Dilemma: Recessed Medicine Cabinet On Wall Next to Vanity Mirror
Hi guys! We’re in hime stretch of a whole home remodel/renovation. They’ve Demo’d our master bathroom already & contractor wants to replace my existing recessed (built in) white painted wood medicine cabinet with a Kohler mirror version. Problem is it’s located on the side wall right next to the vanity mirror wall. Dilemma is - the mirror door would either have to open toward the mirror or flip it over to open toward me as I stand at vanity. To me, the mirror is useless if I can’t pull it toward me (to where it faces me). But if it opens that way it blocks the access to items in cabinet.
They say the wood can’t just be repainted because it won’t match the finish on the prefab cabinets they’re installing. Should I just have the door removed and have naked shelves? Or just have a mirror that opens toward the vanity mirror?
(I’ll post before demo pics & after as well as the Kohler mirror front med cabinet they want to install.)
Comments (24)
PROSIDLER®
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Recessed or wall-mounted medicine cabinet?
Comments (3)FWIW- I wish I had done recessed medicine cabinets BEFORE the drywall went up. We are having ours installed now after the fact . I prefer the recessed style for two main reasons:1) it's a cleaner more finished look 2) if you will be needing to place lighting above each cabinet it will give you more clearance as well as more room between you the faucet and the cabinet. The only reason I would opt for a wall mounted cabinet is if you couldn't insert a recessed cabinet due to plumbing within the wall. I was going to place a wall mounted medicine cabinet in our guest BR since we couldn't do a recessed version due to pipes running between the wall but when I went to hang the cabinet realized that it projected too far from the wall. We have a very small pedestal sink in that BR and when you would stand at the sink your head would be quite close to the front of the cabinet....See MoreRecessed Medicine Cabinet Mirror Size
Comments (11)I am looking at the same RH cartwright as well. I would definately do the small for a 36" vanity. I'm doing a small for my son's bath and his vanity is 48". Part of it depends on how you will do your lights- scones to the side of the cabinet or fixture above. We are starting framing next week. The joists and subfloor on the first floor are in. FYI, RH will have a bath sale shortly after christmas and I plan to purchase the cabinets then. I'm trying to decide which size to do in the master. We have 2 vanites and each will be about 54-57". The big one sounds enormous, or maybe it feels wrong for that style of cabinet. Any opinions? Here is a link that might be useful: RH cartwright medicine cabinet...See More58" double vanity, split between mirror vs medicine cabinet with mirro
Comments (9)You have to think on the scale of a real-life homeowner, not a designer of high-end homes (unless this is a high-end home!). When things are tight, you look for solutions! If 58" is too tight for two sinks, look at a trench sink - a long skinny sink with a faucet on either end that serves two people. This is the concept, but like so much stuff on Houzz it is marginally useful because whoever posted it just slapped it up without dimensions. In this kind of a get-up, WHERE to center two medicine cabinets becomes the issue, so a single mirror wall does seem to look better. In this example, designer Kelly Gardner does tell us all about her project, which seems only the right thing to do if a designer is getting advertising by posting it here for us to see! She says, " kelley gardner The sink is 34" and the entire width of space is 48". The space between the faucets is roughly 22"Now, doesn't this look like something you could do in your 58" space? Ask your contractor if it is too late for wall-mount faucets (it probably is). Your sink would have 5" more counter on each side. Come to think of it, this may be a shallow counter (maybe they had a space issue) and with a 22" deep counter you may have plenty of room for a faucet. Kelly says that this sink is from Lacava, so if you like this look, review their catalog online, then find a source to buy one. My original bathroom plan was to get a Kohler Brockway sink. Funky, old fashioned and really splash-happy! The Brockway has a backsplash and the whole sink is 18" deep, so in a 22" counter, you can make a little shelf between the backsplash and the wall. The sink has a big round belly that begs to be pulled forward out of the cabinet, and if you do that, you can have a deeper shelf behind the splash. Here are couple of installations.First, this is the smallest Brockway, the 3 ft (36"). It comes in 4ft with two faucets, too. Here, they mounted it against the wall in order to have a bit of counter in front of it, instead of pulling it forward and putting a shelf behind it. Also an excellent choice. This is one of my favorite installations and it also gives you ideas of what you can do with mirrors and cabinets. It