Mirrors

A shaving cabinet is a recessed or surface-mounted wall cabinet with a mirrored door (or doors) on the front. Unlike a flat bathroom mirror, a shaving cabinet provides internal storage for medicines, razors, skincare products, and other bathroom essentials. Many modern shaving cabinets also feature integrated LED lighting, shaving points, and demister pads, making them a highly functional addition to any bathroom.

Australian bathrooms commonly feature flat-mounted wall mirrors, LED-backlit mirrors, frameless mirrors, framed mirrors, and shaving cabinets with mirrored doors. Shape options include rectangular, round, oval, arch, and pill-shaped mirrors. The Blue Space stocks all of these styles from brands like Ingrain, with options that suit everything from minimalist to Hamptons-style bathrooms.

An LED mirror provides built-in lighting that illuminates the face evenly, which is ideal for grooming, makeup application, and shaving. Many LED mirrors also include demister pads to prevent fogging after a shower. A standard mirror is a cost-effective, timeless choice when the bathroom already has good ambient and task lighting. If your bathroom lighting is limited or positioned overhead, an LED mirror is a worthwhile upgrade.

As a general rule, your bathroom mirror should be the same width as or up to 50–100mm narrower than your vanity. For a 600mm vanity, a 550–600mm mirror works well; for a 1200mm double vanity, a 1100–1200mm mirror or two individual mirrors side by side suit the space. Height is flexible, most bathroom mirrors sit between 700mm and 900mm tall, depending on ceiling height and user preference.

A demister pad is a heated element bonded to the back of the mirror that gently warms the glass surface, preventing condensation from forming. This means your mirror stays clear even in a steamy bathroom. Demister pads are a popular upgrade in Australian bathrooms, particularly in cooler climates or smaller bathrooms where steam builds quickly.

Bathroom mirrors should be hung using appropriate wall anchors rated for the mirror's weight, or using an adhesive mirror system if recommended by the manufacturer. In tiled bathrooms, use tile drill bits and nylon wall plugs to avoid cracking tiles. For large or heavy mirrors, it's recommended to have a licensed tradesperson handle installation, and always ensure the mirror is fixed securely to avoid the risk of it falling.

A bathroom mirror is a flat panel fixed to the wall with nothing behind it. A shaving cabinet looks similar from the front but the mirrored panel is actually a door, or pair of doors, opening onto a storage cavity built into or mounted on the wall. If you need somewhere to keep medicines, skincare and grooming items out of sight, a shaving cabinet does that job; a plain mirror doesn't. Both are available in the same shapes and sizes, so the choice usually comes down to whether you need the storage. See the shaving cabinets range if storage is the deciding factor.

The main trade-offs are cost and installation. An LED mirror costs more upfront than a standard mirror of the same size, and because it needs a power connection it has to be wired in by a licensed electrician rather than just hung on a hook or bracket, which adds to the install cost. If the LED strip or driver ever fails, repair generally means replacing the mirror rather than a simple part swap, since the light is built into the unit. For a bathroom with already-good task lighting near the vanity, a standard mirror can be the more practical choice.

It depends on the lighting already in the room. If the only light source is an overhead downlight, it tends to cast shadows on the face which makes shaving, makeup and skincare tasks harder, and an LED mirror fixes that by lighting the face evenly from the front. If the bathroom already has strong vanity-side lighting, a standard mirror is a perfectly reasonable, lower-cost option. Many LED mirrors also include a demister pad as standard, which is a genuine convenience in a bathroom that gets steamy, independent of the lighting question.

Yes. Any mirror with built-in lighting, a demister pad, or a shaving point needs to be connected to mains power, and in Australia that connection has to be done by a licensed electrician. This applies whether the mirror is being wired to an existing point behind the mirror location or a new circuit is being run in during a renovation. Trying to wire it in yourself isn't just a compliance risk, it can void the product warranty as well.

The common shapes are rectangular, round, oval, arch-topped and pill-shaped (a rounded rectangle with soft, oval-like ends), in both framed and frameless finishes. Rectangular remains the most common and offers the widest size range. If you're set on a specific shape, it's worth going straight to that collection: arched mirrors for a plain arch-topped mirror with no storage, or the shaving cabinet ranges below if you want that shape with storage behind it.

As a general starting point, match the mirror or cabinet width to the vanity below it, or go slightly narrower rather than wider. A 600mm vanity typically suits a 550 to 600mm mirror, while a 1200mm double vanity usually takes a single wide unit or two smaller ones side by side. Height is more flexible and depends on the height of the people using the room and where the tap and splashback sit. For cabinet-specific sizing, including the popular 1200mm double-vanity width, see the 1200mm shaving cabinets collection.

The most useful feature to look for isn't brand but light placement and colour temperature: a mirror lit from around the full perimeter (not just top or sides) reduces shadowing on the face far more than a single light bar. A neutral to warm-white colour temperature (around 3000 to 4000K) is closer to how most bathrooms are lit day to day, which makes it easier to judge skincare or makeup application accurately. If you want a smaller, magnifying mirror specifically for close-up tasks rather than a full wall mirror, that's a different product category, covered on the makeup mirrors page.