We really needed more storage in the bathroom. For a long time now, I’ve been trying to figure out how and where we could store extra stuff, especially medicine that could land in the hands of a child.
It all started when I bought what I thought was a killer birch sliding door storage unit off of fab.com but what arrived was two very pretty powder-coated storage doors sans storage unit which, turns out, was all I really ordered in the first place. The photo selling the product was just the pretty doors in their casement, showing how great they looked if you already owned the very costly but modern unit. DRAT. Could there even be a louder whompity-whomp-whomp?
I did eventually put those metal doors to use. I built a custom wooden unit that allows the doors to slide. It’s still installed in our home to this day, but the dimensions would have worked as a storage unit above our bathroom toilet.
Instead, we went to IKEA. I hadn’t planned on getting anything storage related at IKEA, but as we browsed the showroom we spotted these units from the GODMORGON series, they kind of found us.
The storage units came in two widths: one with a single door, and one with a double.
The larger one was 24″ wide, only about 1/3 wider than the smaller one, but still narrow enough to fit into the space above our toilet.
So we bought it.
It was sold in several finish options which affected the price, including oak that didn’t match the rest of the bathroom and a brown-black, but we settled on glossy white. The toilet, the subway tiles, the sink top, and the bathtub are all glossy white, so a white cabinet would look right at home. (I really love our clean, bright bathroom, but glossy gray and glossy red were sexy options, too.)
Like any IKEA furniture, GODMORGON came in a flat box. I assembled it at home, and then watched Pete awkwardly try and hold it over the toilet. Honestly, give your partner a hand in leveling and marking the appropriate height for installation.
Leveling the GODMORGON cabinet.
We used heavy-duty anchor bolts to secure it to the wall over the toilet, the perfect alternative if you can’t find a stud or don’t feel like trying to find one.
Anchor bolts for installing a heavy bathroom cabinet.
Sure, with anchor bolts you’ll have to drill a slightly bigger hole into the wall to accommodate the anchor, but it’s worth it. The toggle will clamp onto the backside of the drywall securely, and it isn’t going anywhere.
Our anchor bolts will hold 200 pounds. The white donut is a spacer that sits behind the cabinet. It came with our IKEA hardware kit, but the bolts did not.
For demonstration purposes: an IKEA spacer fits between the wall and the cabinet.
It was an immediate improvement.
Base cabinet for GODMORGON installed over the toilet without doors.
The doors fit on easily. If you’re doing this install at home you’ll have to learn how to adjust the hinges to make the doors sit level. You can also adjust how close the doors are for that clean-lined effect. These fine-tuning adjustments guarantee that you’ll have an awesome, clean-lined cabinet.
The IKEA GODMORGON cabinet doesn’t sit far off the wall at all. It is especially perfect for the inset area over the toilet; the shelves are very shallow but still enough to accommodate pretty much all that we had been trying to cram in the space beneath our bathroom sink. Drugs, shampoo, extra bars of soap, lotions, potions, the works. Note: It’s ever so slightly too narrow to hold our current brand of toilet paper. Might be time to downsize to a less cushy brand.
IKEA’s GODMORGON is a shallow shelfing option for small spaces.
The shelves themselves are tempered glass which can hold a lot more weight than ordinary glass. Each piece is very thick, too. With five shelves (including the base of the cabinet), we can store a lot.
Lots of storage inside an IKEA GODMORGON cabinet.
It’s the perfect match of form and function for our small bathroom. And if you’re wondering where that pretty little mirror I just made is going to go, don’t worry, it’ll find a new home soon enough.
New IKEA GODMORGON cabinet.
And I just have to go here for a second, when I toured my home for the first time, it looked like this:
The main bathroom, the day I toured the house.
I love how far this place has come, as much as someone could love a little bathroom.
8 Comments
Nice wall unit! Looks sharp.
Drywall anchors not adequate for the weight of a Godmorgan
Correct. Anchor bolts support its larger weight if you can’t get into a stud.
I have the same unit. I got it 3 years ago. Mine is all mirrored. I am sorry to have to write a negative comment but it is in the best interest of your family. Just today one of the doors of my cabinet, that weighs 18 lbs., fell off into my arms. Thank goodness it did not fall on my 7 year old, 50 lbs., daughter. I don’t even want to imagine what could have happened. Also thank goodness it did not fall on my foot, or anyone else’s…
I called Ikea, I waited 30 minutes for someone to answer, then I spoke with a customer service person and a sr. service advisor, who was then putting me through to a safety person but the person was at lunch. I am waiting for that person to call me back.
I think the product should be recalled and the hinges replaced.
What a shame about the door! How did the hinge break? Tear away from the unit? Had it been wobbly when you opened and closed it lately?
BTW…I love the cabinet and storage space it provides.
The hinges did not break. All six screws, 2 on each hinge, slid out of the unit. The door was not wobbly.
So does it come with hardware to attach to wall?