How to turn an old medicine cabinet into open shelving

Today we’re showing you how to turn an old medicine cabinet into open shelving. One thing that screams “1990’s” to me a recessed plastic storage compartment with a mirrored swinging door. AKA- the medicine cabinet.

These are great for hiding what you don’t want your guests to see, but are impractical in a lot of senses.

Especially when they are trapped in a corner right next to your main bathroom mirror.

This was the problem with the medicine cabinets in both of our upstairs bathrooms. We couldn’t even open the medicine cabinet all the way because it bumped the frame of the mirror.

These mirrors were not original to the house. The original construction had the large frame-less mirrors so the cabinet wouldn’t have bumped anything.

But the previous owner put in these framed mirrors that we love.

So, let’s show you how to turn an old medicine cabinet into open shelving.

If you want to hang floating shelves, here’s how!

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How to turn an old medicine cabinet into open shelving

Prep the Space

The first step was to remove the old medicine cabinet. This one had couple of screws holding it in and was otherwise held to the wall by several old layers of paint.

I unscrewed it and then used a knife to cut the edges away from the paint.

This left a nice hole in the drywall. I painted the bare ring around the hole to match the wall. I needed to add a stud on one side to make the hole flush.

Building the Open Shelving

Then I started building my open shelving. I won’t use measurements because your hole will inevitably be a different size than mine.

I don’t want to be losing sleep at night thinking that someone copied my cabinet exactly and then it was no where close to fitting!

My shelf hole was 3 1/2 inches deep, so I got a piece of 1″x3″ wood from Lowe’s.

I used my miter saw to cut 45 degree angles on the ends of the pieces and made the outside edges the exact size of the interior of my wall hole.

I screwed the frame together and also added one piece down the middle for a second level shelf.

This structure served as the frame of the open shelving.

I added a thin piece of 1/4 inch board to the back of the frame to serve as the backing and screwed that into place.

Then I had the whole shelving structure.

I cut molding to serve as a frame for the open shelving. The molding covers up the edges of the rough drywall.

I picked up chair railing molding and cut it into pieces that would line up with the interior of my open shelving.

That way, it would later look like a deeper piece.

I painted everything with trim paint to make it match the color of the doorways and existing trim.

Since this was going to be facing out and there was no way to hide nail or screw holes, I used wood glue to attach the molding frame to the outside of the shelf box.

Once it was good and dry, I caulked all the edges to make them look seamless and smooth.

Installing the Open Shelving

Once that was done, I took the whole thing up to the bathroom and just popped it right into the hole.

Then I used wood screws to screw the sides into the wall studs.

When you do this, drive the screws a little past flush with the wood so you can fill it later.

So then I took spackle and simply filled the holes, let them dry, sanded them down, and covered with one coat of the trim paint.

Now the ugly mirror is gone and so is the hole in the wall.

The open shelving looks awesome, especially when accessorized.

If you are trying to hide any personal items from guests and you don’t want to put them in the drawers of your vanity, this may not be the route for you.

But, if you are trying to spice up your bathroom and make it look a lot more modern, that’s how to turn an old medicine cabinet into open shelving!