Looking for ideas for a large medicine cabinet

[Matt Meiser]

I'm in the middle of a master bath remodel and have just finished up the cabinets (vanity and huge linen cabinet.) Now it is time to turn my attention to some sort of mirror/medicine cabinet. The cabinetry is all red oak with "shaker style" doors/drawer fronts, but I'm looking for any/all ideas I can use in designing mine. A few options we've talked about:

• Large mirror with a simple frame. No medicine cabinet. LOML will go with this IF I make a separate medice cabinet to hang on the side wall next to the vanity.
• A plain medicine cabinet with three mirrored doors (like all the BORGs sell.) I'm not crazy about them but could live with it.
• Some kind of cabinet mirror combo. We've seen a couple where there is a cabinet on either side of a fixed mirror. The ones LOML liked the most had mirrored doors too which I did NOT like. Some have built in lighting (small recessed lights pointing down above the mirror) which I would be happy with.

Since I'm building it, I figure we can come up with something a little nicer, but I'm drawing a blank in coming up with a basic design. So what have YOU built?

[Dave Richards]

Matt, some years ago, before had more than a chop saw and a router, I built a mirror for one of our bathrooms. It's all red oak. The frame on the sides and top is a piece of molding typically sold to go around interior doors--usually with those rosettes at the top corners and maybe 3 1/2 or 4 inches wide. The bottom part of the frame consists of a piece of 1x4 oak laying horizontally and below that a bit of a smaller crown molding. It sort of looks like a window frame with a deep sill (stool) I inverted the crown molding so it would be at a steeper angle and cut very short returns.

It doesn't give you a storage cabinet but it was a quick, weekend project. If you're interested I could either take a photo of it or do a SketchUp drawing.

Dave

[Robert Schaubhut]

Hi Matt, Can you recess the cabinet that you will build back into the wall between studs?

Dave, I like pictures, I wanna see!
Shaz

[Matt Meiser]

No, the main stack runs in the wall right behind the sink.

And I'd like to see the pictures too Dave!

[Dave Richards]

Alright guys. You asked for it. Don't blame me if your eyes shrivel up in your head and fall out on your shoes.



I could possibly be coerced into making some sort of plan in SketchUp for this mirror if someone wants it. It really isn't a difficult thing to make up as you go along. After all, I did.

[Robert Schaubhut]

Alright guys. You asked for it. Don't blame me if your eyes shrivel up in your head and fall out on your shoes.



I could possibly be coerced into making some sort of plan in SketchUp for this mirror if someone wants it. It really isn't a difficult thing to make up as you go along. After all, I did.

Nice solution for Matt too if we can make the mirror frame into a door hung on the medicine cabinet box and still have the sill and apron below/fixed?

Shrivel up in your head and fall out on your shoes!Didn't happen!!!!!Ha Ha

[Art Mulder]

I'm in the middle of a master bath remodel and have just finished up the cabinets (vanity and huge linen cabinet.) Now it is time to turn my attention to some sort of mirror/medicine cabinet.
...
So what have YOU built?

What have I built?

Well, about 12 years ago I gutted the small bathroom in our then house.
Here are before/during/after shots. Not the best pictures, but not much room to backup in a tiny bathroom like that.


Then about 4-5 years ago we did a partial gut on our master ensuite, mostly to put in a pocket door to save space, and to put in a big 48x32" cultured marble shower. Before/after:


In neither room did I put a medicine cabinet. My preference, being 6'3" is to put in the biggest mirror that will fit. I hate having to bend to look in a mirror! A mirror makes a small room look bigger. No wooden frame, just a plain glass mirror.

Matt, I've seen your plan over on SMC. You've got a very large vanity going in, and those linen cabinets also. You don't really need that much of a medicine cabinet, do you? Why don't you just put in a mirror, and then on the right-hand stub wall you can put in a small medicine cabinet. You could even recess it into the stud space. Heck, if you wanted a deeper/bigger cabinet, you could even cut a hole into the wall completely and steal some space from the big linen cabinet you are putting on the other side of that stub wall.

[Matt Meiser]

Matt, I've seen your plan over on SMC. You've got a very large vanity going in, and those linen cabinets also. You don't really need that much of a medicine cabinet, do you?

That's what I thought but I was informed that I was not right.

Why don't you just put in a mirror, and then on the right-hand stub wall you can put in a small medicine cabinet. You could even recess it into the stud space. Heck, if you wanted a deeper/bigger cabinet, you could even cut a hole into the wall completely and steal some space from the big linen cabinet you are putting on the other side of that stub wall.

I never thought about recessing it into that wall. There is wiring in that wall, but I might be able to work around it depending on how it is run. Hmmm.

[Wes Bischel]

Matt,

The cabinet I put together is recessed into the wall - kinda framed it up like a window rough-in and made sure the bottom plate was level to minimize shimming. I ended up reworking two Borg 3 mirror units into one 4 mirror (got both on clearance/damaged for $40 good God I'm cheap!). As you said, not necessarily the look you are going for, but the recessed cabinet has worked out really well - and it looks better IMHO.

Just food for thought.
Wes

PS The wiring in the wall may be a potential bonus either way you go - having a GFCI in the cabinet is helpful for rechargeable things etc.

[Matt Meiser]

Well after discussing with my wife, we decided that a large medicine cabinet wasn't necessary, and maybe no medicine cabinet is necessary. If "we" decide later "we" "need" a medicine cabinet I'll build one for the side wall.

So I whipped up this ultra-simple mirror tonight. The design matches the cabinet doors exactly, except there is a mirror where the flat panels would be on a door. Joinery for the corners is just a single pocket screw and glue, but the 1/4" baltic birch back is installed in a rabbet in the back and screwed to the frame every 6" so that is where the real strength comes from.