The master bathroom in our home was due for a makeover. While an efficient design with modern conveniences was important, so was Craftsman-era style. Our plan included individual recessed medicine cabinets above his-and-hers sinks. The local hardware store sold medicine cabinets that were rough-primed and assembled, but their $523 price tag struck us as expensive.

We went home, typed “Craftsman medicine cabinet” into Google, and found Van Dyke’s Restorers (www.vandykes.com). They not only had a cabinet of essentially the same design and dimensions, but it also was available in solid, unfinished cherry, which would match our base cabinets. To make things even better, the assembled cherry cabinet sold for $230, and it also came in a fairly easy-to-assemble kit for $170. Shipping charges were $19.75 for two cabinets.

We did have a couple of ordering glitches, but Van Dyke’s customer-service folks remedied them to our satisfaction. The first problem might have been our fault: We wanted one right-hand- and one left-hand-opening cabinet, and instead we received two of the same. Van Dyke’s exchanged the cabinet at no additional charge (shipping or otherwise), but when the replacement cabinet arrived, one of the boards was split. After the second no-charge exchange, we were good to go. We had our painter spray polyurethane varnish on the cabinets, and they turned out great.

Photo by: Charles Miller

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