Installing a Medicine Cabinet

If you're like most Americans, you spend about an hour each day before that altar of good looks: the bathroom medicine cabinet. Unfortunately, the altar's not always up to the job. So if yours is dowdy, dull or just too small to hold all the lotions and potions you've amassed replace it. Surprisingly, it's a relatively quick and easy project. Your hardest job will be choosing a new medicine cabinet from the hundreds of great styles available. Once you've selected one, even if you need to make or expand an opening in the wall and add some framing, this project is a straightforward affair.

Types and Styles
These days, you'll find two basic types of medicine cabinet, surface-mount (easiest to install) and recessed (cleanest looking). Choose hinged- or sliding-door models with as many as three doors. Some manufacturers even provide cabinets that can be linked for maximum storage and mirror area lighting, too. You'll find cabinets with built-in lights, and some with receptacles hidden inside.

A surface-mount cabinet is nearly as easy to hang as a picture: you just attach it to the wall. It can also be as deep as you want, depending on how much you're willing to let it stick out. Recessed cabinets are generally 3 1/2 inches deep, to fit into a cavity framed with 2-by-4s. The area behind them has to be free of pipes and wiring. If a shallow space allows you to recess only part of the cabinet, see if the manufacturer makes a trim kit for trimming out the exposed part. Whichever type you choose, here are key features to look for.

Rust-resistant construction. A cabinet box made from wood, plastic or aluminum is your best choice, since these materials stand up well to the high humidity in a bathroom. If you buy a steel cabinet, look for one with baked-on enamel paint, which resists rust better than a spray-finished cabinet.

Strong hinges. A hinged cabinet door has to support the weight of a heavy mirror. Some manufacturers use full-length piano hinges, others use scissor-style hinges, and still others use European-style cabinet hinges, like the ones found on frameless kitchen cabinets. All of these provide good support. With European hinges, you can reposition the door if it moves out of alignment.

Spring-loaded hinges. On hinged-door cabinets, spring-loaded, self-closing hinges hold doors closed more firmly than do magnetic catches. European hinges usually include this feature, but piano hinges generally do not.

Adjustable shelving. This feature allows you to change the cabinet's configuration to accommodate your changing collection of stuff.

Distortion-free mirrors. In the absence of mirrors that make us all look like our favorite stars, it's best to live with the truth, and a flawed mirror is a daily irritant.

Step by Step
The sequence below covers a recessed installation for a typical single-door cabinet. It's easily adapted to most any cabinet/wall combination. For instance, if you're replacing an old cabinet with a newer, larger model, these instructions will work fine: just remove the old cabinet before you measure and mark for the new one. But if you want to minimize the mess and complexity of the job, make the replacement cabinet the same size as the old one. If you can do that, you probably won't have to modify the rough opening the box sits in.

1. Lay out the opening. For a medicine cabinet above a vanity, the National Kitchen and Bath Association recommends that the bottom edge of the mirror be 40 inches off the floor a good height for most people. Use a tape measure to mark off that height, and then draw a horizontal reference line at that point with a carpenter's pencil and a carpenter's level. Next, measure the width of your vanity, divide it by 2, and then transfer the resulting centerline measurement to the wall. If your medicine cabinet came with a template, tape it to the wall, aligning it with your two reference lines. If you don't have a template, measure the width and height of the back of the cabinet, add 1/2 inch to each measurement (to give you maneuvering room when you put the cabinet in), and then mark these dimensions on the wall.

2. Explore inside the wall. Before you cut out the entire opening, check behind the wall for studs, water lines and wiring. Use a stud finder to check for studs. If you find one within your layout lines, use a utility knife to cut an 8-inch-square access hole that spans the stud, so you can get a better look at what's inside the wall. If you don't find a stud, just cut the access hole at the center of your layout. Then with your hand or a bent wire coat hanger, feel behind the wall for obstructions. If you find wiring and/or pipes, you'll have to surface-mount the cabinet instead of recessing it, or recess it only partway. Measure the depth from the surface to the obstruction(s). If the depth is too shallow for your cabinet, see if the manufacturer makes a trim kit and recess the cabinet partway, or surface-mount it. If the only obstruction is a stud or two, don't worry: you can cut them and build in blocking to support the wall and the cabinet.

3. Cut the opening. If the space behind the wall is clear of everything but studs, use a drywall saw or a reciprocating saw to cut out the entire opening. Cut any obstructing studs off 1 1/2 inches above and below this opening to provide clearance for the blocking you'll install next. Measure and mark the cut lines, use a utility knife to cut away the drywall where it overlaps the studs, and then saw through the studs with a reciprocating saw or short handsaw.

4. Frame the opening. Cut 2-by blocking to fit between the studs, and screw that blocking into place, using 3-inch drywall screws driven at an angle with a drill/driver and Phillips head bit. (If you try to toenail this blocking, you'll have to pound so hard you may crack the wall. Besides, the awkward reach for a hammer makes it better to use the angled screws.)

Tips from the pros: (a) Cut the blocking just a hair large, and friction will hold the wood in place while you drive in the screws. (b) Drill pilot holes at a 45-degree angle for the screws, and they'll go in much easier in fact, start the screws before you position the blocking. (c) Waxing the screw threads also eases their entry.

With the horizontal blocking in place, install cripple studs on each side, as shown, again with 3-inch drywall screws. If you previously cut back the drywall to saw out a stud, cut sections of new drywall to patch the cutout areas. Nail the patch pieces in place with 6d drywall nails. Cover the joints with drywall compound and drywall tape. (For tips on how to repair drywall, you may want to check out The Drywaller's Toolkit and Hanging Drywall.)

5. Install the cabinet. Remove the door(s) and place the cabinet box in the opening. Check that the box is level and plumb in the opening. If it's out of square, shim it with bits of shingles or other scrap. Then screw the cabinet to the cripple studs on each side of the opening. Don't overtighten the screws: you may distort the cabinet box. Reattach the door(s) and, if necessary, adjust for level and fit. Note: Many recessed cabinets have a wide lip that projects over the drywall opening to trim out the wall opening. If the wall surface is uneven, you may have gaps between the edge of the lip and the wall. If so, use a caulking gun and a paintable acrylic caulk to seal all sides of the cabinet. Smooth the bead with your finger, and wipe away any excess.

Now that you know what's involved, if you think you'd like somebody else to handle this job or any part of it check out our Services. Our partners will help you find trustworthy, prescreened professionals in your area.

Kevin Ireland was formerly managing editor at both American Woodworker magazine and Rodale Woodworking and Do-It-Yourself Books. He was raised in a fixer-upper and has rebuilt three homes in the last 16 years.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS
Tape measure
Medicine cabinet
Carpenter's pencil
2-by-4s or 2-by-6s, for framing
Carpenter's level
Drywall screws, 3-inch
Stud finder
Drywall scraps
Utility knife
Drywall nails, 6d
Drywall saw or reciprocating saw
Drywall compound
Short-bladed handsaw
Drywall tape
Drill/driver
Shims
Bit set
Acrylic caulk
Phillips head driver bit
Caulking gun