Friday, July 27, 2012

change your medicine cabinet to a sweet niche

The bathroom is coming along. We've grouted and caulked. Now to install the sink and toilet--so excited! 
 Originally I had planned on just changing out the ugly medicine cabinet for a nicer one. But after J started building the niche in the shower he got the idea to take the medicine cabinet out completely and finish it into a cool built-in with tiled back and glass shelves. (Glass shelves to come.......sometime.) With some basic skills, it's easy enough to take out your medicine cabinet and change it to a sweet niche.

not so great before picture:
after:
(haven't bought a light fixture or a mirror yet...)

The medicine cabinet come out by unscrewing a few screws. Most likely you'll have unfinished walls behind it like so:

 We added drywall to the sides (they were wood studs), screwed round corner metal strips to the edges (to match the rest of the rounded corners in the house), mudded, sanded, and textured, then painted. 

a few basic supplies with a sneak peak at the herringbone pattern floor:
We used 2 1/2 sheets of mosaic tile for the back. You'll need a tile saw or see if the home store will cut for you. But you could also glue in a mirror or frosted piece of glass, or sticks, or rocks from your backyard, or vintage book covers, or fabric, or coasters. Whatever tickles your fancy. If you're going with tile, you can get pre-mixed mortar and grout at Home Depot or Lowe's.
LOVE IT!

update: niche in the finished bathroom!

We plan on getting a couple glass shelves but I also thought a hanging succulent plant would be cool or maybe a tall vase. We love how this looks and now my husband wants to build them all over the house.

i want to do them for our master bath mirrors like this: