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Medicine cabinets provide useful bathroom storage and have to withstand daily use. This guide includes medicine cabinet replacement ideas to help with your medicine cabinet installation project and the key considerations for replacing your medicine cabinet.

Choose the Right Medicine Cabinet for Your Space

The most important thing when you're replacing a medicine cabinet is choosing the right model for your space. Before you get started installing a new medicine cabinet, you have to make sure the one you select fits your space correctly. You also need to confirm that the style, color, functionality and storage of the cabinet you choose fit your space and your character.

Practice Safe, Reliable Installation Strategies

Once you have decided on the ideal medicine cabinet for your space, you're ready for installation. Here are a few key things to consider:

How to Replace a Medicine Cabinet

Installing your medicine cabinet doesn't have to be difficult, but it is essential to understand the process. Let's go through the installation process of a frameless medicine cabinet, such as our bestselling 52nd Street Series.

Here’s how to replace a medicine cabinet, step-by-step:

  1. Review the location and map out where your cabinet will go.
  2. Check for any utilities inside the wall and mark their placement.
  3. Find the studs in the wall using a stud finder for easier installation.
  4. Cut through the drywall to create an opening.
  5. Attach a sturdy piece of wood, also called blocking, between the studs to anchor the cabinet.
  6. Carefully insert the cabinet, verify that it is level and secure it in place.
  7. Finalize the installation by attaching shelves, doors and hardware.

As long as you choose the right cabinet, measure it correctly and practice safe installation strategies, your project should be a success.

Find Your Perfect Solution With WG Wood Products

WG Wood Products has been helping customers update their medicine cabinets since 2002. We can help you enhance your storage space with custom cabinetry sizes and designs. We offer various products and storage solutions to help organize your cabinet space and necessities. Contact WG Wood Products to upgrade your bathroom with custom medicine cabinet designs and maximize every inch of storage.

In the last year or so, home renovations have become a priority for many people, and this trend won't die down anytime soon. In 2020, the home improvement market reached 763 billion USD, a value expected to rise at a CAGR of more than 4% over the coming years. People have found numerous ways to upgrade their space better to fit their lifestyle, and their bathrooms are no exception.

While the brainstorming and design stages can be fun, people also see renovations as a considerable change and worry about making the right decisions for their space. Big projects can leave renovators overwhelmed and unable to find the best options for their new appliances, countertops and other features. They may go back and forth with questions, unable to find the right answers.

When it comes to renovating a bathroom, the question, "Is a medicine cabinet right for this space?" often comes up. Many people are left confused by interior design options that prioritize artistic style over functionality. They ultimately look for an effective place to stash their toiletries and fulfill everyday needs. While medicine cabinets have a long, complicated history of being welcomed and banned over bathroom sinks, there are still many reasons to install one during your next home renovation.

Read on to discover all the benefits of adding custom medicine cabinets to your newly designed space.

recessed medicine cabinet offers storage above the sink

Is a Medicine Cabinet Best for Your Bathroom Design?

Throughout the decades, home styles have changed. While once trendy, minimalist, and open-concept layouts have fallen out of style for 2021. Today, design trends land somewhere between maximalist, rustic, contemporary and multi-functional. The ever-changing interior design movement leaves medicine cabinets in constant limbo. Depending on who you ask, a cabinet over the bathroom sink can make or break the design of your space.

While brainstorming bathroom renovation ideas and considering installing a medicine cabinet, there are a couple of questions to ask yourself:

While medicine cabinets are not everyone's favorite choice, they are a reliable option for a home renovation. Storage space is essential in a bathroom. No one wants to step into a bathroom with nowhere to store their toiletries. Utilize all the space in your bathroom, including the walls.

Small bathrooms with minimal counter space or insufficient cupboards under the sink can benefit from surface mount cabinets. Storage mounted on the wall provides a sophisticated area for organizing toiletries or medications. Meanwhile, recessed medicine cabinets can offer the right amount of storage above the sink without it overwhelming the space.

If your goal is to design a clean, fresh look for your bathroom, chances are a medicine cabinet will help create that signature look. Take a look at the size of your space to determine how a medicine cabinet could benefit you. If there's a possibility that it could overwhelm the space, try looking at alternative storage options. Deciding on a medicine cabinet should be a fun, stress-free check off the list during a home renovation.

Are Medicine Cabinets Out of Style?

