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why can’t i find a medicine cabinet with wood shelves?

3 years ago

Looking for a very plain white shaker mirrored recessed medicine cabinet with wood shelves. I think the glass shelves look cheap. A standard size seems to be 24”x30”x5” which will probably work. Why do they all have glass shelves? Where should i look?

Featured Answer

remodeling1840

3 years ago

Wood shelves would be unforgiving of liquid spills such as cough medicines and the wet bottoms of mouth wash bottles. You can, of course, make your own shelves and replace the glass.

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Comments (6)

Linda Dornan
3 years ago
We recently did our Master Bath and in the process I did a lot of looking for a medicine cabinet. None had wood shelves. I like the glass shelves, they don’t look cheap at all. I think that wood shelves would be harder to keep clean and they would make the interior of the cabinet darker, unlike glass that wipes clean easily and is bright & light.
southeasthouse
3 years ago
Because thin wood would not be very sturdy and would bend under weight. And thick wood - like most wood shelves are made - would be bulky and take up a lot of room in a tight space.

If you really want wood shelves, I would suggest having your contractor just build you a recessed cabinet with wood shelves. Then place a white shaker mirror on hinges over it.
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Think of it this way...Gap...Old Navy... and Banana Republic they are all owned by the same company...I would say there are plenty of people who shop at these stores who not aware of this fact, these three different clothing stores sell many of the same type of items and change things like thread count, buttons etc. and they sell to slightly different clientele....think Ford and Lincoln....Toyota to Lexus...or more so Carl's Jr Hamburgers vs Hardee's, it is along this same concept that these cabinet lines are made and 'branded'....I would suspect one other purpose is that it also allows different local cabinet sales companies to sell these cabinets in the same city and have less price matching comparison shopping from clients...the basic manufacturing is the same, the basic approach to building the cabinets are the same...the colors, hardware and maybe some door styles are often changed (or simply sold under different names.) These are all fine manufacturers - and all are made in the US. An affiliated company of our sells several of these lines made by some of the manufacturers mentioned above and the products are all great and the manufacturers back up their products. One of the biggest reasons they do not want their customer service information out there is that they want you to go to their local Sellers to deal with any issues rather than for them to handle customer follow up. All of these brands I would buy with confidence the part to be more mindful of would be which line within the brand to buy. Once you're comfortable with the 'Brand' my advice would be to focus on different features even within the same nameplate - and get educated on features of the various 'lines' - such as stapled drawer fronts vs dovetail, particle board vs plywood boxes, the limitations of paint colors, door styles and sizes, these are the items to watch out for more...I guess this would be kind of like the polo shirt I buy from Banana vs Gap vs Old Navy might wear differently over time depending on actual thread count and type of buttons used etc.
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N Johnson
3 years ago
No one besides you should be opening your medicine cabinet. Also, as a short person, I can easily see what is up above eye level. Glass is not cheap (see Koehler medicine cabinets!)
0
Helen
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I was intrigued by this as I remodeled and had a medicine cabinet made by the custom shop that did all my cabinets - it is a miniature of the bathroom cabinet doors.

I had no idea of what the shelves were made of as I had never focused on them and hadn't specified that detail. They are wood but they are clad in teal formica - I opted for teal blue interiors in all my cabinets and so they are either formica clad for easy clean up - shelves and sink interiors or painted a matching color. The doors are wood and the glass upper cabines match the wood.

They aren't particularly thick but they are certainly strong enough to handle the weight of anything that goes in a medicine cabinet - I don't know what other people put in medicine cabinets but mine holds relatively light weight stuff. I have no problem seeing what is on the top shelf as once objects are on clear glass the shelves are obstructed anyway. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I had glass shelves in my pre-remodel medicine cabinet and both seem fully functional. My new shelves and my old shelves are easily wiped down and perhaps it's me but I've never had anything spill in a medicine cabinet - the main thing to clean was dust that would settle in but the interiors are not any kind of space that needs to be cleaned on a regular basis.

I guess the interior of my current cabinet is more "elegant" but my old medicine cabinet was a 60 year old standard issue and nothing about either the interior or the exterior was anything other than plain Jane functional. 😂
0
Julie K
3 years ago
Our cabinetmaker made the medicine cabinet in our guest bathroom.

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