Mirror wall, minus the wall

November 5, 2016 5:05 PM

I'm moving from a tiny apartment into a slightly less tiny apartment, and I would like to utilize some of the space for dance practice by setting up some sort of portable mini mirror wall. I expect most of the limited wall space to be blocked by furniture, so I would like to set up something that could be placed in front of, say, the TV stand, during practice, and then put away if the TV needed to be used.

A mirrored room divider seems like the closest thing to what I'm imagining, but they seem to run for $200+.

I am looking for possible solutions that would allow me to set up some horizontal mirror space without needing to be placed directly on the walls. I'm open to very simple DIY possibilities, possibly combining plastic mirrors with some sort of thing to stand them on or glue them to. I currently use a plastic mirror propped in front of my TV and it's basically fine, so I don't have any concerns about their reflection quality. I don't really want anything big/heavy/fancy/bulky/ornately framed, just a relatively wide/tall area of reflective surface.

Any ideas?

posted by space snail to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

They make pull down blinds, or shades. They used to make pull down screens to show films on. They make reflective plastic, that could roll up into one of those pull down shade items. You just have to find a broad one, and then craft a way to hold the roll while you practice. They also make nice big oval mirrors in frames, sometimes you can get a steal on one of those in a second hand store. I also bought for about $175 a mirror that would double as a door, but was big enough to stand against a wall. It was not a bad decoration.
posted by Oyéah at 6:04 PM on November 5, 2016

You might consider reversing the positions. A mirror or three on a wall, and a rolling TV stand in front of it you can roll out of the way when you want to practice.
posted by nickggully at 6:57 PM on November 5, 2016 [6 favorites]

I agree with nickggully - it would be much easier and safer to attach mirrors to the wall and move the TV stand out of the way as needed. You can get mirrored closet doors at architectural salvage shops for cheap.

Where are your windows? Do you have a sliding glass door to the outside? I lived in a loft for a while that had large windows along one wall - they made pretty good mirrors at night. . .
posted by ananci at 7:42 PM on November 5, 2016

Response by poster: The TV is big and flat and not a good candidate for something to make portable, so that's not an option.

Plastic mirrors aren't heavy or easily breakable like typical mirrors, that's why I was interested in using them for this. I'm hoping for ideas about furniture/objects I might combine them with or use to hold a row of them upright in a way that might be a little nicer looking than leaning them against my TV.
posted by space snail at 8:36 PM on November 5, 2016

Could you buy a cheap room divider (IKEA has one made of metal framing and gauzy curtains for $50) and then attach plastic mirrors to it by either taping them or poking holes in them and hanging them on twine? If you could find the right size of mirror or cut them down, you could still have something you could fold up in a corner when you're not using it.
posted by MadamM at 8:53 PM on November 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Do you have to see yourself dancing life size? My idea is to treat the TV screen as a monitor by aiming a video camera at yourself and connecting it to the TV. I'm sure some more tech-savvy people can chime in about logistics for that.
posted by oxisos at 9:58 PM on November 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Could you epoxy the plastic mirrors onto some casters? Maybe make a simple base/backing if you're concerned about stability?
posted by wym at 12:17 AM on November 6, 2016