You can clearly see there’s a big difference between some of the above panels. If you’ve been searching on Google for examples that compare glass and acrylic smart mirrors, you’ve probably seen photos like this one:Īt first this type of direct comparison looks really helpful. If you’re planning a small to medium sized smart mirror, pick the best option that fits your budget. If you’re planning on building a large smart mirror, use glass. The larger your smart mirror, the more acrylic sheets will distort the reflected image. So adding film to glass was a way I could get a good looking mirror at a reasonable cost (around $200).īottom line: acrylic will be cheaper than glass, but acrylic only looks good on small to medium sized smart mirrors. Getting a proper two-way mirror manufactured would have cost me over $1,000. Acrylic would have produced too much distortion and would have looked terrible. It’s much cheaper to buy regular glass and add film to it, but the results won’t be as good as a proper two-way mirror.Īdding film to glass is the approach I used for my large bathroom mirror.
The other option is to buy a regular pane of glass, then stick two-way film onto the glass. These two-way mirrors are incredibly expensive, but give the best possible quality for your smart mirror. This is when the glass is manufactured with the reflective two-way film. The most expensive option is to buy a pane of two-way glass. There are also two different options for glass. As I cover in my article on the costs of building a smart mirror, there can be a massive difference in cost between a glass smart mirror and an acrylic smart mirror.
The amount of money you want to spend on your smart mirror might tell you which material to use. Let’s look closer at the different options you have so you can make the right choice for your smart mirror. The right option for you depends on your budget, the size of the smart mirror you want to build, and the style of your mirror. Acrylic can flex and slightly distort the reflected image, which may be unnoticeable on small smart mirrors, but a disaster on large bathroom-sized mirrors. Glass is more expensive than acrylic, but can give better results. You have two options with your smart mirror: glass or acrylic. Different styles and types of smart mirrors require different materials and some materials are more expensive than others. If you’re planning on building your own smart mirror, the material you use plays an important part in how your smart mirror looks.