Monday, October 12, 2009

The Project

I know with absolute certainty that I took ‘before’ and ‘during’ photos of this project. However, they are nowhere to be found, and judging by a few of the surprise photos I found on my camera, I think they were most likely deleted by a certain young man.

**Edit:  I found the pictures; they were on a different computer.

Our master bath was very like this:

mirrorbefore2source

Double sinks with a big plate mirror above. Our vanity does not have drawers like this one, and there was no real convenient place to keep all the stuff we use every day. All the contact lens paraphernalia, toothbrushes and paste, face wash and lotions, etc. were constantly spread out all over the counter.

It was a hot mess.

On our first walk-thru, I had them replace several of the kitchen cabinet doors, but I kept the old ones. The cabinetry is the same all over the house, and I thought they might come in handy one day.

And so they did! Some time ago I got the idea to make medicine cabinets using two of the cabinet doors. While my dad was here, he and Craig got to work and executed my plan.

First, they built two boxes with shelves out of 1x4 boards. medcab

The cabinet doors were attached with hinges.

IMG_4201

After some trial and error with stain, and unsatisfactory results, Dad suggested color-matching paint to the cabinet doors, and just painting the box. It worked out very well, and you really wouldn’t even notice the difference if I didn’t tell you.IMG_4203

We had some mirror cut, first at Lowe’s, then at a glass shop. Take my advice if you need a precise cut, and just start with the glass shop. The mirror was glued into the inset of the cabinet.

My vanity area went from this (the hinged box was intended to keep stuff in, but it wasn’t convenient or big enough):bathroomb4

To this:

IMG_4198

I love it! It’s easy to keep everything put away, and my vanity actually looks tidy! It’s just as I envisioned it.

IMG_4200

Fabulous job, guys! Thanks!

Look at A Soft Place to Land for more DIY projects.

16 comments:

Melissa said...

Holly~ I love that it's beautiful and functional! They don't look that hard to make either...thanks for the steps!

Charlene said...

So resourceful! Good job :)

Now I know why I like your blog so much - we're a lot a like! The inside of your medicine cabinet looks a lot like the inside of MY medicine cabinet...the Neutrogena, the Biore, the Seabreeze ;) Even the Equate nail polish remover!

Anna said...

they did a great job! The only thing I miss about my bathroom at my old house (it was teeny tiny) was that it had mirrors with cabinets behind like that. It was great for hiding things! Now I have a big bathroom but too much stuff out on the counter.

marmielu said...

They look great! How smart of you to keep those castoffs. I like the two medicine cabinets, as there is never enough storage in shared bathrooms with just one.
Congrats!
Mary Lou

Lucy Marie said...

It looks awesome. What a great thought to hang on to the old cupboards.

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

They look great, Holly! :) Isn't it awesome to have a handy hubby (and dad?)? :) I love having storage in the bathroom!

Kim said...

I have one of those huge mirrors that doubles as my medicine cabinet, which means I have to slide the darn heavy thing every time I need something and when hubs uses his side he never remembers to shut his so......oops, I'm totally rambling. Sorry. Thanks for the idea, me going to use it! ~~KIM~~

Jocelyn said...

Wow we need to do this in our master bath. Yours turned out so much more functional. Love how it looks.

Jocelyn
http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

Tricia said...

Hi Holly.
The new medicine cabinets look fantastic! It is nice to have those extra hands around. ;)

XO*Tricia

P.S. Doesn't it just make you nutty when those pics disappear? Ugh!

Miss Mustard Seed said...

Those are some great medicine cabinets. I would love the have large medicine cabinets to hide all of the junk that accumulates in a bathroom.

Katherine @ Grass Stains said...

I'm not a fan of the big sheet mirrors, either. I love what you did with yours! Congrats on a great project, completed!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'd LOVE to do this! How difficult was it to get that sheet mirror down? That's what's holding me back. I figured it would demolish the wall.

Mandy said...

Looks really nice! Great job :)

Holly said...

To answer Anonymous: our house is only 18 months old, and the mirror was not attached to the wall at all. It just had 4 bracket things holding it up, so it was no problem to get it down. My dad's house, on the other hand, is about 30 yrs old, and his mirror is heavily glued to the wall and there's no way he could get it down without destroying the drywall.

Summer said...

Thanks for visiting my blog! Seriously, what a great idea and it looks great!

Sierra said...

Wow, great idea and looks awesome! We have the same prob with the ugly cluttered countertop...but we live in a tiny one bedroom apartment...so I'll have to try this when we move out in May! :)
-Sierra
http://creativekdesigns.blogspot.com