Specialty hinge for medicine cabinet

[David Croteau]

I'm building a medicine cabinet to accompany a new bathroom vanity and I'd like to find hinges that will work for the middle section of a three-panel mirror, pictured below. (The two smaller end mirrors will just take ordinary hinges.)


The cabinet behind the mirrors won't have vertical partitions (just a single, open "box") so there's nothing vertical for middle hinges to attach to
I'd like to keep the hinges hidden
There's obviously a clearance issue that needs to be kept in mind
So I'm looking for small hinges that attach to the outside top and bottom of the cabinet that will allow that middle mirror to swing open, clearing the other mirrors.


I don't even know what these would be called so I'm having no luck finding them. Can anyone steer me to hinges that might do the trick?

Thanks in advance. I can usually get my questions answered by searching the forums but I couldn't find anything on this.
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[Jamie Buxton]

How 'bout this... Move the "box" ceiling lower, and the floor higher, while not changing the doors. Add little stub walls above the ceiling and below the floor. Use standard euro hinges to connect the middle door to those stub walls. The hinges behave like all other euro hinges: hidden while the doors are closed, but visible when they're open.

[Jamie Buxton]

Or.. leave the box and doors as you've drawn them. Put my little stub walls inside the box. They're only 1.7" tall, so they don't impede the "open box" concept much at all.

[Stephen Roth]

How about "knife hinges." https://www.brusso.com/knife-hinges/?gclid=CjwKCAjwztL2BRATEiwAvnALcucDi03FdaASnZofcZr WAzonWfqVweIZHzPaAeWjYEeU7Y_adV7ThxoCtvwQAvD_BwE

[David Croteau]

I just edited the original post for a key error: I intended to say outside the box. Sorry about that.

I considered pivot/knife hinges but didn't see any that would be invisible.

My wife requested the "open box" idea to maximize storage flexibility. The stub idea would not allow for that.

I'd hoped to find something sort of like those tilt out tray hinges, where the two hinge parts attach to perpendicular planes. Then I could let the frame overhang top and bottom, put the hinges on the outside of the box, still have them be invisible, and have an unobstructed interior to the box.
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[Andy D Jones]

Separating walls or not, the hinged center door will practically divide your cabinet itself.

You might try upper and lower shelves in the center, with vertical supports to the respective top and bottom of the cabinet, and to which which you could mount the normal hinges.

The other thing to think about is clearance to the closed, hinge-side adjacent door when opening. Only certain kinds of hinges provide that, and as far as I know, they all need a vertical surface to mount.

Have you thought about hinging the middle door such that it swings up, out of the way?

Or depending on the height of the door, opening downward, making an outward extended shelf of sorts when open?

That would avoid the separating effect of the open middle door.

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[David Croteau]

Thanks for the replies. This turned out to be more complicated than I anticipated. (Surprise!) I think I'll be moving to a simplified design: slightly smaller, heavier build to support just a single hinged mirror. Wish me luck.

[Dave Sabo]

and why won't regular euro hinges not work ?

[David Croteau]

Wanted to keep the interior shelves undivided for more flexibility. Regular euro's for use on that middle mirror would need a vertical surface.

[Jamie Buxton]

Here's a way to do it with euro hinges. The stub walls are about 2" tall. The doors cover them when they're closed.

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[David Croteau]

Thanks for the illustration, Jamie. That's still a possibility as my client (e.g. my wife) is on the fence on just how to proceed. I've presented several options, so we'll see.

[Jim Becker]

That's a really interesting technique, Jamie...provides interesting modern shadow lines, too, top and bottom.

[Dave Sabo]

Interior, vertical partitions give more flexibility because they offer more shelf positions independent of each other.

Your client is over thinking this.

[Alan Lightstone]

If you have room, how about drawer slides and the entire front slides to the right or left of the cabinet?

I did that on my medicine cabinet at home, and everybody is amazed at the design.
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No one thinks it's a medicine cabinet until you slide it open. Just looks like wall art.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you have room, how about drawer slides and the entire front slides to the right or left of the cabinet?

I did that on my medicine cabinet at home, and everybody is amazed at the design.

No one thinks it's a medicine cabinet until you slide it open. Just looks like wall art.

That's a spectacular medicine cabinet. But I don't understand why the drawer slides. A typical hinged door would look just the same, wouldn't it?

[Alan Lightstone]

But it makes for an interesting cabinet. Plus, if anybody tries to open it conventionally it won’t open so it functions as a hidden cabinet.