I've remodeled one bath and have another to go, so I've looked at thousands of bathrooms on Houzz. Frameless recessed medicine cabinets are still popular. The ones that hang on the wall are not. If you want to use sconces, the door swing could interfere.

A 60" double sink vanity is a common size and has the least amount of storage for a double, so I'd definitely use a medicine cabinet if that's the size you need.

If they're out, it's a stupid trend. :p

I have a big mirror over my vanity and a medicine cabinet on the side wall. I mean, how else can you see the sides of your hair when styling?

Some things are fine in a shallow top drawer, but for me, a medicine cabinet will never go out of style.

I love having a medicine cabinet. I do not like putting all that wet stuff in a drawer or just sitting out on a tray. Fancy, non functioning mirrors are for guests in the powder room.

Thanks for the confirmation that at least I'm not nuts for loving my medicine cabinet LOL.

The master bath is particularly ridiculous--for some unfathomable reason the PO decided it was a good idea to put a 27" vanity with NO STORAGE whatsoever (not a drawer to be seen) in a space that is almost 60" wide, with a flat mirror above it and not a single storage spot in the entire room.

Then again, according to the realtor the PO bought it as a vacation property and his wife and teenagers decided pretty quick they didn't like it (direct ocean access in Key Largo, the mind boggles but whatever).

So I'm guessing Mrs. PO probably never used the bathroom; she sure never stored anything in there. I actually bought a $35 wall mounted cheapie wall cabinet at Home Depot and made my husband put it up as soon as we closed, just so I have a place to put my stuff.

We have not had a medicine cabinet in over 20 years. We have a large vanity area with drawers and cabinets for the two of us. We also have a large linen closet in which I keep some extras (like soap, toothpaste, floss, etc.). Flat mirrors (2 - one above each sink). I have drawer organizers in our top drawers and places for things you mentioned. Hair dryer, brushes, etc. in largest drawer. Lotions, bath wash, etc., etc., etc. in my cabinets. Shaving cream, etc. and a caddy of cleaning supplies in hubby's cabinet.

I meant to say, if it's something you like - go for it! Can you still find them?

I find not having them, I don't miss them. I've found other places for band aids, vitamins, and the calamine lotion. ;)

For the first time in my life I have redone a bathroom and I put them in. the horrible hang on the wall kind. the recessed ones I liked were way too much money. I don't know how I ever lived without them and I don't care that they are "out" and I even went with Ikea (I know - horrifying for some :) )

I haven't noticed them in any of our friends' homes lately. As much as I like the looks of the old-fashioned ones, I personally have never wanted them in my houses. Probably because when I was a young single, the ones in my apartments/ rental homes were too small to hold what I thought should go in them. It also creeped me out that most visitors would/will check out what was in them, just out of curiosity's sake. Our previous house didn't have them, and because we had a small kid, I kept my meds on the top shelf of our linen closet. Everything else was either kept on the counters (toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc., or in clear plastic shoe boxes under the sinks. When we designed this house, I had tall wood cabinets built in our main bathrooms to hold anything that would go in a medicine cabinet, plus towels, sheets, toiletries, etc. The meds, sunscreens, Band-Aids, etc. are still housed in clear plastic shoe boxes on the top shelves, though, and the towels and sheets down on the lower shelves. Doesn't Restoration Hardware carry medicine cabs?

Our bathroom has storage similar to that described by Tinam61. I don't remember the last time I had a medicine cabinet.

I wanted recessed ones in our bathrooms at our last house. The GC said no way to do it for the master because it was an exterior wall (old house, tiny bathroom, no way to recess it). The hall bathroom he also said no, because he would have had to completely reframe that wall (I'm sure he would have done it if I had said how much money to get it done, but it wasn't in the project budget). Both vanities had a ton of drawer space and I didn't really miss the medicine cabinets.

New house--brand new actually. No medicine cabinets. Again the vanities have a fair bit of drawer space so it's not a problem.

It's not like the medicine cabinets are ventilated or something that makes them better for toothbrush storage.

Some vanities have the top drawer below a 6" panel and that's a pain to have to reach down to for your toothpaste.

If you don't have a recessed medicine cabinet, how do you dispose of razor blades?

I bet the new ones lack that feature....

I have two medicine cabinets, one over each sink, with mirrors on the inside of the door (as well as outside). The one on the right opens to the right, the one on the left opens to the left. Great for seeing the back of one's head.

