9 Easy & Creative Bathroom Mirror Ideas You Need to See Before Your Friends Do

Bathrooms have this bizarre disposition to be judged. Besides the whole peeking-in-the-medicine-cabinet trope, I guess we’re likely to evaluate people’s bathrooms because it’s the one place where we, as guests, get a chance to linger alone and really contemplate the personal style of the person who’s invited us over.

For that reason, if you’re out to impress, the bathroom is one of the first rooms you need to work on. Here’s my advice: Start with the spot that gets the most looking action, the mirror. Whether you own or rent, replacing the bathroom mirror is a seriously do-able project that pays off with a big impact.

Above, the mirror in the bathroom from Leelah Loves rests on a narrow shelf instead of being mounted on the wall.

Instead of one big mirror, you’d find a bevy of small, colorful mirrors in this beach house bathroom from Domino.

The mirror in this Antonio Martins-designed house hangs from the ceiling with rope, so it falls in front of the window.

Another way to play with a window above the vanity is to mount a mirror right on top of it, like here in the Country Living House of the Year 2013. As long as the mirror’s shape contrasts the window’s, this should work.

Or mount the mirror to the front of a shelf. This is a pre-made piece from Norm Architects and retailer Ex-t (spotted on Dezeen), but it’s easily DIY’able. (It reminds me of decorators who mount framed artwork right to the front of their bookshelves.)

In Renee & Adrian’s Sustainable Hideaway in Western Australia, the medicine cabinet comes off the wall and sits on the countertop at an interesting angle.

Alexandra (of Alexandra & Eliot’s 1890’s Farmhouse) is a designer, so you can buy this first-aid style medicine cabinet right from her shop. But it could also be an easy DIY to mask and paint a Swiss cross onto your existing mirror if you like the look.

If you don’t want to mess with the mirror, you can still play around with it, like here with this cheeky reflective artwork in a bathroom on Stylizmo.

No mirror at all? That’s OK, too. It’s a little Abnegation faction, but it does offer an interesting look when you replace the vanity mirror with a piece of framed artwork, as seen here on Domino. (I might suggest you hang a mirror somewhere in the room, though.)

What do you think of these ideas?