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About This Project
Bathrooms never have enough storage or shelf space. Where do you display knickknacks, let alone store unsightly items like extra toilet paper, blow dryers, curling irons, and cans, soaps and bottles? Once you’ve filled up the vanity, how do you squeeze more storage into a small bathroom?
Three Solutions:
- Upsize existing storage space by replacing that tiny medicine cabinet or mirror with a larger, surface-mounted cabinet.
-
Utilize the space you have by adding glass shelving to the “dead” space over the toilet.
-
Steal space from an adjoining room or closet by insetting kitchen pantry cabinets (or tall utility cabinets) into the wall.
Installing a new medicine cabinet and shelving is easy and fast. Each project takes less than an hour. For these simple projects, you’ll only need a screw gun and a 2-ft. level. We’ll show you a foolproof way to solidly support the cabinets no matter what type of wall you have.
The flush-mounted pantry cabinets are more challenging because you have to cut into the wall and steal space from a neighboring room or closet. But don’t worry. Our step-by-step photos will walk you through the cutting and fitting. You’ll need a drywall saw, a few 8-ft. 2x4s for cribbing and a table and miter saw for trimming out the pantry cabinets. You can install the cabinets in one day, but allow another day for walling in the cabinet backs in the room or closet behind the bathroom.
Buying the Cabinets
You can find a wide variety of medicine cabinets and
shelves at home centers and kitchen and bath specialty stores. When sizing a
medicine cabinet, measure the space you have available behind your sink, both
height and width. Keep a few inches away from existing light fixtures (unless
you want to move them). Buy a cabinet that fits within those
dimensions.
When sizing the larger kitchen pantry cabinet(s) to recess into the wall, look for 7-ft. tall, 15-in. wide cabinets to fit between the wall studs. If they’re not in stock, you’ll need to special-order them. We ordered the medicine cabinet and the pantry cabinets from the same company so the styles would match. Special-ordering also allows you a wider style selection. Expect to pay a minimum of $200 for a bare-bones, 7-ft. tall pantry cabinet or up to $1,500 for an upscale cherry unit with fluted glass doors like we show.
If you plan on storing linens, towels or larger items, you’ll be happiest with 24-in. deep cabinets, but if the closet they project into is less than 24 in. deep, go with the 12-in. units or cut down the 24-in. ones. When you order your pantry cabinets, also order three matching, prefinished 8-ft. long, 1/4-in. x 2-in. mullion strips for trim around the outside (Photo 19). Also order an 8-ft. long, 3/4-in. x 2-in. filler strip to join the cabinets in the center (Photos 16 and 17). If you’re buying unfinished cabinets, get unfinished boards of the same wood type in the millwork area at the store.
Bonus: The larger mirror on the medicine cabinet will make your bathroom feel larger.
Project 1: Bigger Medicine Cabinet
Surface-mounting a large
medicine cabinet is simply a matter of centering it, leveling it and screwing
it to the wall studs.
Your old cabinet may be surface-mounted or recessed into the wall cavity between the framing. Remove a recessed unit simply by opening the door, backing out the screws in the side of the cabinet and pulling it out of the recess. You may need to cut around it with a utility knife if it’s caulked or painted in around the edges. Have a helper support surface-mounted cabinets while you back out the screws, or if you’re alone, screw a temporary 1x2 support ledger under the cabinet as we show in Photo 1 to hold it while you unscrew it from the wall. You may need to move or replace the lighting beside or above the old cabinet. Now’s the time to do it.
Hold the new medicine cabinet against the wall and adjust it up and down until the height is a good compromise for your family members, then mark the bottom and set the cabinet aside. Use the mark to draw a level line for positioning the 1x2 ledger. Then follow the photo series for installation details.
Project 2: Glass Shelves
Most bathrooms have one
space you can count on for additional storage, and that’s over the toilet. Open
glass shelving is a great place to display decorative bathroom bottles or
knick-knacks. There are zillions of glass shelving systems on the market.
Follow the directions that come with the system for the installation details,
but read on for help anchoring them to the wall because you probably won’t have
studs exactly where you need them. We used masking tape to avoid marking the
walls.
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