Many home designers steer away from medicine cabinets because they automatically think of the generic, dime-a-dozen units found in home improvement stores. However, the question isn't whether or not medicine cabinets are going out of style, but rather have you found the right one for your style?

Many designers debate that over-the-counter medicine cabinets become the focal point of a small bathroom. They run the risk of drawing attention away from the nicer amenities in the bathroom. When you could use the space to feature an artistic mirror, designers feel that medicine cabinets may be practical but not stylish.

The space over the sink has the potential to tie the theme of the entire room together. So, who says you can't have both artistic style and function? Custom medicine cabinets are available in all kinds of sizes, shapes, styles and materials. These aren't your grandmother's medicine cabinets. This type of functional wall storage will always be on-trend when it's in your style!

The Pros and Cons of Having Custom Medicine Cabinets

Pros

Let's look at a couple of pros of having a custom medicine cabinet.

Accessible Storage

The best part about installing a medicine cabinet is the organizational opportunities that become available. No more toothbrushes, combs and miscellaneous toiletries spread over the countertop. Each item has its own place on the shelves inside the medicine cabinet. It's as simple as opening the frame and reaching for what you need.

This storage space is ideal for adults who need to keep razors, scissors and other potentially dangerous objects away from children or older adults who find it difficult to bend down to find something in drawers or under the sink. Accessibility and organization meet a whole new standard when you introduce medicine cabinets to your bathroom renovation.

Personalized Style

Speaking of new standards, you can raise your style standards even higher than before with customizable designs. Choose the best height and weight for your bathroom based on the space of your renovation. Whether you want a wall-mounted or recessed medicine cabinet, custom designs will give you precisely what you need to create the space of your dreams. Not to mention, the cabinet's material and color can perfectly match the other appliances, hardware and overall interior design of the bathroom.

Pick between frames or frameless styles with mirrors, clear glass or solid doors to give the medicine cabinet a sleek, modern look. After the renovation, your space will look trendy, modern, classic or any other style you'd like to create. Anything's possible with customization.

Cons

Let's take a look at two cons of having a custom medicine cabinet.

Bigger Renovation Project

The idea of drilling more holes in your walls or cutting through drywall to fit a recessed cabinet can feel like a daunting task. Many home renovators steer away from changing out their medicine cabinet or installing one at all because of the extra work. However, replacing a medicine cabinet is easier than you may think, and cutting holes in the wall is as simple as finding the right tools.

More significant renovation projects lead to more extensive transformations, and with the proper installation, your bathroom will completely change. Suppose you're concerned about the logistics of installing a medicine cabinet. In that case, there are professionals in your area who can provide the proper tools and assistance you'll need to make this a simple task.

Higher Price

Budgets are essential to make and keep throughout a renovation proceed. It can be not very reassuring to know that something, like the custom medicine cabinet you wanted, is out of the price range. In this situation, it's important to remember that you're paying for quality. While it may be cheaper to pick up a generic storage cabinet at your local home improvement store, nothing will compare to the level of detail you'll find with custom-made medicine cabinets.

Not only are you paying for function, but you're also paying for style. You'll want quality material to be the focal point of your space, especially for a wall piece that could make a statement in your bathroom. Make a budget with customization in mind if a material's quality is essential for your renovation. Remember, cheap cabinets will look cheap, but custom medicine cabinets will make your space look like a million bucks!

how to choose a medicine cabinet

How to Choose a Medicine Cabinet

After weighing the pros and cons of custom cabinets for your bathroom, it's time to consider the right fit and design for your space. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when searching for the best medicine cabinets.

  1. Measure the wall: Where do you want to install your medicine cabinet? How deep do you need the space inside the wall to be? Typically, the cabinet is measured as the same size or narrower if the unit is over a vanity. Determine the height between the lights and the faucet to avoid any issues. The shape of your medicine cabinet could end up being more rectangular or square as a result. Be sure that it's the size and shape you want before you pick anything else.
  2. Choose a style: Explore the colors, materials and features of custom cabinets. Now's your chance to make an artistic statement on your wall to solidify a theme. Go modern with a frameless, dark wood finish or go classic with a framed light wood. Let your inner interior designer run wild!
  3. Custom features: Do interior mirrors and lights seem beneficial to include in your renovated cabinet space? What about more shelving or less shelving? Make sure you're getting the most out of your medicine cabinet by featuring the best it has to offer. By including extra lights and mirrors in the cabinet, you can free up additional counter space that you usually use to hold makeup mirrors or different lighting. The multi-functional medicine cabinet can offer it all.

