Sonshine builds custom mirrors for four distinct jobs around the home, and each one starts from a different set of decisions about size, finish, and placement. A bathroom vanity mirror answers to sink width and moisture. A gym wall mirror answers to span and safe mounting. Knowing which category you're in shapes every choice that follows.
The four types cover most of what homeowners ask for. Vanity and bathroom mirrors handle daily grooming and pair to your sink and sconce layout. LED and backlit mirrors add integrated lighting for task and ambient use. Gym and studio wall mirrors run large-format across a full wall for home workouts or dance practice. Decorative antique and smoked-glass mirrors work as statement pieces where reflection clarity matters less than the aesthetic.
Sonshine orders glass to your exact specification rather than fabricating every panel from raw sheet in-house. The crew handles precision measuring on-site, some on-site cutting to fit, and shop polishing of edges, so your mirror matches the space instead of forcing the space to accept a stock size. The sections below break down each type, starting with the vanity mirrors most homeowners come looking for.
A vanity mirror should match the width of the vanity below it. A 30-inch single sink calls for a 30-inch mirror, and a 60-inch double vanity works either as one 60-inch piece or two 28-inch mirrors with a gap between them. Getting the width right keeps the mirror visually anchored to the counter instead of floating over it.
Height and placement follow a similar logic. Most vanity mirrors run 30 to 42 inches tall, starting 4 to 8 inches above the countertop and ending well below the ceiling, with the centerline at standing eye level around 66 inches. Leave 4 to 8 inches between the top of the backsplash and the bottom of the mirror so the two elements read as separate. If sconces flank the mirror, size it 4 to 8 inches narrower than the sconce spacing on each side, and center the fixtures 65 to 70 inches from the floor (agmglassdesign.com).
Moisture is where an off-the-shelf mirror tends to fail first. Bathroom humidity attacks the silvered backing at the edges over time, and a cheap mirror develops the dark spotting known as black edge. A mirror built for a bathroom uses double-silvered, copper-free glass with a protective coating that resists that breakdown, and it gets bonded with mirror-safe mastic rather than a generic adhesive that eats the backing (abcglassandmirror.com).
Sonshine measures your vanity, sconces, and wall on site and orders the mirror cut to those exact dimensions. You get a piece sized to your space with backing meant to survive daily showers, not a stock rectangle trimmed to almost fit.
LED and backlit mirrors have become one of the most requested vanity upgrades, and Sonshine fabricates them to the size and shape your space calls for. A backlit mirror carries integrated lighting behind or around the glass, which serves two jobs at once. Front-lit or edge-lit designs put even task lighting across your face for shaving, makeup, and grooming, while a soft perimeter glow adds ambient light that makes a bathroom feel larger and calmer at night.
The advantage of ordering a custom LED mirror over a big-box unit is fit. Sonshine measures to your vanity and can produce round, oval, arched, or rectangular shapes rather than forcing a stock size onto a wall that does not suit it. Custom fabrication also lets you specify features that pair with the lighting, such as a defogging element that keeps the reflective surface clear after a hot shower, or a dimming control that shifts the same mirror from bright morning task light to a lower evening setting.
Exact specifications like brightness and light color depend on the fixture you choose, so treat those as options to discuss during your quote rather than fixed numbers. Send photos of your vanity, and Sonshine will scope the size, shape, and integrated features that work for the room.
A home gym or dance studio wall demands a mirror far larger than anything you'll hang over a vanity, and getting a wide panel flat, level, and safely mounted is where the work actually lives. A single large sheet reflects a clean, distortion-free image, but its weight and size make precise measuring and fitting the difference between a mirror that reads true and one that bows or sits crooked against an uneven wall.
Sonshine's own crew handles the measuring, fitting, and installation for these panels rather than handing the job to a subcontractor. That matters most on large-format work, where wall flatness, stud placement, and secure anchoring all affect how the finished mirror looks and how safely it stays put. The crew inspects the wall, takes measurements to spec, and mounts the panel with the mechanical support a heavy sheet requires.
Every gym and studio wall differs in width, ceiling height, and wall condition, so Sonshine sizes and cuts each mirror to fit your space rather than forcing a stock panel to work. Bring the room dimensions and how you plan to use the wall, and the crew will size the panels and plan the mount around them.
