Bathroom mirrors or medicine cabinets?

[dr.girlfriend]

If you were designing your own 2-sink bathroom, would you do simple mirrors and try to have storage elsewhere, or medicine cabinets?  It seems like medicine cabinets are not very popular anymore, at least in the picture-perfect bathrooms on websites, but do people just keep everything in the vanity?  We don't have *that* much stuff, but I feel like more storage is always better.

[k3am]

I recently moved from a small bathroom with minimal storage and a medicine cabinet to a HUGE bathroom with tons of cabinet storage and... I miss my medicine cabinet. I’m trying to figure out a way to work them into the design for when we finally renovate (very far in the future).

[Mrs.flang]

We gained a ton of storage in our new bathroom design so we skipped the medicine cabinet in favor of a cleaner look. I haven’t moved all our stuff back in yet, but I do now think it may be challenging to organize medicines in an organized way in regular deep cabinets. I do love my fancy mirror though.

[bhnumbers]

I looked at medicine cabinets for our new bathroom and ended up deciding against them. I knew I wanted a mirror that was at least 36" tall and and 24" wide, I also wanted a medicine cabinet with a recessed mount. In shopping for them I found out two things--that size medicine cabinet is crazy expensive; and, in the reviews, I read that since most vanities aren't 24" deep, when you swing it open, you have to back out of the way. it's not a huge deal, but I'm sure I'd end up hitting myself in the nose at some point, lol.

I ended up buying regular mirrors from CB2.

fwiw, I haven't had a medicine cabinet in years, I just keep things in the vanity drawers. I have a few types of drawer organizers that keep everything tidy and accessible. I'm hoping they fit in our new vanities!

[litasail]

We are just wrapping up our master bath remodel and we did mirrors and a center tower for storage. So far I like it but we've also only just started using it.

[ewall]

Now with photo.

[msn06]

I had a medicine cabinet in our old house. I miss it in the new house. My drawers just seem to collect crap (the hairbrush drawer is the worst.

[sandandsea]

We did a mirror behind the vanity and a medicine cabinet on the side.

[sandandsea]

Nov 26, 2018 21:34:01 GMT -5 ewall said:

Now with photo.

I love your tile and dark cabinets!

[Velar Fricative]

We have medicine cabinets in two of our bathrooms but when we built a third we opted against it. I like the simpler look of just a mirror better, but a medicine cabinet would have been overkill in that bathroom anyway since it’s not totally necessary given how it’s primarily used. When it comes time to renovate the other two bathrooms, we could get away with removing it from one but the other one would be tricky, especially if we go with our wish of dividing it into two separate bathrooms which would mean less space for both. Maybe we will opt for a separate wall cabinet above the toilet or wherever else it fits.

[InBetweenDays]

Our architect and builder both steered us away from medicine cabinets behind the mirrors (this was 10 years ago but I think it was because it limited our options for mirrors). So we ended up building one on one side of the vanity.

This is kind of a weird photo but it's pulled from our builder's webpage. We ended up swapping the glass out for something more opaque. I REALLY like having the cabinet.

[mrsukyankee]

We just have a mirror with lights on it. I think what's good about it is that I'm forced to make choices over how much crap I keep - it all has to fit in our cabinet. I also keep things like medications in other areas so that they are accessible even if someone is in the bathroom.

[Violet]

We have medicine cabinets and you can't even tell unless you know. Here's a stock photo of what we have and they sit flush with the drywall.

Kohler Archer

[munkii]

When we did our 1/2 bath over the summer, we tried to repurpose our medicine cabinet because options are extremely limited. It didn't happen, and we ended up with a single mirror. It would have been nice to keep so we would have a place for, you know, our medicine. If you don't have storage besides your vanities, I'd either revisit the design or try to find a medicine cabinet.

[kittycatlove]

Another vote to try to keep the medicine cabinet. I like the one Violet,posted.

[Susie]

We did a pair of Kohler Archer recessed medicine cabinets over the double sinks in our bath reno this spring.

Not our bath, but a stock photo of the cabinets we chose:



Our house and bathroom are modest/compact, and we need all the storage we can get.

ETA:  lol, or I could have just dittoed Violet

[downtoearth]

We have one on the side in our main bathroom and I like it. It's handy, but we also have a lot of built-ins and storage, so I could live without.

I like these ones if it matches with your décor: www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/categories/bath/medicine-cabinets?Mounting=Inset%20Mount

But I also really like the clean look of just mirrors in front of the sinks and a cabinet to the side (or between like someone else had). I think it's just what you like and you don't have to go with the trend of flat mirrors if you want the storage.

[downtoearth]

Oh and I saw one like this in a hotel I stayed in recently and it really was cool and matched the modern décor.

[Ramz-ee]

We don't have medicine cabinets, just mirrors. Although I like the streamlined look, I would really prefer to have a medicine cabinet. We store everything in the linen cabinet. I installed after market pull out drawers. That works well, but I wish I could get the same look with an actual medicine cabinet.

[fryjack2]

litasail I LOVE those mirrors. Can you share where they are from?

[litasail]

Nov 28, 2018 20:12:21 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

litasail I LOVE those mirrors. Can you share where they are from?

Shades of Light! - www.shadesoflight.com/products/refreshingly-rectangular-mirror?color=Black+Matte&via=57e1333369702d78ae0000ab%2C57e137ca69702d78ae000421

[hbomdiggity]

We just did mirrors, but we had adequate storage elsewhere and it was an exterior wall.