5 Medicine Cabinet Alternatives to Try

With its innovation and style, it's hard not to love a custom medicine cabinet. However, sometimes the bathroom's space doesn't allow for that kind of renovation. Luckily, there are some alternatives you can use instead of a medicine cabinet. Let's take a look at some of the options:

Single Open Shelf

Some people opt for a simplistic look with a shelf that hovers over their faucet, which creates a simplistic, clean look. Usually, the shelf is the same material at the counter below it, so it looks like a continuation carrying up the wall. It can be narrow or wide and stretches farther than the sink in most cases.

It is a great medicine cabinet alternative if you're installing it in a half bath or don't have extra closet space for the majority of your toiletries. That way, you only have to keep your soap and lotions out without needing to line up everything on this one open shelf. This option is a style choice and will look best if you don't have much to store in the first place.

Built-In Side Shelf

Similarly, this option is the best if you like the open-concept style. It leaves little privacy for the things you want to store but opens a creative way to hold your essentials along with some decorations to heighten the bathroom's look. The top shelf could house beautiful pottery, the middle will be for your toiletries, and the bottom will be for neatly rolled face and hand towels.

This option gives you a little more art with function. The built-in shelf gives you access to everything you need near the sink while giving you room above the countertop to add an artistic mirror or extra lighting instead. The built-in is great for renovators who want to go for that open-concept storage look. Alternatively, over-the-toilet cabinets offer similar accommodations for bathroom mirrors and lighting with a bit more privacy.

Sliding Mirror Door

In recent years, this style has taken off in the wake of the modern farmhouse boom. From barnyard doors to smoother designs, having a mirror that slides from one side to another to reveal hidden storage space in the wall gives you the best of both worlds. You gain a recessed medicine cabinet and a beautiful artistic mirror.

With this option, you need to make sure there's enough room for the mirror to slide without hitting a wall or anything hanging nearby. The built-in storage does take a bit of extra work, but if having a specific mirror is necessary for your home renovation, this is the choice for you.

Bar Cart Storage

Maybe wall space isn't the option to utilize in your bathroom, so how do you gain just as much storage space? Other organizational options include the bar cart or a shelf that sits next to the sink area. The rise of the beauty industry also caused many makeup users to purchase carts for their bathrooms to store beauty products in the three shelf spaces separate from their other toiletries.

For the same reason, bar charts can be the best alternative storage option for smaller bathrooms as they make excellent use of vertical space. They come in various colors, styles and some even include rollers, so your essentials can move wherever you need them to go.

Shower Curtain Cubbies

Sometimes it's worth thinking creatively about your space. The shower takes up the majority of space of most bathrooms, so why not utilize it for storage? While some may choose a decorative shower curtain, there are many options to purchase a clear shower curtain with individual baskets for all the bathroom essentials.

You can use it inside or outside the shower to hold things like bottles, brushes, towels, loofahs and more. If you're someone who likes to take advantage of any space, shower curtain cubbies may be the most beneficial option for you. If the medicine cabinet isn't going to work in your space, don't be discouraged. There are plenty of other organizational storage options out there to try in your bathroom.

request a quote for custom medicine cabinets

Let WG Wood Products Help You Find the Perfect Custom Medicine Cabinets

Find quality medicine cabinets with WG Wood Products and transform your bathroom with unlimited storage and design opportunities. You can design the style, measurements, frame, and features on solid wood cabinets with free customization options. Our unique wall-mounted and recessed cabinets cannot be found anywhere else, which offers you a one-of-a-kind design for your home renovation. Plus, we make all our cabinets in the USA and ship free around the country.

Contact us by phone or email or request a quote to start designing your custom medicine cabinets today. Let us help your home renovation dreams become a reality.

We use the best materials we can find to build our custom cabinets.  We start with select solid radiata pine for all of our cabinet boxes, and solid maple for our cabinet doors.  We use industry leading Blum concealed hinges with soft close built in on every product which has a door.   We use our own custom designed shelf supports to ensure that glass or acrylic shelves don't rock or fall off.  When we design a new product, we look at every detail in terms of production, packaging, installation and going right down to anticipating how the customer will use it.  Many of our designs have not had any changes to them since they were introduced 15 years ago.  That's because they were designed right the first time around.

A recessed toilet paper holder is a great way to tidy up the bathroom and add a touch of sleek decor to the room. They stay out of the way, but still hold the tissue securely in a convenient location. However, the idea that they go into the wall instead of on it causes some homeowners to shy away. In reality, they are easy to install and a superior option so long as you choose wisely.

