Looking for ideas for a large medicine cabinet

Matt Meiser

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



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



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. :D

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?

:eek::eek::eek:Shrivel up in your head and fall out on your shoes!:eek::eek::eek::rofl::rofl::rofl:Didn't happen!!!!!:rofl::rofl:Ha Ha
 
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.
bath1.jpgbath2.jpgbath3.jpg

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:
shower1.jpgshower2.jpg

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, 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. :D

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.
 
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:rolleyes: 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.
 
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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.
 

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