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!

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:

• Drill
• Drill bit (for the wood backed mirror)
• Masonry bit (some masonry screw brands sell the bit in the package)
• Masonry screws
• Wood screws (for the mirror)
• Masking tape (to use as a depth gauge)
• Pencil
• Measuring tape
• Heavy duty picture hanging wire and D-rings

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”).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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!

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.