Narrow Medicine Cabinet

Medicine, cosmetics, and skincare products are all things we need to hand in our bathrooms, and with a narrow medicine cabinet you can store everything you need without taking up precious wall space. You can go for cabinets that have large mirrors, that are recessed, or sit horizontally instead of vertically – in our handy list below we’ve included all three and more.

Narrow Medicine Cabinet

Buying Guide

Chloe Hughes Interior Design Expert

Chloe is a vintage and antique decor expert, writer, and DIY educator who helps readers translate their love of character-rich pieces into livable, modern homes. With an extensive background in antique shopping, period décor, and hands-on upcycling, she shows people how to blend storied finds with everyday comfort. Her guidance focuses on creating warm, personal interiors where historic details and real life work seamlessly together.

Having a medicine cabinet is a good idea, but sometimes it is difficult to find a place for it. By recessing your medicine cabinet, it can be concealed behind a picture or a mirror allowing you to make use of the wall space that might otherwise be consumed. It can also be a way to hide the cabinet – useful if you have frequent guests, particularly guests with children.

How does recessing work?

Modern frame buildings begin with a framework made from two-inch by four-inch boards. These are usually set edge-on to a room, on 24-inch centers. This means that between any two wall studs, except in corners or areas accommodating windows, there is a space that is approximately 20 inches wide and 3 ½ inches deep. In outer walls, this space is likely to be filled with insulation, but such is not apt to be the case with interior walls. Wiring and plumbing often run through these spaces, but usually at the lower levels of the wall. This leaves the upper cavity as fair game for a slim cabinet.

A hole can be cut in the wallboard, the cabinet inserted and fastened to the wall studs, and then a mirror or picture set as the door.

What different designs of recessed medicine cabinets are there?

Standard Bathroom Cabinet

A standard bathroom arrangement is to insert a recessed cabinet above the sink, and for the door to be a mirror. When toothpaste, shaving gear, or headache meds are needed, the mirror opens like a door to reveal the shelf unit behind the door. When the door is closed, the mirror functions as a place to see yourself to arrange hair, shave, put on make-up or other things that are best done with a little visual assistance.

Hidden Behind a Picture

You might not want to keep your personal meds in a bathroom that is open to the general flow of daily activity. For example, if you are a diabetic, you might need a place to keep your blood sugar test kit, your daily log book, some emergency glucose, needles for administering insulin and your test paper strips. These items are a little too sensitive to keep in a room that has constant moisture and that might have children in and out of it. Using a picture for the front makes it less obviously a medicine cabinet.

The Narrow Kitchen Cabinet

Some first aid items are just too bulky to keep in a bathroom cabinet unless it’s extra spacious. A narrow kitchen medicine cabinet is a good place to keep disinfectant, castile soap, drawing ointment, rolled bandages, ace bandages, large bottles of aspirin or Tylenol, and simple symptom relievers such as nasal spray or eye drops.

Bonus tip: An alternate plan for a slim medicine cabinet is to slide it between two larger cabinets as if it were a narrow drawer. When the cabinet is pulled out, the shelves are exposed. When it is pushed in, it just looks as if it were a narrow cabinet area.