In many bathrooms, a picture or a small shelf hangs above the toilet. But you can make better use of that space by building an attractive cabinet that offers about three times as much storage as a typical medicine cabinet.

Reader's Digest What a nice addition this cabinet makes. See more bathroom decorating images.

This article will show you how to build it. The simple joinery and store-bought doors make this a great project for the woodworking novice. Assembling the crown and base is a bit tricky, but we’ll help with that process too.

The total materials bill for our cabinet was $140. You’ll need a miter saw to cut the trim. A table saw and a brad nailer will save time, but you can make all the cuts with a circular saw and drive the nails by hand if you prefer. The height and width of your cabinet may differ slightly from our measurements, depending on the bifold doors available at your home center. So choose your doors first and then alter the lengths of the sides and the top, bottom and middle shelves if necessary. Bifold closet doors are sold as a pair, usually joined by hinges. Each of our doors measured 11-15/16 in. wide, and we cut them to length as shown in the photo to the left.

The easy-to-install hinges we used are available online. All the other tools and materials, including the cabinet doors, are available at home centers. You may not find the exact crown and base moldings we used, but most home centers carry a similar profile. Any 2-1/4-in. crown molding is appropriate for this project. We used “base cap” molding for the base. For a more contemporary look, you could skip the crown and base altogether, since they’re purely decorative.

Build a basic box

Cut the plywood parts to size. The dimensions we used are given in the Cutting List (below). If you don’t have a table saw, go to our Web site to find information about making long, straight cuts with a circular saw.

Reader's Digest Cabinet pieces

Assemble the cabinet box with glue and screws, followed by wood dowels for extra strength. You can buy long dowels and cut them into short pieces, but dowels precut and fluted for woodworking are easier to work with. This assembly method is quick and easy and gives strong results. But because the method requires lots of wood filler to hide the fasteners, it’s for painted work only. If you want to use stain and a clear finish, biscuits or pocket screws are a better choice.

Drill 1/8-in. pilot and countersink holes for the screws using a drill bit that does both at once ($6). Attach the top, bottom and cleats to one side, then add the other side. Mark the middle shelf position on the sides, slip it into place and screw it (there’s no need for glue).

Before you drill the dowel holes, make sure the box is square by taking diagonal measurements; equal measurements means the box is square. If necessary, screw a strip of plywood diagonally across the back of the box to hold it square. For clean, splinter-free holes, drill the dowel holes with a 3/8-in. brad-point bit ($5), making the holes 1/8 in. deeper than the length of the dowels. That way, you can sink the dowels below the surface of the plywood and fill the holes with wood filler. With the box completed, drill holes for the adjustable shelf supports using a brad-point drill bit. Most shelf supports require a 1/4-in. hole.