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How to Install a Recessed Medicine Cabinet — Including Walls Without Studs
Most of the work happens before the cabinet arrives. Check what is inside the wall first, then cut.
Short answer: confirm what is inside the wall before cutting anything, set the rough opening from the cabinet's stated dimensions rather than from the door, fix into framing on at least two sides, and switch to a surface-mounted unit if the cavity is shallower than the cabinet body or carries services that cannot move.
Before you cut: what is in the wall
This is the step that decides whether the job takes an hour or a week. A stud partition may carry plumbing, electrical runs, or the vent for the room. A solid masonry wall may not have a usable cavity at all.
Check with a detector, then confirm by opening a small inspection hole rather than cutting the full opening. On an external wall, remember the cavity may hold insulation and a vapour layer that should not be interrupted.
If the wall is load-bearing, cutting studs is not a decision for the installer. That goes back to whoever is responsible for the structure.
Rough opening and depth
Work from the manufacturer's rough-opening dimension, not from the cabinet's outside size and not from the door. The body sits inside the opening; the frame or door overlaps it.
| Check | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Rough opening width and height | From the product specification, not measured off the door |
| Cavity depth | Must exceed the cabinet body depth, with clearance behind |
| Framing | Fixing points on at least two sides |
| Services | Nothing crossing the opening that cannot be diverted |
Depth is the constraint that most often kills a recessed install. A standard partition may be shallower than the cabinet body, and moving a whole wall is rarely worth it for a mirror cabinet.
Fixing and alignment
Fix into framing rather than into plasterboard alone. Where the opening lands between studs, add noggins so the cabinet has something solid on at least two sides.
Level matters more here than on a surface-mounted unit, because a recessed cabinet sits within a visible reveal: a millimetre out of square reads as a tapering shadow line down one side. Set it level, pack the sides evenly, then fix.
When the cavity will not take it
Switching to a surface-mounted cabinet is a normal outcome, not a failure. It costs less to install, needs no structural checks, and gains interior depth — which is usually why people wanted the recessed version in the first place.
Our single-door surface-mount LED medicine cabinet and double-door surface-mount LED medicine cabinet with 3-CCT dimming cover the fallback, and the double-door recessed LED medicine cabinet is the recessed build.
If the cabinet is lit
An LED cabinet needs a supply into the wall, and where the installation is in a bathroom the electrical work follows local regulation for the zone the cabinet sits in. Plan the supply position with the rough opening rather than after it — chasing a cable into a finished reveal is the kind of rework nobody budgets for.
Specifying
Send the wall build-up, the available cavity depth and whether the wall carries services. We will confirm whether a recessed unit fits and suggest the surface-mount equivalent if it does not. The cabinets sit in specialty mirrors, and we come back within 24 hours.