Rx: A Medicine Cabinet That Reflects Good Taste

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Full-length continuous hinges are attractive and support the door frames evenly; they're fastened to the inner stiles. Cutting 1/2" X 1/2" rabbets into the door frames creates enough recess to accommodate the mirror glass, the backing, and the retaining strips.

Through mortise and tenon joints at thedoor corners are easy to make and offer a pleasing contrast between side and end grain. The joints are pinned with short wire brads. Magnetic catches are used because they're in expensive and self-aligning.

Whether you rent or own your home, you probably have a particular something in common with the rest of us: an ugly medicine cabinet. In fact, if you were to run a survey of new construction, you might become convinced that there's no reasonably priced alternative to the stamped-steel, refrigerator-white box.

Enter MOTHER's woodworkers. Our contribution to the war against "hospital decor" is made from oak and has enough storage space to cache a lifetime supply of pills, blades, and toiletries. The two outer mirrors hinge on the inside, so they can be swung inward for proper primping. And—unlike some three-mirror models we've seen—the center door is also hinged to allow access to the compartment behind.

WHY THESE DIMENSIONS?

Though we chose to mount our medicine cabinet on the surface of the wall, the 44" width makes it comparatively easy to recess the unit into a conventional 2 X 4 stud wall. One or two studs must be cut, and headers have to be installed above and below the cabinet. (To meet your local code, you may need to double-frame the jambs and headers in load-bearing walls.) Then the gap on each side of the cabinet will allow shimming to correct for out-of-plumb studs. (If you don't get the cabinet plumb, the doors will swing open to remind you.) Although the 3-7/8" stock width on the cabinet frame may seem a little odd at first, it will allow the main frame to recess into a standard 3-1/2" wall with 3/8" drywall so that the rear of the cabinet is flush with the adjoining wall. However, if you are recessing the cabinet into a wall with a thicker drywall or into a plumbing wall (which has thicker studs), you'll want to back the cabinet with 1/8" lauan or Masonite, instead of installing the cleat shown in the illustration. (Otherwise, your Contact may be swallowed up by your stud wall.)

A COUPLE OF TIPS

There are several possible approaches to cutting the joints for the cabinet, but a table saw with an adjustable dado really makes the work go quickly. You'd set the dado for a 3/4" width to cut the frame grooves, 5/8" for the shelf track grooves, and 1/2" for the mirror .recesses and the mortises and tenons at the door corners. Don't let the door joints intimidate you; they're much easier to make than they seem to be at first glance. One hint, though: If you use softwood, make the ripped mirror recesses after doing the crosscutting, because there's a greater likelihood of tearout when crosscutting.