Light Up Your Bathroom With A Modern Medicine Cabinet

Having a medicine cabinet can feel like an outdated, clunky box in your bathroom. Even if you take medication or have a lot of hygiene products littering your counter top, a medicine cabinet is rarely more than a useful clunky box. But that doesn’t have to be the case! Updated modern medicine cabinets are visually appealing, with built-in lighting, stylish designs, and high-tech functionality that are a far cry from your grandmother’s medicine cabinet.

Built-in lights on your mirror allow for more coverage in a small space like the bathroom without further shrinking the usable area of the space (by Refresh and Build)

Key to a functional mirror setup is lighting, and having plenty of it. Extra lighting is always helpful in the bathroom, but you don’t always have the space for it, so why shouldn’t your cabinets and mirrors be dual function? Let your medicine cabinet help do the lighting work for you without taking up more space than the cabinet itself by having built-in lights around and on the mirror surface. These can be wall-mounted or recessed into the wall to stay out of your way when you’re using the bathroom while keeping the lighting bright and at relative eye level.

Reduce top-down shadows with forward-facing cabinet lights that shine directly at you (by International Custom Designs)

Forward-facing, eye-level lights also have the benefit of eliminating the top-down shadows you get from higher up lights and maximizing forward coverage. If you’ve struggled to put on makeup or shave accurately enough in the morning, what may be missing is a direct light to keep shadows off your face while you work. And unlike vanity mirrors, these are already wall-mounted and don’t need to be held up to be in the spot you need it.

Have a headache? Dim the lights on your medicine cabinet while you look for the right medicine (by Fry Homes)

Another pro of these cabinets are the dimmers and interior lights. Having dimmable lights help if you’re looking for a relaxing bath or have a headache first thing in the morning to avoid using those bright fluorescent lights every bathroom is equipped with. Interior cabinet lighting means nothing in your cabinet can be lost and labels easier to read so that no medication is mixed up or missing.

Add more lighting without taking up more space with medicine cabinets that also function as lights (by Levi Design Build)

These medicine cabinets can also come with extra features to make getting ready more luxurious. A defogger keeps the glass from fogging up at the touch of a button so that you can still use the mirror. This is useful after running hot water for a while and letting the bathroom get steamy, but still wanting a functional mirror afterwards. An interior mirror is another mirror backing. This lets you use your medicine cabinet as a cabinet and a mirror at the same time.

Keep your counters uncluttered by charging your devices inside your cabinets (by TruDesign Co. Inc.)

But what really excites me is the USB port, letting you charge your razor or toothbrush while keeping it off the sink counter and tangle-free. Who doesn’t want less cord clutter on their countertops? It not only gets in the way, but also can be a hazard if a plugged in cord gets near the sink. I, and many others, charge my phone in the bathroom while getting ready, making the extra port incredibly handy when juggling a hairdryer, an electric toothbrush, and my charger. Just be sure not to forget your phone in the cabinet when you’re done in the bathroom!

A medicine cabinet’s use is fairly straightforward, but adding lighting capability to it can take an old-fashioned box into the modern era of space-saving storage.