 

Why Choose A Wood Recessed Toilet Paper Holder

 

Many homeowners feel compelled to stick with metal and worry about how wood holds up over time. Unfortunately, metal often takes a beating in a bathroom and is really not suitable in these rooms. Because the bathroom is full of humid air, the metal deteriorates and rusts quickly and may even begin to lose its finish. Wood makes a far better option because it is more efficient at resisting moisture. The trick is to make certain the unit is sealed and painted properly.

 

Sizing Difficulties With Toilet Paper Units

 

Many of the old holders in American homes today are made of a thin metal that fits into a smaller space. Wood, on the other hand, is far thicker. This makes it appear as if it is impossible that the two are interchangeable. The reality is that you have two options: either you can make the space wider to accommodate the larger recessed toilet paper holder, or you can purchase a wood unit made from thinner stalk to make sure it fits.

 

To find out which option is best and to replace the unit, remove the old one from the wall first. There, you can see how it is secured to the wall and how much space you have to work with between the studs. If you do not have enough excess space to make the hole larger, a model constructed of thinner wood makes the best choice. However, if you have a choice, you\'ll find the larger units will produce much better results.

 

Finishes For Toilet Paper Holders

 

You want your recessed toilet paper holder to fit in with the room\'s decor just like any other piece for a perfect look. To ensure you find the perfect one, consider contacting a specialty supplier who will have far more options than a typical store.

 

You will be able to find a full range of finished and unfinished models. This makes them extremely versatile; they come in a wide variety of stains, paint of any kind, spackle coating, or even marbling. If you would like to have a metal holder, suppliers specializing in storage solutions will offer more than the brass or chrome choices you get in a regular store. Here, you can choose from many decorative metals including satin nickel, black, antique brass, and many more.

 

Selecting and installing a recessed toilet paper holder will help make your bathroom look complete and bring the entire space together. All you need to do is find the style and finish that will make the room shine.

If you walk into your bathroom and think 'we need better storage' or 'man, is that medicine cabinet ugly,' you're not alone. It often seems that homebuilders don't always consider functionality when designing bathroom storage spaces. If you feel claustrophobic each time you open your medicine cabinet, here are some creative tips for doubling your wall bathroom storage space.

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

 

A medicine cabinet is great as far as wall bathroom storage is concerned. Unfortunately, most of those found in the hardware store today have a mirrored door. What if we already have enough mirrors in our house and don't want to add another one that we'll have to clean? Well, manufacturers have a solution for that. Many now offer a medicine cabinet with a glass or frosted glass door. Others offer medicine cabinet styles with a beautiful hardwood door. These add to the richness of the space and enhance the decor.

 

Pantry Style Wall Bathroom Storage

 

Even in the biggest washrooms, we only have so much room to work with. However, that doesn't mean you have to make due with a little medicine cabinet. Pantry-style wall bathroom storage comes in numerous styles including on-the-wall and recessed to help you put away everything and anything you need. You'll have space for your favorite novels, bath oils and salts, shampoos and conditioners, medications, face cloths, facial scrubs and almost anything else you can think of.

 

Floor Storage Systems

 

When we want to store items such as the toilet brush, plunger, and toilet paper, traditional wall bathroom storage just isn't the place. If you look for styles similar to a kitchen pantry, you'll find solutions that are wide enough to hold everything from the toilet paper to your bathroom cleaning supplies.

 

If you feel a floor storage system will be an obstruction in your already small bathroom, look for styles that are partially recessed into the wall. These look like a regular, narrow cabinet, but still give you the deep storage space you need.

 

Style Infusion

 

If you're ready for something different and refreshing for your bathroom, look at cabinets from manufacturers who have an innovative edge and are not afraid to get creative. You can get marbleized or granite finishes, brass, natural hardwood, and many other finishes.

 

Some have decorative molding or ornate frames that take enhance the richness and warmth of your bathroom. The difference with quantity wood products lies in the details. Though small and ornate, handcrafted elements can add a great deal of style and personality to a room.

 

Let your decorating creativity loose and dare to dream up your own solutions rather than settle for what you find on the store shelves of big-box stores. Manufactures that specialize in custom cabinetry will likely have a host of solutions for creating big storage spaces in little living spaces.[ziss id=4479 lg_cols=3 md_cols=3 md_cols=3 sm_cols=2 xs_cols=2 xxs_cols=2]

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