A Recessed Medicine Cabinet

A recessed cabinet gains four inches of depth and gives up a stud bay to get them. Framing checks run by master bathroom remodeling lakewood ca osmhi start with what is inside that bay, since the wall above a vanity in a Lakewood bathroom is exactly where a supply line and the vent stack tend to run.

Open the Wall Before Ordering

Cut a small inspection hole at the intended centre and look with a torch and a mirror. Pipes, cables and fire blocking all live in that zone. A vent stack cannot move without a plumber and a permit, a supply line can be rerouted in a morning, and a cable is trivial. Knowing which one is there changes the price of the whole idea.

Depth and What It Buys

A standard stud bay gives three and a half inches, which suits a cabinet holding bottles and not much else. A surface mounted unit gives whatever depth it projects, at the cost of a box on the wall. In a large room a projecting cabinet is often the better answer, because there is no shortage of wall to give up.

Width Is Set by the Studs

A cabinet recessed between studs at sixteen inch centres is fourteen and a half inches wide, and no wider without cutting one out and heading it off. Heading off a stud in a non load bearing partition is routine work at framing stage and impossible afterwards, which is why this decision belongs before rough in rather than at fit out.

Line It Up With the Basin

The cabinet centres on the basin, not on the wall, and the mirror door has to clear the faucet when it opens. Check the swing against a sconce as well. A door that fouls a light fitting is a mistake nobody sees on a drawing and everybody sees every day afterwards.

Power Inside It

An outlet inside the cabinet keeps a razor and a toothbrush charger off the countertop entirely, and it needs a gfci protected circuit run to that box at rough in. Adding it later means opening the wall a second time. It is one of the few small details that visibly changes how tidy the room stays.