I am putting a medicine cabinet in one bathroom, but it is flush in the wall with an MDF door and it will be painted and papered to match the wall, and it is off to the side not over the sink. I don't keep prescriptions or analgesics in the bathroom anyway, because it affects their shelf life.

The smaller bathroom does not have room for a medicine cabinet but the vanity has shallow drawers in its place.

Over the vanities I prefer wall to wall ceiling to backsplash mirror. Also dated.

I think there is one big reason why you see them less and it is the same reason you do not see recessed toilet tissue holders much anymore either. You have to think about these things during the framing. You can't decide at the end where it all goes. Many things that have to be planned for in advance are dropped, and then they become dated.

We are using inset medicine cabinets over each sink in the master for the extra storage. We have two 48" single sink vanities. These are the ones we are using from RH:

Because they are inset, they will look just like nice mirror.

Like the English Arts & Crafts aesthetic that inspired it, our medicine cabinet displays elegant simplicity and craftsmanship, with a restrained wood-molding frame wrapped in brass. A hand-antiqued finish reflects the original's vintage patina.

SHOW DETAILS +

DIMENSIONS

• Small Wall-Mount Overall: 19"W x 7¼"D x 27"H
• Small Inset Overall: 19"W x 7¼"D x 27"H
• Small Inset Recessed Box: 15¼"W x 3¾"D x 23¼"H
• Large Wall-Mount Overall: 25½"W x 7¼"D x 35½"H
• Large Inset Overall: 25½"W x 7¼"D x 35½"H
• Large Inset Recessed Box: 21¾"W x 3¾"D x 31¾"H

VIEWS

Ours will be the large wrapped in aged nickel, rather than brass in the description.

This is where they have been framed out. We had to fur out the wall to get the depth needed, but the bonus is that it made my window seat deeper.

Suero: How clever! I have the same arrangement, but no inside mirrors. I just use a hand mirror for seeing back of head. I love my cabinets.

Fori: I dispose of razor blades by putting inside a piece of duct tape and then into the trash. No worry about anyone getting cut. I only use disposable blades for craft or home projects. Do people still use disposable blades to shave (rather than disposable razors)?

Lynn: Just curious: What is to keep visitors from looking in your tall cabinet?

I saw a fun idea of a painting mounted to the front of a medicine cabinet. No one would know. I remember grammas old medicine cabinet with the aspirin and bandaids and antiseptic for scrapes. That was it. I remember it squeaked when it opened and we used to hide gum there and also small tins of mints on the narrow glass shelves.

I have a custom medicine cabinet that matches the vanity hanging between the two sinks flanked by mirrors over the sinks. Our hall bath is really small and I put in a recessed cab with mirror over the sink when we remodeled.

When we remodeled the master bath in our main house, we put in 2 recessed medicine chests above each sink. They are by Kohler and are totally mirrored inside. It just looks like 2 mirrors on the wall.

When we remodeled our beach house, both bathrooms have a full wall to wall mirror above the vanity and a medicine chest on 1 side. My contractor told me that 'everyone' removes the medicine chest, removes the wall to wall and puts stand alone mirrors above each sink. We weren't everyone!

I was kidding about the razor blades disposal. I don't know of anyone who uses them for shaving, although they are certainly useful to have around.

I just enjoy the concept of dropping used blades into the wall cavity although I never have...

Have them in both bathrooms. Also have side lights ... no door interference.

Btw, meds should not be kept in the bathroom. Humidity is not their friend.

We don't have any medicine cabinets any more since we moved a couple years ago. I never had a very spacious one so I don't really miss having one. We have good drawer and tall cabinet storage now so that actually works better for me. I do like to have some things easily visible at eye level and we have that option so I'm okay with no medicine cabinet.

lizbeth-gardener: to answer your question as to how do I then keep visitors from just perusing our tall bathroom cabinets, well we now have a powder room, where no meds or things like that are kept. It has neither a tall cab or medicine cab. Most of our visitors use that one. The bathroom for stay-over guests does have a tall cab, but I only keep meds and things (Band-Aids, Tylenol, Tums) that they might need in there. I have a specially marked box that I make sure to point out to them when they arrive. Our en suite bathroom is where the main meds, etc. are kept, and is used by only us. Yes, guests can look through my cabinets in the other two bathrooms but they'll only find stacks of folded towels and sheets, extra soap, and that "guest meds box".

