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Lighting with wall mount medicine cabinets

8 years ago

I'm wanting to remove my bathroom mirrors and replace with wall mounted medicine cabinets. I'm not finding anything decent looking that has attached lights or even a matching/coordinating light bar. The vanity lights seem like they would "sit behind" the top of the cabinet. Any suggestions????? Thanks

Featured Answer

enduring

8 years ago

here is my cabinet. I had the cabinet maker make the walnut box. I happened to have a Robern 40" tall mirrored door that I got for free 24 years ago and was just collecting dust. My side sconces are supposed are 120watt halogen each. Barely bright enough.

well I would love to post a picture but the site wont post it when I tried.

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Comments (7)

chisue
8 years ago
My medicine cabinets are recessed into the wall with mirrors flush to the wall. I have a pair of sconces on each side of mine. The bulbs are 5'5" above the floor.
nowwhat_2007
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you. Mine won't be recessed, so afraid they will extend about the same distance from the wall as the lights and be blocked by the cabinet.
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4" deep medicine cabinet, surface mount 20" x 26" Kohler...looks like it would cause a "shadow" from the vanity lights..because they don't extend out far enough past the medicine cabinet top. There's not a lot of wall space to work with, because it's a basement bathroom with a drop ceiling. I'm hoping somebody has already encountered this situation in the past, and has some solution ideas! We could just stick with a mirror instead of a medicine cabinet, but that tiny bathroom seriously lacks storage space, so it would be really helpful. Thinking it might be good to build some sort of extension "box" to mount the vanity lights on, possibly 4" deep, to make up for the medicine cabinet width?
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I see that you will have 2236 lumens with that fixture. It might not be enough. I have 2 fixtures at about 1600 lumens each (3200 total) and it is a little dull. I think it may be due to the thick-ish frosted shade. I have another bathroom with 2250 lumens and it seems to be better lighting. Different fixtures though, and both of mine are halogen. But Lumens are lumens I believe. If you are in doubt would you be able to use 2 fixtures and put them on either side of the cabinet? You could put it on a dimmer too. I really think your vanity/sink is a cute setup.
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I went to a lighting store with the same question. In our case, we put a short, compact 100 watt single bulb fixture in the ceiling about about 3-6 inches in front of the medicine cabinet. It doesn't get in the way of the door opening. I read somewhere that the best lighting for a mirror is with light placement at mid level of mirror. So, you could use fixtures that stick out and have one of each side. This light placement doesn't give you the shadows on the face that overhead light placement produces. All three of our medicine cabinets have overhead lighting and the shadow doesn't bother me. In another bathroom, the carpenter built a wood frame around the medicine cabinet that includes a place on top to mount the light fixture from the wall.
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I forgot to spec a recessed cabinet for the guest bath. I will put one of those surface mounted cabs from RH or similar in there. So now, I am looking for a light fixture that extends beyond the trim on top of the cab (5-6"). (No room for fixtures on the sides, unfortunately.) I don't want something overly stylized because the faucets are very plain. And I know I can get something from RH or a custom-depth fixture made by Rejuvenation, but I would rather pay less than 175 if I can. Any clever ideas? Thx!
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enduring
8 years ago

there it goes. Here is a sideways shot of the whole medicine cabinet: darn it wont take the picture again ;/
nowwhat_2007 thanked enduring
enduring
8 years ago

It posted! and it posted right side up! Since Houzz has had GW, My pictures only post right side up if they are in horizontal format, so I am shocked this vertical format posted upright like it is supposed to :)
nowwhat_2007 thanked enduring
neonweb US 5b
8 years ago
We have a surface mounted cabinet on top of it we put a 2x4 that the light is attached to. We then used trim to cover what the light didnt. Really, its up high enough that i dont think anyone even sees the trim work.
nowwhat_2007 thanked neonweb US 5b
chisue
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
The lighting from sconces is better than lighting from above. Look for sconces that protrude from the wall as far as the cabinet does, or mount the lights on something to bring them forward.
nowwhat_2007 thanked chisue

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