Window Mirrors

Le Beau and Le Vue are designed as a family — same black PS windowpane grid style — but built for different spaces. Le Beau is a 190 x 90cm arched full-length mirror, 19kg, that can lean on the floor or mount on the wall. It's the statement piece: wide enough and tall enough to work as a centrepiece in entryways, bedrooms, or dressing rooms. Le Vue is a 120 x 100cm landscape wall-only mirror, 11kg, designed to mount horizontally above consoles, fireplaces, or as a decorative wall piece in narrower rooms where a full-length mirror wouldn't fit. They're deliberately paired: the same pane grid pattern lets you hang Le Beau and Le Vue in adjacent rooms for a coherent feel, or buy them together as the Le Beau & Le Vue Set for a living-dining combination where one is vertical and one is horizontal.

They don't — physically, mirrors reflect the same amount of light regardless of frame style. What window mirrors do is SCATTER light differently. Each muntin bar (the black pane divider) catches light around its edges, and the panes themselves reflect light in slightly different angles because of the tiny variations in glass mounting. The effect is that a window mirror appears more sparkly and dynamic than a plain mirror of the same size — more individual glints rather than one continuous reflection. In darker NZ rooms (south-facing lounges in winter, hallways without direct windows, enclosed bathrooms), this scattered reflection makes the light feel more abundant than it is. It's a visual trick rooted in how the eye perceives multiple light sources, not an actual light amplification. For pure reflection brightness, choose double-silver glass rectangular or round mirrors instead.

The panes ARE real glass — one continuous piece of 4mm ultra-clear mirror glass sits behind the pane grid, and the black PS muntin grid is a frame overlay that sits ON TOP of the glass, dividing it visually into smaller rectangular sections. This is standard for pane-style mirrors across the industry (including antiques and French country reproductions) because separate small panes would create distortion where they meet, and the grid-over-continuous-glass approach gives you a clean reflection across the whole surface. The PS grid is handcrafted — each muntin is individually seated and aligned so the spacing reads even from a distance. Over years, PS is stable (won't warp, crack or fade like real timber muntins would) but it does collect dust in the corners of each pane, so a feather duster every few weeks keeps it crisp.

Window mirrors pair best with NZ home styles that have existing heritage or architectural character: villas with original architraves and sash windows, Edwardian bungalows with leadlight details, California bungalows with craftsman detailing, Hamptons-style new builds with shiplap walls, and coastal cottages with white or cream palettes. The pane grid picks up on architectural detail already in the home and feels like it belongs. Styles where window mirrors work less well: ultra-modern architect builds with floor-to-ceiling glass (the mirror competes with the real windows), mid-century modern rooms (the grid is too fussy for MCM's clean lines), and Japanese-influenced minimalist interiors. For those styles, frameless (Gabriel, Cascade X) or clean aluminium-framed rectangles suit better. Window mirrors are also a popular choice in powder rooms and bathrooms with subway tile, where the grid echoes the tile pattern.

Le Beau can do both. The 190 x 90cm arched window mirror ships with floor-lean capability (the base has anti-slip pads) AND wall-mounting hardware included, so you can choose based on the room. Leaning Le Beau in an entryway gives an immediate heritage moment; mounting it above a console or bed extends that detail upward. At 19kg it's manageable for one-person installation either way, though we recommend two people for wall-mounting to hold the arched profile level while securing. Le Vue is different — the 120 x 100cm landscape design is WALL ONLY because it has no floor-stability base and the horizontal profile would look awkward propped against a wall. For a floor-leaning window mirror, Le Beau is the right pick. For a horizontal wall-hung version, Le Vue. The Set gives you both for rooms that can accommodate the pair.

Yes — a little. The black PS muntin grid creates small corners where dust naturally accumulates over a few weeks. The fix is simple: a soft feather duster or microfibre cloth flicked across the grid every fortnight keeps it crisp. Don't use water or glass cleaner directly on the muntins (the PS finish can streak); stick to dry dusting or a barely-damp cloth if the corner is properly gunked up. For the glass itself behind the grid, a standard streak-free glass cleaner with a microfibre cloth works as normal — the continuous glass underneath the grid cleans just like any other mirror. If dust becomes a persistent issue in your home (heavy traffic, pets, rural NZ with windblown dust), consider Lyra LED (oval, fully frameless) or Cascade X (frameless irregular) as alternatives — both avoid the grid-corner dust trap entirely.