is a cottage look, though. This is the "belly exposed" look, where pulling the sink forward gives you room for a shelf behind it. I can't really see a shelf here, but you can see where it would go, where the sink top ends. Just make a shelf behind the sink that fills the space between the sink and the wall. If you have stuff on it, you cannot open the doors of the cabinets here, which is a good reason to leave it off, I suppose! This is the 4 ft model, which is too large for you, giving you only 5" on each side for counter. You should go with the 3 ft, giving you 11" on each side for counter. Wetstyle, from Canada, has many trough sinks. Here are some that sit on top of the counter, just in case the cabinet you ordered cannot take a sunken one.This the the Wetstyle Ove sink in the 48 x 15" size. It is only 4" deep, so you have to be careful to chose a faucet that will not splash the water out. But it gives you rounded corners, lots of space in front or back of it in a 22" deep counter, and you each get 5" on each side to have to set things down. What is even better about this picture is the mirror design. See it? A mirror is inset into the wall cavity, giving you a small ledge to set things on as you are getting ready. It looks like the side mirrors could be small med cabs, if they are not. What a smart design for your small space! Click on the photo to enlarge it and see the details. Click on "More Info" to go to the web page and read what is available about the picture. Here is the Wetstyle Cube collection sink in the same dimension. It is just a rectangular version. Click on "more info" to get a version with the price tags, where you can click on the tag to get a close-up of the sink. Being only 15" front-to-back, there is lots of room for faucets behind it. If you do a shelf in front of a recessed mirror, you may get away with a 4 ft long sink - especially if it gives you space in front or back to set things down. Check out Lacava, Nameeks, and Duravit and you will see many more sinks that sit on top of the counter that are long enough to have two faucets. There may also be some that are "semi-recessed," which means that there is some sink below the counter, too, giving more depth....See MoreRecessed wall storage like a medicine cabinet
Comments (9)Any med cab that is more than 14" wide requires that a carpenter make the studs in the wall "special" like your original house. They simply design the wall supports (studs and headers) to fit around the medicine cabinet. If you look at the triple cabs, you can see that there is no 2" stud between the cabinets. Any wooden cabinet will have a thicker back wall than any metal cabinet, reducing the interior space or forcing the cabinet to protrude further out of the wall to get the same depth. You can chose a cabinet that protrudes out a bit in order to get a deeper, more versatile cabinet, if you do not mind the edge sticking out beyond the wall. I would much rather have that extra depth be usable, not the thickness of a wooden back....See More
PROPatricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
Laura Hill
3 years ago
Valinta
3 years agohermothersdaughter
3 years ago
PRONorwood Architects
3 years ago
RedRyder
3 years ago
cpartist
3 years agostaceyerinc
3 years agocpartist
3 years agoYes we realize you are replacing the large mirror. What we are saying is instead of the large mirror, put two medicine cabinets. One over each sink. And get a vanity with drawers to store stuff too.
Here's my medicine cabinet with my makeup mirror. Obviously my style is different than yours, so your medicine cabinets would be different. Why would you want to repeat something that is basically odd looking and now will also be dysfunctional?
felizlady
3 years ago
Sammie J
3 years ago- PRO
SIDLER®
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago Helen
3 years ago
K R
3 years agolindagregory55
3 years ago
PROBeth H. :
3 years agoremove the side medicine cab and either,
A. drywall over it. or
B. do some inset shelving. I've done the latter on a few remodels
this one wasn't done w/this picture. there was going to be a shelf across the middle and on the bottom. quartz pieces or marble or wood can be used.
this one also wasn't done. drywall was done on the inside, painting, and then the wood was going to be used all along the inside and shelves, leaving only the back panel painted.
lmp1959
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoHelen
3 years ago
decoenthusiaste
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
PROAltair
3 years agopds290
3 years ago
PROBeverlyFLADeziner
3 years agoThe mirrored medicine cabinets, which IMO are required for all bathrooms for drugs and medicines, are designed to open away from you so that when you have your back to the mirror, you can, by adjusting the opening of the cabinet door, see the back & side of your reflection. It's quite handy and I have one on either side of my vanity to do just this.
The mirror is also handy if you need to example something close up on your face.
Flo Mangan