Bathroom Cabinet Buying Guide (June 8, 2010)

Bathroom cabinets are essential to storage and organization in a bathroom, and they often serve as the support for the bathroom sink. Vanity cabinets do just this, and often provide two or three drawers and a cupboard for under-sink storage. They may be capped with almost any countertop material from laminate to stone. Tall cabinets and wall cabinets, built just like their kitchen counterparts, can provide generous storage for linens and more.

Modern Style Bathroom Cabinet

When building a new bathroom or giving an existing bathroom a facelift, it pays to give special attention to the cabinets as early as possible because they often set the stage for the rest of the room¡¯s design and, in many cases, they may take longer to get than other components.

When you begin to shop, you¡¯ll find almost endless possibilities, from custom-made, elegant hardwood masterpieces to low-priced bargains that you can buy at the home improvement center and install in a day. And you¡¯ll find that almost any style and size is possible.

Conventional bathroom vanity cabinets are typically 31 to 33 1/2 inches tall and 18 or 21 inches deep. Widths can range from 24 inches to 60 inches or more.

Custom or Stock?

Your first decision will be whether to buy stock cabinets or have them custom made¡ªor something in between.

With custom cabinets, anything is possible. Custom cabinets, built by a cabinetmaker, can be tailored to special widths, depths, heights, and shapes from almost any material you choose. In most cases you will pay dearly for them and must wait 6 weeks or longer for construction, delivery, and installation.

Stock cabinets, as their name implies, are often available on-the-spot at home improvement centers; in some cases, they must be ordered but are generally available on relatively short notice. You have to be happy with the wood, finish, and cabinet size and configuration because modifications are not part of the deal. But the price is many times more affordable than custom and immediate availability can be a big plus.

Semi-stock (or ¡°semi-custom¡±) cabinets are a hybrid that falls between custom and stock. The manufacturers of these have many different stocks sizes and configurations and can make modifications. ¡°Box and door¡± programs allow manufacturers to carry cabinets in various sizes and offer a wide range of door and drawer fronts to fit the cabinet boxes. These are much quicker to produce than custom and are priced between custom and stock. See more about: Stock vs. Custom Kitchen Cabinets.

Face-frame or Frameless?

Bathroom cabinets are either face frame or frameless (also called "European-style"). Most manufacturers make only one or the other. American manufacturers make primarily the face-frame type, though some also produce frameless models with European styling.

As the name implies, a face-frame cabinet has a frame made from 1-by-2 hardwood on the front of the 3/4-inch plywood or particleboard cabinet box. The frame makes the cabinet rigid and provides a strong base for hinges. Doors or draw fronts typically overlay the frame, but they may be flush or offset. On face-frame cabinets, standard offset hinges are partially visible from the front.

Because of the added rigidity from the frame, these cabinets don't have a top panel, and they have only a partial back or a back made of thin material. They have integral bases. The frame can be shaved to fit an irregular wall and makes it possible to use affordable, low-quality materials for cabinet sides. The face frame narrows the opening size for doors and drawers.

Frameless European-style cabinets are constructed like boxes, from panels finished on both sides and edged with a simple laminate banding or narrow strip. Most types have holes drilled at 32-mm increments vertically along each cabinet side panel; these may be fitted with European hinges, cabinet joinery fittings, drawer slides, shelf pins, and other hardware.

Most frameless cabinets have flush doors and hidden hinges. Frameless cabinets usually have a solid top and back and base units and are commonly mounted on top of a separate plinth or toe-kick. See more about: Frameless vs. Face Frame Cabinets.