4 tall bathroom cabinet IKEA hacks, so useful in small bathrooms

tall bathroom cabinet ikea hack

A tall, narrow bathroom cabinet is just what you need for a small bathroom. It provides lots of storage for towels, toiletries and cleaning supplies.

Furthermore, a cabinet with doors keeps the chaos and clutter hidden. Whilst a tiered open shelving provides easy access to necessities.

These tall bathroom cabinet IKEA hacks can keep your bathroom organized. Getting ready in the mornings will be easier when you can see where everything is.

Adding mirrors to an IKEA tall bathroom cabinet hack

This was a simple IKEA hack but I’m thrilled with the outcome.

I’ve recently moved from a house to an apartment and have been downsizing, decluttering, donating and trying to decide on storage solutions.

I have a small area of blank wall in my bathroom and the NYSJON high cabinet was the perfect fit between the bathroom door and tub. But it was a bit bland. 

IKEA NYSJON bathroom cabinet
NYSJON tall bathroom cabinet | Photo: IKEA.com

So, I got a pack of LOTS mirrors and stuck them on the door. Like I said, simples! 🙂

I used a drill, screwdriver, level, tape measure, pen and hammer and followed the instructions.

At first, I attached the little knob on the cabinet door, but then realised it would be in the way of the mirrors so I removed it.

It’s easy to open the cabinet by pulling on the top of the door. Once assembled, I measured where I wanted the first mirror to go and made sure it would be level. Then I just stuck the mirrors on with the sticky tape included in the pack. I left a gap of about 1-2mm between each one.

It was a very easy hack to get a mirrored bathroom cabinet.

The hardest part of this project was actually putting the cabinet together (a bit tricky). But hopefully it will last for years to come.

Happy hacking!

~ by Ruth, Dublin, Ireland

Add tons of storage with two narrow bathroom cabinets

I bought a house that had a tiny master bathroom and I expanded it by taking 3 feet from the next bedroom.

In doing so, I needed storage space and also a space to anchor my new quartz countertop to create a vanity. It had to be narrow but deep. I had about 12 inches in width to work with.

I looked for something but my only option was to have something custom made. My only option until I went to IKEA.

Narrow bathroom cabinet with tons of storage

IKEA items used:

  • LILLANGEN High Cabinet with mirror front ($110.00)
  • TYNGEN bathroom cabinet ($80) I used one that has been discontinued but this one is the same size

My daughter and I put the two units together and they were positioned with one facing the toilet against the wall and the mirrored front unit backed to the side of the back open unit.

This provided the narrow width I needed also with the depth. They were not the same height but my construction guy attached the shorter (back unit) to the mirrored unit. He covered the side and back with beadboard and trim and on the vanity side, it looked like one unit. On the back side there was open shelves and a lower cabinet. It is perfect.

The other side of the narrow bathroom cabinet

On the right side of the picture the mirrored front of cabinet reflecting bathtub.

Inside the cabinet with adjustable shelves

Front mirrored cabinet open … the unit also provides privacy for the toilet.

~ Jean Rea

Create open shelving on a budget

We had a lot of wasted space on top of our washing machine in our tiny bathroom, so we decided to put some shelves or equivalent up there for extra storage.

Supplies for our tall bathroom shelf: 

2 LACK side tables
3 BYGEL rails (replace with KUNGSFORS rails)
2 BYGEL S-hooks (replace with KUNGSFORS hooks)

LACK side table as open shelving

The problem was that the ones we found were not wide enough to our taste, or not tall enough, or too expensive, or …

So we bought 2 LACK side tables, some BYGEL rails and S-hooks and got to work!

We assembled the tables. Then attached the two tables together with L-brackets, fixing the brackets on the legs on the first table to the table top of the second table.

Next, we screwed the rails onto the sides of the tables.

Put the hooks on the rails, et voilà!

LACK side table as open bathroom shelving

We placed our 2-tier bathroom shelf on top of our machine. But you can make a taller, stand-alone version by using 3 or 4 LACK side tables.

One thing to take note off — as ours is near the sink, we do need to be careful to wipe off any splashes of water. The LACK is made of particleboard and will not withstand a lot of moisture. Not the most ideal IKEA furniture for the bathroom but it works for us for now.

There’s now a narrower 13 3/4″x 13 3/4″ LACK side table if you want to make an even narrower bathroom shelving.

~ by Copie

Go up for more wall storage

We needed a skinny tall cabinet above the toilet in our tiny bathroom. We could have used a kitchen cabinet but at the time the white BILLY bookcase was on sale for $20 and it was a much better size.

The bookcase is constructed quite similarly to the IKEA kitchen wall cabinet so I figured it would hold up fine for the application. With a bit of hacking, of course.

BILLY bookcase hacked to work as over the toilet cabinet

Materials: 

IKEA BILLY bookcase
MORLIDEN glass door
Scraps of plywood and hardwood
Cordless drill/driver
Various screws

WARNING: If you try this, you do so at your own risk. This is no joke. A BILLY bookcase was just not intended to be hung on the wall. If it falls, it is going do a lot of damage to itself and anything and anyone below it. The following information is for entertainment purposes only and I can’t take responsibility if you try this at home and it falls off your wall.

Here’s how we hung a tall IKEA bathroom cabinet:

First, I assembled the bookcase according to the splendid pictograms provided with the BILLY bookcase.

After some noodling I decided the bookcase would work best flipped upside down and pushed against the ceiling to make use of the height of the room.

I secured it to the wall with hardwood cleats screwed to the studs. Or rather, stud, since there was only one. Fortunately it was right in the middle of where I wanted to hang the cabinet.

I used half-inch thick, four-inch wide plywood “mounting strips” as one would use a steel mounting rail for an SEKTION cabinet. I placed one where the top of the cabinet would go and the other at the bottom. I mounted the strips to the stud with two 2″ screws each so they wouldn’t rotate, and more importantly, so they would not separate from the wall. I had to measure carefully to keep them centered, plumb, and located where I could screw through the cleats, the back of the bookcase, and into the mounting strips.

BILLY bookcase hacked to work as over the toilet cabinet

Hung with a cleat system

Then I hung the bookcase/cabinet by driving multiple 1-5/8″ screws through hardwood 1×2 cleats, the fiberboard back, and into the plywood. I located the top cleat immediately below the top of the cabinet and the bottom cleat immediately above the bottom, as you might see in a typical wall cab install.

I used 4 screws in each cleat, evenly spaced. I used screws long enough to penetrate the entire plywood mounting strip, ensuring 1/2″ of penetration at each fastener. I used four screws in each because of the relatively shallow penetration and because the plywood strips were only secured to a single stud; I did not want the weight of the cabinet to cause the plywood to bend and pull away from the wall.

We attached a MORLIDEN glass door and now all our toiletries, shampoos, and hygiene products are hidden and out of reach of children. LOVE the space, clean look, adjustable shelves and functionality.

~ Ryan McCulley, Tucson, Arizona

See more IKEA Bathroom hacks.

Jules Yap