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How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on a Brick Fireplace (How to Drill into Brick)

I wanted to share our experience because we were so nervous about hanging a heavy mirror over our fireplace, but it wasn’t difficult and we quickly figured out how to hang a heavy mirror on a brick fireplace and how to drill into brick and it’s surprisingly easy!  And not scary.  Here’s the process and what you’ll need!

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

You have a brick fireplace.  You want to hang something heavy on it.  Probably a mirror, to bounce a little light around the room.  No problem (and good idea, by the way, I’m sure it will look fabulous).  There is obviously more than one way to do this (and always default to professionals), but here’s how we hung the super heavy duty mirror we stenciled and framed.

Tools Required:

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on a Brick Fireplace (How to Drill into Brick):

1.  We measured where we wanted the mirror hung, choosing two anchor points (for more strength) in the mortar between the bricks.

2.  We taped off the length of the screw on the drill bit, so we knew what depth to make the hole (this is the “poor man’s depth gauge”).

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick
Masking tape works well, because it doesn’t leave a sticky residue on the bit.

3.   Using a masonry drill bit that came with our masonry screws, we drilled holes into the mortar, stopping when we reached our poor man’s depth gauge.  Handy Hubs kept the drill as straight as possible, so as not to enlarge the hole.

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

Step number three made a huge mess.

4.  Finally, we drove in the masonry screws, making sure they hugged the brick as tightly as possible, so they are nice and secure.

Easy-peasy.  Next we tackled the back of the mirror.

1.  We picked up some heavy duty hangers from our local hardware store and screwed them into the wood the mirror is mounted to, using wood screws.  We pre-drilled these holes too, to ensure a tighter fit.  (Pre-drilling also keeps the wood from splitting).

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

2.  Using heavy duty picture hanging wire (this stuff is weight-rated), we tightly strung it from the hangers, actually triple-stranding it to make it extra tough.  We also kept quite a long tail, wrapping it back onto itself.

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

3.  We also wanted to make sure the wire sat where it should on the screws, so we marked the points in pencil on the back of the mirror.  It’s important the wire isn’t too loosey-goosey, so we adjusted the tension accordingly.

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

And that’s it!  I was really stressed about how to hang a heavy mirror on a brick fireplace (I pictured the whole fireplace crumbling or hearing a crash*bang and finding bits of shiny Hungarian poem everywhere), but Hubs knew what he was doing!  We lived with this mirror for years, and never had it move an inch!

How to Hang a Heavy Mirror on Brick

UPDATE: in our new house, we drilled right into the composite stone fireplace (not between the bricks into the mortar) and we bought a super awesome tool for that for that, which made it so, so easy!  You can take a look at that project right here and learn more tips and tricks for how to drill into brick.

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8 Comments

  1. betinahluna
    December 19, 2012 / 4:25 am

    The place really looks amazing!

    • Tanya from Dans le Townhouse
      December 19, 2012 / 7:27 pm

      Awww, thanks! It's taken awhile, but I finally really like the living room. It's cozy but still airy. And I learned to like the brick Hubby is vehemently against painting 😉

  2. cred
    December 19, 2012 / 3:06 pm

    …eaten by wildebessties… haha, you're funny.Hey, I too use the poor man's depth gauge when I don't want to drill all the way through a board. Does the trick- funny I'm not the only one who does this. I thought I'd invented it ; )

    • Tanya from Dans le Townhouse
      December 19, 2012 / 7:28 pm

      When trying to determine if that WAS the right spelling for wildebeests, we learned the beesties are the young ones, lol.

    • cred
      December 21, 2012 / 1:15 pm

      Yeah, I looked it up too (not b/c I expected it was wrong but wondered if it was just a cute word that you made up) BUT I just meant I was amused by the whole apocalyptic scenario- chuckle!now to go read your winter woolies post- somehow I missed it. Don't know if I didn't get my email notification or if I somehow missed it. Either way, I now have an unexpected post to go read.

    • Tanya from Dans le Townhouse
      December 21, 2012 / 5:05 pm

      Ooo, a BONUS post, lol.I do tend to use made-upy words, so I can understand wanting to be doubly sure. It looks like we won't be having an apocalypse, at least not soon (YAY!), so no wildebeesties and more blogging!

  3. honbc
    December 19, 2012 / 8:30 pm

    Had to laugh at your "poor man's depth gauge" since my husband, who is a professional finishing carpenter, uses that method all the time. So you can call it "professional man's depth gauge" from now on ! Merry Christmas. Louise

    • Tanya from Dans le Townhouse
      December 21, 2012 / 5:03 pm

      Oooo, I love that! Alrighty, it is henceforth a "professional man's depth gauge," which I like the sound of even better :)Happy Holidays to you too!

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