Antique and smoked-glass mirrors serve a different purpose than the vanity mirror over your sink. You hang them for their look, not for a clear reflection. Both start as new mirror glass treated to read as a statement piece on the wall.
Antique mirror glass is finished to look aged, with clouding and speckling that mimic decades-old silvering. That treatment reduces reflection clarity, so it works best as a decorative wall panel rather than the mirror you shave or apply makeup in front of (abcglassandmirror.com). Smoked and tinted glass, offered in gray or bronze, dims the reflection on purpose and belongs in the same decorative-only category.
Both pair well with a finish that frames the effect. A wood or metal-wrapped border in brass or oil-rubbed bronze pushes an antique panel toward an Old World look. Cutting smoked glass into an irregular shape and mounting it frameless reads cleaner and more modern.
Sonshine measures and fits these panels to the exact wall or niche you have in mind, and the crew handles the on-site cutting and installation. Order an antique or smoked mirror when you want a focal point above a console, in an entryway, or on an accent wall, not when you need a working mirror.
The choice between framed and frameless comes down to how permanent you want the mirror and how you want it to read in the room. A framed mirror behaves like furniture. A frameless mirror behaves like part of the wall.
Framed mirrors hang on a French cleat or D-rings, the same reversible hardware you would use for a heavy picture. Our crew can set one in 15 to 30 minutes, and you can lift it off the wall later without patching drywall. That removability makes framed the right call for renters, for anyone who redecorates often, or for a powder room where the frame's wood or metal border is meant to be seen as a design element. Installed, framed mirrors typically run $250 to $850 or more depending on the frame material and size.
Frameless mirrors bond to the wall with vertical beads of mirror mastic and a bottom J-channel for backup support. The adhesive cures over 24 to 48 hours, and the wall has to be clean, level, and sealed first, so the on-site work runs 45 to 90 minutes and the result is largely permanent. You choose frameless when you want the glass to disappear into the wall and the edge to fade cleanly with no visible border. Installed frameless mirrors generally fall in the $180 to $750 range, with size and edge finish driving where you land.
For a straightforward rule, pick framed when you value flexibility and want the border to add character or match your fixtures. Pick frameless when you want a seamless, architectural look and expect the mirror to stay put for years. Neither is objectively better. The framed option wins on removability and visible style, and the frameless option wins on the clean, built-in look.
The edge finish on a frameless mirror sets its whole character, and you have three practical choices. The pencil edge softly rounds the perimeter so the glass fades into the wall. Most homeowners pick it for a clean, modern look, and it carries no added cost over a standard cut. The flat polished edge squares the perimeter and adds a slight architectural reveal, a subtle line where the mirror meets the room.
The beveled edge is the upgrade worth understanding before you commit. A half-inch to one-inch chamfered cut runs around the perimeter and catches light, giving a frameless mirror visual presence without a literal frame. That detail adds roughly 15 to 30 percent to the base cost, because the cut takes more shop time to grind and polish. For a mid-size vanity mirror, a beveled edge with a J-channel install runs $400 to $650 rather than the $180 to $320 of a pencil-edge piece.
Two other choices push the price further. Custom shapes like arched, circle, and oval require a template so the glass cuts to your exact opening, and that template plus the shaping adds 15 to 25 percent on top of the base. Low-iron glass strips out the faint green tint of standard mirror glass for truer color, and it adds 25 to 35 percent. Sonshine's crew measures and templates each opening on-site, so the finish and shape you choose fit the wall exactly.
Custom mirror pricing depends on size, mounting style, and glass options, but published installed ranges give you a useful starting point. A frameless mirror with a pencil edge and mastic install runs roughly $180 to $320 for a 30"×36" piece, while a 60"×36" double-vanity frameless job lands around $450 to $750 (agmglassdesign.com). Framed mirrors sit higher because the border adds material and fitting work. A 30"×36" painted wood frame with a French cleat runs about $280 to $550, and a custom-fit antique or decorative frame can reach $850 or more.
