Every time I walk into our primary bathroom, I breathe a sigh of relief. It was one of the biggest projects of our year, and it has made such a tangible difference in how I feel when I start and end my day. The paint color (Setting Plaster by Farrow & Ball) is so flattering. It makes me feel like I’m in a European hotel. But I had to bring you in on a little secret that I only teased in the big reveal: we added so much hidden storage.
I wanted the bathroom to look seamless and uncluttered with shelves and cabinets. In the bathroom, it’s more about what you’re not seeing than what you’re seeing. Previously, I was seeing a lot of my makeup and styling tools on the vanity because the few drawers I had were overflowing. Now? I feel like storage is everywhere I turn—even if it’s not immediately visible!
Here are all the ways we added (secret) storage to our primary bathroom:
Hidden Wall Cabinets
It was originally in the plans to do a medicine cabinet mirror. But with the wall molding that I wanted to do, I thought it would look so much better to have mirror insets behind the lights. To me, that was the star, and the side molding had the opportunity to put some storage inside. It was just going to be a standard wall!
Black and White Tile | Tub Nook Sconce | Tub Faucet | Tub | Bath Caddy (similar) | Stool | Towel Ring | Vanity Sconce | Vanity | Faucet | Vanity Hardware | Frame (from this gallery wall)
We didn’t even make this design change until after the demo started. My side is 9″ deep, so I could fit 8″ turntables. Chris’s side cabinet is about 2.5″ deep, since we were making the two vanity nooks symmetrical and didn’t have as much space on his side. He doesn’t mind, since he still has the drawers in the vanity and not nearly as many products. We turned his side into more of our household items, like cough medicines and vitamins.
These hidden wall cabinets have honestly felt so luxurious. I designed them thinking, “What do I normally have out that I can now put away?” They needed to be deep enough and tall enough to keep a lot of things, and I knew I wanted to include an outlet to be able to charge things. So now my retainer cleaner is in there along with cleansers, moisturizers, and other daily use and overflow products. I actually struggled with what to put in there versus what to put in my drawers, but I decided that the drawers were for hair stuff and toothbrushes.
For a minute after the hidden wall cabinets were finished, I considered putting a knob on the outside instead of the push-to-open mechanism. I felt like I was just tapping it open and closed over and over. I don’t feel like that anymore because I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping it open for a minute…it’s OK to leave it propped if I’m just getting ready!
This is a peek at the inner workings: on the left above is what I think is called a concealed “European-style” cup hinge, also known as an euro hinge. They are pretty standard! Most contractors are now using hidden hinges. On the right above is push-to-open piston on the other side.
These probably won’t get as much attention as our kitchen appliance garage does, but I think they’re just as practical
Towel Storage Drawer
Look to the lower right at the end of the hall—that’s our secret towel storage drawer!
The before bathroom in this house lacked a linen closet. So, in the plans, we were thinking of putting in something freestanding, but it’s a pretty tight bathroom, and there’s not a lot of room for freestanding things. So, we decided, “Let’s hollow out the shower seat.” If we kept the space below hollow, we could put towel storage on the opposite wall in the hallway!
One caveat: Towel storage does fit here, but the push-to-open mechanism isn’t ideal: if you put too many towels in, their weight makes it hard to open. We could put a pull on that, and it would work a lot better, so that’s the plan. I think a slim edge pull would do the trick!
Sit-Down Vanity Doors
Vanity Mirror | Upholstered Stool (vintage – similar)
I guess my mindset going into this renovation was, “If there’s space, let’s put in storage.” When I’m sitting to do my makeup, there are a lot of products I don’t use every day, but I still want to keep on hand. The vanity doors are like overflow storage for all my extra sunscreen, blushes, whitening strips—that sort of thing. And then I keep my everyday makeup in the pull-out drawer below the counter so I can see it more easily. I love my sit-down area; it’s one of my favorite areas in the bathroom!
The Bath Ledge
We added a marble backing to the tub with a 3″ ledge that’s wide enough to be functional. This one was as much a design choice as it was for a bit of space: we could put shampoo or other things here if one of the girls was taking a bath. Will we use it? Not necessarily, since I have a bath caddy too. But the look finished off the area, and you could put stuff there. So win-win.
Recessed Shower Shelf
This one isn’t as secret, but it’s also not visible from outside of the shower, so I’m counting it. It took us doing so many showers to decide what we like in a shower niche. It should always be hidden around the corner where no one’s going to see it, if possible. In the past, I’ve tried doubling the niche as a shaving ledge. But it’s not as comfortable to have our products so low as tall people. We added a bench in this shower, so that I could put the niche kind of high at eye level. And there are two shelves, both tall because we never have a shortage of bottles. I love how we used marble in the niche to echo the floors.
Finally…Where We Missed Adding Hidden Storage
Wallpaper | Smart Toilet | Toilet Paper Holder
There is one place we missed for hidden storage: the toilet closet. I’m on the hunt for a great cabinet that is deep enough to hold toilet paper and feminine products.
I plan to share a few more “finishing” details about the bathroom soon. What questions do you have for me?
Beautiful work! As a new homeowner, would you be willing to share the estimated cost of a project like this? Many thanks!
It’s hard to break out since it was part of the overall bathroom reno. I’d recommend quotes from local contractors!
Interesting …
Love this! I don’t have budget for paneling, do you think this could be done on a flat wall? Would you try to hide it somehow?
Love all the storage solutions! Is the hidden storage to the sides of your vanities just the cavity space between studs or did you bump into the room and take from the floor space to build out the depth of the hidden storage?
Same question as Lauren: did you build out the cavity space more? How did you do so without intruding on the space of other rooms?. We need a tutorial!