Three Used Cabinets Transform Bathroom

Getting started in the morning is bad enough for most people, but it’s a lot worse if you can’t see what you really look like in your bathroom mirror.

Without a mirror with segments that angle to show the sides and rear of your head, you run the risk of leaving for work looking like flamboyant boxing promoter Don King, without the supernatural explanation that King has for his shock of hair.

The bathroom pictured above had a flat mirror flanked by two cabinets similar to kitchen cabinets before it was redone.

First to go were the clunky cabinets: They blocked light and were generally out of scale with the relatively small room. Next to go was the mirror, followed by a paint job. The room hadn’t been painted in years.

The units shown were standard mirror-door medicine cabinets, obtained from a second-hand store. Most thrift shops have them for sale for a few dollars each. Look in the housewares area or ask a clerk.

The cabinets needed a thorough cleaning, followed by a paint job, but the price was right: new cabinets, not as well made and not as stylish, were $29.95 each at a building center.

Four toggle bolts per cabinet secure them to the wall; you’ll probably have to drill new holes in the cabinet for them. A strip of wood nailed temporarily across the bottom of the three cabinets kept them level and supported them during the installation.

For about $30--the cost of the cabinets and the materials used to renovate and install them--the owners of the home now have an excellent mirror and plenty of storage space without spending the $130 to $200 that a factory-made three-way mirror cabinet costs.