Several factors push a quote toward the top of its range. A beveled edge adds roughly 15 to 30 percent over a plain polished edge, low-iron glass adds another 25 to 35 percent, and custom shapes like arches, circles, or ovals carry a template fee plus 15 to 25 percent (agmglassdesign.com). Cut-outs for outlets, notching around stepped vanity tops, and metal-wrapped finishes shift the number too. Two mirrors of the same size can quote differently once you account for edge finish and glass type.
You can get most estimates for free by texting photos and measurements, which lets Sonshine size the job and send a price without a visit. Some jobs need an on-site measurement to confirm wall condition and exact fit, and those may carry a small trip fee depending on location. Sending clear pictures of your vanity, sconce spacing, and backsplash upfront keeps the quote accurate and avoids surprises when your crew arrives to measure.
Most quotes start with a photo. Snap a picture of your space, text or email it with rough dimensions, and Sonshine sends back a written estimate for the mirror, edge finish, and glass type you want. Photo-based quoting spares you the wait for an in-home visit on straightforward jobs, and it gives you a real number before anyone schedules anything. When a project needs precise measurements or a wall inspection, an on-site visit follows, sometimes with a small trip fee.
Once you approve the quote, Sonshine's own crew handles the measuring, fitting, and installation. That crew measures your vanity or wall to the fraction, orders the glass cut to spec, and returns to hang it. Sonshine does not hand your job to a subcontractor, so the same people who measured your space are the ones who install the mirror. For large panels like gym walls or full frameless bathroom mirrors, that continuity is what keeps the fit tight and the glass safe.
Turnaround depends on size, edge finish, and glass type, and most custom mirrors are ready to install within one to two weeks of quote approval. Complex shapes or specialty glass can run longer, and Sonshine tells you the timeline when it quotes the job.
Many glass sites list services and a phone number with no visible quote path or process at all. You should know how the work happens before you commit to it, and this is that answer.
Sonshine has told the same founding story since 1977, and that consistency matters more than it sounds when you compare shops. Some shops list different founding dates across their website and their online profiles, which leaves a homeowner unsure which one to trust. Sonshine gives one date, and it holds up wherever you check.
The warranty is where the difference sharpens. Sonshine backs its work with a lifetime warranty on labor and materials, and those terms are stated plainly on the page you are reading. Many mirror shops publish no visible warranty terms at all. When a mirror needs adjusting or a seam needs attention years later, you want to know in writing who stands behind the work before you buy, not after.
Accountability comes down to who touches your mirror. Sonshine measures, fits, and installs with its own crew rather than handing the job to a subcontractor. That crew treats measuring and fitting as the part of the job most likely to go wrong, especially on a large panel that has to sit flush against an uneven wall. When one team is responsible for the fit from first measurement to final mount, there is no one to point at if a mirror sits crooked. That is the difference a homeowner feels on install day.
Neither is universally better. Framed mirrors mount with a reversible French cleat and read like furniture, so they suit renters or anyone who wants to remove the mirror later. Frameless mirrors bond to the wall with mastic for a seamless, architectural look, but the install is largely permanent.
Most custom mirrors run about 7 to 10 business days from approved quote to installation. Custom shapes, beveled edges, and low-iron glass can add time because they require templating or specialty ordering.
Match the mirror width to the vanity or sink width, so a 30-inch sink pairs with a 30-inch mirror. Keep 4 to 8 inches between the backsplash top and the mirror bottom, and center the mirror at standing eye level, roughly 66 inches from the floor. If sconces flank the mirror, make it 4 to 8 inches narrower than the sconce spacing on each side.
Not well. Antique mirror is treated to look aged, which reduces reflection clarity, and smoked or tinted mirror is a decorative statement piece not meant for applying makeup. Use both as wall accents rather than a primary vanity mirror.
Text or email photos of your space along with rough measurements, and Sonshine returns a price quote from those pictures. On-site visits are available when a project needs precise field measuring, sometimes with a small trip fee.
Sonshine backs its labor and materials with a lifetime warranty on installation workmanship.
Send photos of the issue with your original job details, and Sonshine's crew schedules a follow-up visit to inspect and correct the work.
Send us a few photos of your space and rough measurements, and we will quote most custom mirror projects at no cost. Text or email works. For projects that need on-site measuring, a small trip fee may apply, and we will tell you before we schedule anything. Every mirror we install is measured, fitted, and mounted by our own crew, backed by a lifetime warranty on labor and materials.