Different Ideas for Improving Bathroom Cabinet Space

Cabinets are the most important storage units in any bathroom. At once, they have to be big enough to hold the wide range of items normally found in a bathroom – soaps, cleaners, and cosmetics – but not so big that they dominate what is usually the smallest room in the house.

Rather than installing a completely new cabinet system, adding or modifying a unit can significantly improve your storage space. Recessing a cabinet into your bathroom’s wall, for example, creates room without taking up additional floor space.

Wrapping Drawers Around Sinks

Due to the curve of the sink underneath a bathroom cabinet, storage space is either lost or cluttered. One simple solution to this problem is to build drawers that wrap around the sink and its plumbing. Each drawer has a curved back, cut from 18-gauge sheet metal and fastened to the side and bottom with sheet-metal screws.

A Built-In Cabinet

Recessing a cabinet between studs can provide needed storage without taking up too much precious bathroom space. In most cases, you’ll have to remove one part of one middle stud and reframe the opening.

First, locate the studs in the area and check for wiring or plumbing. Mark the inside edges of the studs you’ll keep. Also, mark top and bottom lines at the height you want the cabinet, adding 3 ½” at the top and 1 ½” at the bottom for the new header and sill. Cut an opening in the wall along these lines. Cut the middle stud squarely and carefully pry it away from the wall covering on the other side. Toenail the header inside the opening and then add a sill.

Build the cabinet from 1×6 lumber, making it ¼” less in height and width than the size of the opening. Nail on a ¼” plywood back. Drill holes for shelf pegs or pins, add doors, and finish. Position the cabinet in the opening and shim it plumb and level; nail it to the framing. Replace any wall covering that was cut away to install the header and sill, attach the trim, and then add the shelves.

Undercover Organizers

To take greater advantage of cabinet space in a bathroom, plan to make use of the doors. A vinyl-coated wire storage rack mounted to the inside of a cabinet door can help you organize soaps, shampoos, and other cosmetics, as well as bathroom cleaning supplies.

Problem-solving Pullouts

There’s no need to grope around in your bathroom cabinets in search of that extra tube of toothpaste or the bubble bath you got last Christmas. With pullouts, bath supplies glide right out for easy access. Available in plastic, wood, and regular or vinyl-coated wire, pullouts can be installed on full-extension drawer slides or on their own special framework.