Is your medicine cabinet overflowing? Is your bathroom counter so cluttered you can’t even remember the color of the tile? Do you have a leaning tower of toiletries on the back of your toilet?
For better or for worse, most bathrooms in existence today were built when people just had less stuff. Women would have one beloved face cream, rather than one for morning, one for night, and then separate creams for toning, eyes, and lips, not to mention exfoliators, body cremes, a comb for wet hair, a brush for dry hair, and four different kinds of hair products.
The men’s cosmetic industry, with its wrinkle, shaving, hair, and fragrance potions, hadn’t even been invented yet.
All this results in the sad fact that most bathrooms don’t offer enough storage space.
Choosing the right bathroom wall cabinets for your storage needs can simplify your bathroom routine without leading to a cramped, cluttered feel.
Unless you’re a skilled carpenter, you can’t built attractive, sturdy white bathroom wall cabinets on your own, but there are many economical options available to you.
The cheapest options tend to be over-the-toilet wall cabinets that actually rest on legs that straddle the toilet rather than actually being built into the wall. There are advantages and disadvantages to these models. Since they occupy already dead space over the toilet, they don’t contribute to a cramped bathroom feel. As they aren’t permanent, you don’t have to get your landlord’s approval to install them if you rent. They are typically quite inexpensive, starting as low as $30, and going up from there depending on model, materials, and quality. However, they may limit your access to your toilet tank in case of a plumbing emergency, and might have to be moved out of the way. The legs can also make cleaning the floor around your toilet a bit challenging. They are usually quite easy to put together, requiring no special tools or expertise, but if the floor of your bathroom isn’t absolutely level, then the cabinet won’t be either, and could rock. If you live in an earthquake zone, have small children, or a clumsy spouse or roommate, you should anchor them to the wall. Anchoring kits are usually included, as are instructions.
If you don’t like the idea of legs cluttering up the floor around your toilet, and are looking for something a little more stable and permanent, you have a plethora of options when it comes to wall cabinets. The least expensive tend to come from bargain retailers like Walmart, where small wall cabinets can start as low as $40, with all the necessary instruction and tools normally included. The next step up tends to be retailers like Target or Ikea, where you can get more elegant models starting around $50, although Ikea does have one extremely simple wall cabinet for only $15.
From there, at both brick and mortar and online retailers, it’s just a question of how much you want to spend for your cabinets, as long as you’re willing to do the installation yourself. You can spend tens, hundreds, or thousands depending on size, design, and quality of the materials.
The next step up is choosing standard design wall cabinets from a company that offers installation, typically a local or national furniture company. Prices can be marked up quite a bit from the huge national retailers, but delivery is normally free, and even installation is sometimes included. The problem is, you’re usually dealing with an installer whose work you don’t know, so it may be worth the investment of paying your trusted local handyman for a couple of hours of his work, if you know one you like. A bathroom wall cabinet is worthless if it comes crashing down on your floor.
Finally, if you are willing to make the investment in time and money, you can have a carpenter visit your home, evaluate your bathroom, and design bathroom wall medicine cabinets specific to your needs. There is the advantage of getting exactly what you want in terms of size, design, and materials, but it will certainly cost you. You are typically looking at a project that will cost at least several hundreds of dollars, and might even stretch into the thousands, depending on design and materials. This choice is really only for people who want to create a truly luxurious feel for their bathroom with an idea toward the possible resale value of their home.
Whatever your needs are, and whether your budget is $15 or $15,000, you can easily create the extra storage space you need with wall mounted bathroom cabinets.
