 7 degrees. Adjust the base, not the top.
6. Find the stud at the top. At the crown for an arch, anywhere along the top edge for a rectangle.
7. Fix the bracket. Screw it to the wall with its arm resting on the pad on top of the frame. No gap.
8. Test it. Pull the top edge gently toward you: it should not come away from the wall. Nudge the base with your foot: it should not slide.
9. Check again in a week. Pads bed in and carpet settles. Check the angle again, and that the bracket is still touching.

Renting? You can ask to fix it, and the answer is usually yes

Securing furniture to the wall to protect against earthquakes is one of the examples Tenancy Services gives of a minor change, and landlords must not decline a minor change, although they can set reasonable conditions. Make the request in writing, and your landlord has 21 days to respond. At the end of the tenancy you remove the bracket and return the wall to substantially the same condition, which for two small screw holes means a dab of filler and a touch of paint.

While you wait, keep the mirror at a proper lean with grip pads under it, and keep it out of rooms where children play. If you cannot fix anything to the wall at all, our no drill mirror options cover what works without screws, and where the limits are.

Places not to lean a mirror

• Behind a door, or anywhere a door swing can reach the frame.
• In a hallway walkway, where bags, shoulders and vacuums brush past the base.
• Beside the bed, where someone may grab the top edge to steady themselves.
• On a rug, for the reasons in Step 3.
• Against a sliding door or window, which is not a wall and will move.
• In a child's room, unless it is restrained. A child pulling up on the frame applies many times the pull in the table above.

The mirrors in this guide

Frequently asked questions