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Wood Medicine Cabinets

While we're not supposed to sweat the small stuff, we do need a place to keep it. And when that stuff is in the bathroom, there doesn't seem to be a more convenient storage space than a medicine cabinet.

Oh, sure, for a time there, home designers and homeowners generally preferred large, wall-mounted mirrors. That left dental floss, cough medicine and bandages to slide around in vanity drawers or disappear in cabinets beneath the bathroom sink. But those items are easier to locate when they're at eye level. They're also easier to spot in a storage space that's only 4 to 6 inches deep.

In medicine cabinets, "things don't get lost or shoved behind other items," says Theresa Lacey, a sales and customer service representative for Donovan Mirror and Glass in Brookfield.

Donovan sells Robern medicine cabinets, which are manufactured by a subsidiary of the Kohler Co.

"It's kind of amazing to me, with all the large bathrooms and the many, many cabinets in them, that people still want medicine cabinets for the little things," Lacey says.

Russ Waters, who designs kitchens and bathrooms for Wisconsin Kitchen Mart, 3601 W. Wisconsin Ave., calls medicine cabinets "somewhat of a necessity" in remodeling smaller bathrooms, especially with the increasing popularity of pedestal sinks.

"But people don't want the old metal cabinet," Waters says.

With today's range of sophisticated styles and luxurious features, who can blame them? While what goes inside medicine cabinets may be mundane, how they look on the outside is anything but.

New looks for bathrooms

"They can bring a lot of class to the bathroom," says Karen Collins, marketing communications manager for Broan-NuTone, based in Hartland.

The company, perhaps best known for its Broan exhaust fans, makes a wide range of NuTone medicine cabinets, from the most basic starting at $50 to the more aesthetically pleasing for up to $1,000.

It recently introduced the Expressions iColor Collection of cabinets, which come in six brilliant colors, including lemon yellow, cobalt blue and racing green.

"They're very much for that twenty- to thirtysomething crowd," Collins says. Expressions iColor cabinets carry a suggested retail price of $300.

For more traditional tastes, there are numerous choices.

Both Robern and NuTone offer wood-framed mirrored doors in a variety of finishes. Wisconsin Kitchen Mart custom builds its medicine cabinets to match other cabinetry in the house. And mass- marketers like Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn offer nostalgic styles of traditional wood cabinets with natural or painted finishes.

And wood is just the beginning. Cabinet mirrors can be untrimmed and sleek, with beveled glass and arched tops, or they can be framed in metal, with brushed nickel especially popular now, says Robern's Beth Wierzbicki.

From low to high

Among Robern's new lines is Cit (pronounced "see'-tay"), which frames the mirror with leather in a choice of three colors (oxblood, parchment and ebony). Between the leather and the mirror is an inner frame available in a variety of metal finishes that can match other metal in the bathroom.

"We know consumers think of medicine cabinets as an accessory for the bathroom," says Wierzbicki.

Robern, founded in Bristol, Pa., in 1968, has been a subsidiary of Wisconsin-based Kohler since 1995.

The company, like its parent, targets the upscale, luxury-minded consumer, Wierzbicki says.

Robern cabinets range in price from $180 to upwards of $2,500. "There's a trend toward customization," she says.

Robern offers a multitude of what Wierzbicki describes as semi- custom options.

For the most up-to-date looks, medicine cabinets can be "ganged" together, either vertically or horizontally, Wierzbicki says.

For example, consumers can create the look of a wide mirror above a wide vanity by placing several medicine cabinets side by side.

And, in the home decorating equivalent of having their cake and eating it, too, "they have increased storage," Wierzbicki says.

Innovations in medicine cabinets aren't all about aesthetics. Some are about practicality. While medicine cabinets are typically 4 inches deep, NuTone is marketing its new 6-inch cabinet as a convenient place to store an extra roll of toilet paper and a box of tissue, says Collins.

"Otherwise, you might be putting those items in a basket on the floor," she says.

Mirrors everywhere

Both NuTone and Robern offer mirrored interiors as a way of helping consumers save time during their morning routine by eliminating repeated opening the door.

"One sign of a Robern is that there's a mirror on the outside, inside the door and on the back wall," Wierzbicki says. "Consumers like having three mirrors."

They can even have four, with Robern offering as an optional add- on an adjustable magnifying mirror that swings out. Among Robern's other options are interior electrical outlets, which can be used for charging everything from electric toothbrushes and razors to cell phones, and door defoggers that keep mirrors clear of condensation.

With the advances in medicine cabinets, are there any features to thwart the storied cabinet snoop?

"We don't have a cabinet that locks completely," says Wierzbicki. "But that has come up."

Consumers can be assured of some privacy, though. Robern offers a cabinet equipped with a lock box, which the company markets as a safety feature to protect children from getting into parents' and grandparents' medicines.

The bath and beyond

With added style and new features comes a new popularity for medicine cabinets.

Dave Glassman, director of marketing for Restoration Hardware, sees their growing popularity as part of a larger trend toward improvements for the bathroom.

"The whole home bath area has just exploded in recent years," he says.

Glassman says medicine cabinets have always been part of Restoration Hardware's line, but that the company, which joined the Milwaukee retail market with a store at Mayfair Mall about four years ago, now offers more choices than ever before.

And medicine cabinets aren't just for the bathroom. Collins of Broan-NuTone suggests them for powder rooms as a convenient place to store some of the same items found in a family bathroom.

"Then you don't have to run upstairs for a Band-Aid or whatever, yet it's up and out of the reach of children," she says.

Medicine cabinets that don't look like medicine cabinets can be used in other parts of the home, as well, she says.

For example, an oval mirrored cabinet can look like a hall mirror while providing a handy place to keep lipstick and a comb near the front door, Collins says. More utilitarian styles, such as those without mirrors at all, can be painted or wallpapered to match the walls of a mud room or back hall and can offer a convenient place to stash keys, mosquito repellent and bandages near the door, she says.

"It's all about convenience," Collins says.

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ONLINE

For more information, visit the following Web sites:

www.broan-nutone.com; www.robern.com; www.wisconsinkitchenmart.com; www.restorationhardware.com.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Copyright 2005 Journal Sentinel Inc. Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.