We have a wall mount medicine cabinet and will be replacing it with another wall mount that has LED lighting in the glass. Having the mirror 4-5 inches closer helps these eyes!

We store bandaids, sunscreens, teeth related articles, creams, deodorant, etc...in it. Meds are in a kitchen cabinet near the drinking water.

Frankly, we need all the storage we can get. We only have the one bathroom 5 x 10. Will only have two small drawers in the new vanity. Will have pull out baskets in the door areas.

Our master bath has the full ceiling to sink mirror plus medicine cabinets on both the adjacent walls. It's the original bathroom from 20 years ago that does need to be updated. However, I *need* the side mirrored medicine cabinet to be able to style the back of my hair!

My kids' bathroom just has the single mirror above the sink. My girls hate not having the full mirror to see themselves so they always use my bathroom, both to check out their outfits and style their hair! When we redo their bathroom, I'm adding a large mirror like we have in ours.

Mojomom, above, showed her lovely medicine cabinets from RH. I have a different one from RH, which I love, love, love. It is fully mirrored, inside and out, lights up upon opening, has adjustable glass shelves, and an outlet. I keep my electric toothbrush plugged in there, and it is so handy directly above the sink.

Oh, I have seen those Indigo, and they are great! I actually found one of mine at a RH outlet for 33% of regular price (missing one shelf, but that's an easy fix), but had to pay full price for the other. Did do the RH membership for that and ordered a few more things at the same time and probably a few more within the next six months so the membership deal is a savings for us.

What a great, practical and beautiful solution, Annie! I love it!

Gorgeous vanity, Annie!

In our house, we

-put a vintage medicine cabinet on the opposite wall from the mirror in a tiny powder room that doesn't have much storage. it looks very outdated I suppose yet by now I just heard on how cute it is lol (it's oak plus blue stained glass frame..I like that it reflects in the other mirror, and reflects the mirror itself too

-didn't put any medicine cabinet in the master as we have a roomy vanity there

-put a long wall medicine cabinet, the longest I could find, in a niche between studs in the very standard size, not blessed with storage guest/kids bathroom, and painted it a wall color(it has no mirror..the doors are paint grade wood). that was the best thing I could do for that bath(the only one we didn't fully gut)-increased storage dramatically

my moral: don't care whether it's outdated or not. care only about specific bathroom-do I need it there? if yes-what's the best way to make it work, in terms of function and stylistically?

so I treat every space differently. the only common thing-they all have medicines..LOL. I disperse these thoughout the house..have some in the kitchen, some in the master..could have opened a pharmacy, really

That makes perfect sense April. And meds in a tightly closed container within a drawer/closet/medicine cabinet, etc. should not be affected by humidity.

Yep, I would say they are pretty OUT. We have purchased three homes since 1990 and only the one built post WWII had one. Flat mirrors were in the other two. Homes I have visited in the last 40 years also do not have recessed medicine cabinets. I have often wondered why, where did they go and am I the ONLY person who misses them? When my MIL built a home in '99 she had non recessed mirror/medicine cabinet combos hung. I was TOTALLY confused. Why wouldn't you just RECESS it?? The answer was money and it wasn't done like that anymore. Who decided this contractors or architects? Did it evolve due to design or cost saving measures? Who knows but when you want them and are told "they are extra" you know it is because it is non-standard or OUT. I think they would be handy and can definitely see why once you are used to them they would be missed, but evidently plenty of people are not willing to PAY to have them put in. I can say with all the drawers in modern vanities there is plenty of room for STUFF. Each of my offspring had their own drawer. Much more private and less germ swapping that way--seems to me. From the responses you got perhaps they are on their way back? Lets hope so. Just more proof not EVERYTHING modern is a great idea in the end.

I think one reason that you don't often see recessed medicine cabinets more often is the cost. Ours were relatively expensive to start with but that was only the start. Ours are on an outside wall so we also had to fur out the wall to get them to fit and still have plenty of insulation behind them. On an interior wall, you would also need a 6" wall rather than standard. If you are building a custom home for yourself, you may justify the cost if you want them , but spec or semi custom builders don't add them because of the additional costs. I think you don't see them that often is because most newer homes on the market are spec, semi custom or builder grade. Honestly, very few, if any, people won't not buy a home because there are no medicine cabinets so there is no incentive for builders to include them. Just my 2 cents on why you don't see them often.

Edited to add: other solutions like Annie's are great too, but again you don't see those often in builder homes either because of the costs. The masses stop at "oh, double sinks!"

We remodeled and put in 2 wall mount large medicine cabinets. Love them. Works really well for us, we don’t care if they are out of style.

Adding a master bath to our home now and for me medicine cabinets are a must. We have a large recessed medicine cabinet on order that opens on each side - his & hers. Looking forward to having a place to hold my toothbrush, tweezers, vitamins, etc. without having to move hubby's things around to get to them. Also, do not want personal things in view.

The biggest reason they went out is because they look tacky. We are ripping out our bathroom and my husband is dying saying he needs his. I can find other places for my things. Thinking of just doing a wood paneled door for his and not doing mine.... but that may look weird not matching??

"they look tacky"? Why?

I just bought a new house and neither bathroom came with a medicine cabinet. I didn't even notice until I went to put away my Nyquil, bandaids and aspirin! I said WTF is this sh___??!! No linen closet either! The builder's just cheap, that's all. My builder didn't even want to put in a garage door! Pretty soon homes will only come with frames!

I had to turn to cloth cubes on our open shelving for the privacy of such items...PITB FOR SURE.

We too haven't had medicine cabinets in our homes over the years, but sure did miss them. When we remodeled, it was only an afterthought in our guest bathroom and we used one like this Mirrored MedCabinet and although it's pretty plain, with a nice vanity and lights, it looked great and was so so useful and stored so much I am thinking I will do this in our current house as well.

Some trends are dumb. Not having a medicine cabinet is one of them. Getting rid of something so necessary and useful merely reminds me of The Emperor's New Clothes.

I don't think you must have a medicine cabinet if you have plenty of drawers and lower cabinets. that works just fine for us.

that said, if I had a smaller vanity, I'd totally install a tri-view cabinet. I had one growing up and loved how I could see the back of my head for easier styling. maybe not as cute as trendier medicine cabinets, but really useful.

Not dumb if you have plenty of other storage options in the bath, and most current designs do. I don't miss having a medicine cabinet. I have a bathroom closet that easily holds plenty of items.

Some trends are dumb. Not having a medicine cabinet is one of them. Getting rid of something so necessary and useful merely reminds me of The Emperor's New Clothes.

I'm not sure its a trend or choice. Both my grandparents' house and my parents' house didn't have medicine cabinets. A medicine cabinet is not necessary in our house. We never even considered one. I'm not sure we have even had one in almost 40 years of marriage! Like Kaya, we have plenty of storage options in our bathrooms.

Here's the one in my bathroom in Cathedral City

It's at the far left in this photo, and the sink I use is on the right. This medicine cabinet is empty - I just never thought to use since, since I use the sink on the right, which is closer to the towel racks, which I consider to be more important. This medicine cabinet has a mirror on the inside of the door.

My medicine cabinet in L.A. is pretty much full, and I would like to replace it with a new one.

When I redid my brother's bathroom, I kept his like-new medicine cabinet and had to make sure that the door swing would clear the wall mirror that I selected for him. There is about 1" clearance:

We just removed the medicine cabinets in the 2 bathrooms, replacing it with inset wood shelf. Hubby made the new shelves and just need to put them up. We have plenty of storage so I won't miss it. The guest bathroom downstairs, OTOH, is tiny, can only accommodate a small vanity. I ordered a new medicine cabinet and should be here this week.

In my childhood home both up and downstairs bathrooms had medicine cabinets above the sinks, including a slot for razorblades, and I still have no idea where they went. To me, that type of cabinet is the real medicine cabinet.

I think it changed because meds aren't supposed to be kept in a bathroom. We have a cabinet over the toilet which holds OTC pain relievers, ointments, bandaids, heating pad, stuff like that. Prescription meds are out of sight and not kept in the bathroom.

I like the old kind.

If you have a cabinet above the toilet (like I do in L.A.), then you should make sure that the toilet lid is always closed (as I do). It is not enough to have the seat down - the lid must also be down, so that nothing can fall into the toilet.

Toilet lids should also be down in any photos, especially real estate photos.

I store OTC medicine in my medicine cabinet, but it has more nail polish than medicine. I also store safety scissors, shaving cream, and anti-antiperspirant there. The cabinet above my toilet has first aid supplies.