If you live in Lansing, you know winter boots, coats, and sports gear have a way of multiplying. In smaller homes and older neighborhoods like Groesbeck, Westside, and parts of East Lansing, the bathroom often bears the brunt. It’s the spot where towels, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and backup paper goods all need a place to land. When space is tight, the difference between a cramped bath and one that works every day comes down to storage strategy and how your contractor plans the bones of the room.
I remodel bathrooms and kitchens across mid-Michigan, and small bathroom remodeling in Lansing rewards careful planning more than big budgets. The best bathroom remodeling Lansing has to offer tends to follow a few principles: use vertical volume, reclaim dead space around plumbing, pick fixtures that pull double duty, and fight clutter with right-sized compartments. With that lens, let’s walk through a set of storage moves I’ve seen work again and again, including what they cost, what can go wrong, and how to sequence the work so you don’t pay for the same labor twice.
Start with inches, not square feet
When clients say “It’s only a five-by-seven,” they focus on area. I look for inches instead. That little strip between a vanity and a wall, the cavity above the toilet, the hollow behind a false soffit, even the swing of the door. Gaining two to three inches in five places beats a single big cabinet that sticks out and makes the room feel tight.
Measure the room in detail. Note centerlines of drains and supplies, height to the bottom of any window, and how far doors and drawers can open before hitting trim. In older Lansing houses with plaster over lath, you may have thick walls that hide an inch or two of extra depth. Those inches can turn a shallow niche or recessed cabinet from marginal to useful.
Anecdote from a Sycamore Park cape: we found 1.75 inches of extra wall depth behind a shower because an old chase had been patched oddly. That small gain let us recess a 4-inch deep niche to a full 5.75 inches. Same tile, same layout, but shampoo bottles finally sat flat rather than teetering on their sides.
Recess what you can, when you can
Recessed storage keeps the floor clear and the sightlines clean. It also costs less than most people expect if you’re already demoing.
Recessed medicine cabinets do more than hide toothbrushes. A 20 to 24 inch wide recessed cabinet with mirrored door gives you deep storage at face level, a place to charge an electric razor or toothbrush if you spec a unit with a built-in outlet, and a better mirror than a stick-on. I often set the bottom of the cabinet around 48 to 50 inches from the floor, then match its width to the sink below so it reads as one element rather than a random box on the wall.
Recessed niches in showers are a given now, but their placement matters. The most natural spot is the back wall, centered. In a tight bath, I like to split the niche into two vertical cubbies stacked high, with the upper sized for tall bottles and the lower sized for bars and razors. If your wall has insulation on an exterior side, talk to your contractor about adding foam behind the niche or shifting the niche to an interior wall to avoid cold spots and condensation during mid-Michigan winters.
Behind-the-door recesses take advantage of the cavity between studs. We’ve built 14-inch wide, 3.5-inch deep “pantry” towers next to a tub, trimmed like a bookcase, with adjustable glass shelves. They disappear when the door is open and become a tidy product display when closed. If your door swings into that wall, consider converting to a pocket door or an outswing to unlock this space. I’ll come back to doors later.
Vanity sizing that fights clutter
People often buy a vanity based on the nominal width of the room. They’ll squeeze a 36 inch cabinet into a 36.5 inch niche and then live with bruised knuckles and doors that hit trim. You’ll be happier with a modest downsize and better use of the leftover sliver.
If your room allows, a 30 inch vanity with a 28 inch sink and 1 inch reveals feels intentional and creates a 4 to 6 inch gap between the vanity and the side wall. That’s exactly the space for a built-in towel stile or a skinny pull-out. A 6 inch pull-out base, like you see in kitchens, works beautifully in bathrooms for hair tools, cleaning bottles, extra TP, and the brush you never want on the counter. We fit heat-safe metal sleeves into the pull-out for a hair dryer and curling iron in a Logan Square bungalow, wired a tamper-resistant outlet inside the cabinet, and solved both storage and cord mess in one go.
Drawers beat doors for bathrooms. Full-extension drawers waste less space and prevent the back-of-cabinet black hole. If plumbing forces you to use doors under the sink, add a U-shaped pull-out around the trap. I specify soft-close slides that are rated at least 75 pounds, because a drawer full of liquids and tools gets heavy fast.
Countertops can help you cheat storage. A slight overhang on one side, with a floating shelf below, gives you a spot for washcloths or guest towels. If you prefer a vanity with legs for an airy look, commit to a shelf at the base, then use shallow bins for toilet paper and cleaning supplies. If it doesn’t have a shelf, the open space becomes visual noise and dust.
Over-the-toilet, minus the dorm-room vibe
Stacking storage above the toilet can look clunky if you bolt a box on the wall. The trick is depth and alignment. Keep it to 7 to 10 inches deep so it doesn’t crowd you when you stand up. Align the cabinet’s sides with something below, like the vanity edge or a wainscot panel, so it looks integrated.
In contractor Community Construction a Colonial on the west side, we ran a 9 inch deep wall cabinet over the toilet, 24 inches wide, with a bottom edge 18 inches above the tank to allow easy lid removal. We ran vertical beadboard behind and painted the cabinet body to match the trim, leaving the doors a shade darker. The cabinet disappears until you open it. Inside, 11 inch tall shelves hold tissue boxes upright, which wastes less space than laying them flat. The top shelf stores guest supplies. Everyone knows where extras live, and the room keeps breathing.
If you want an even cleaner read, recess the cabinet. Two-by-four walls can handle a 3.5 inch deep recess. Two-by-six walls can give you 5.5 inches, which is enough for most toiletries. Add a simple frame and a door, and you have a shallow closet that doesn’t steal floor area.
Converting dead chases and soffits
Older Lansing homes often hide plumbing chases and odd soffits from past renovations. When we open walls, we map every pipe and vent, then ask whether we can straighten or reroute to save space. Even shifting a vent stack by an inch and a half can net a niche or a deeper vanity drawer.
A memorable case, a 1950s ranch in Colonial Village had a boxy soffit over the tub with a fan from another era. We replaced the fan with a quiet inline model vented through the attic, moved the duct, and converted the old soffit face into a long horizontal niche. The tile ran continuous across the back, and the face of the shelf sat flush with the wall. That single change added the equivalent of a two-foot wall cabinet’s worth of space without adding a cabinet.
Doors that give you feet back
Swing direction matters. A typical 2 foot 4 inch bathroom door eats five to six square feet of arc. In a narrow bath, that arc prevents you from placing a hamper, shelving, or even a towel hook where you want it.
Consider a pocket door if your wall framing and electrical layout allow it. In plaster houses, the labor to open and rebuild the wall can be higher, but you gain both floor space and wall utility. A safer, cheaper move is to hang the door to swing outward into the hall. It changes egress but makes the bath feel larger from the first step. If privacy is a worry, a soft-close surface-mounted barn-style track can work, but pick a design with a bottom guide so the door doesn’t rattle during winter drafts.
Back-of-door storage only works if you choose the right components. Avoid deep over-the-door racks that clank. Instead, mount a rail with hooks low enough for kids, plus a shallow lidded bin near the hinge for spare soaps or wipes. Keep it slender so it doesn’t create an obstacle when the door opens.
Showers that store more than they soak
Sliding bypass doors on a tub or shower save space and open up accessory options. Instead of a curtain that billows inward on a winter day when the heat pump cycles, a frameless bypass gives you a rigid plane and still lets you reach fixtures without stepping in. If you do keep a curtain, choose a curved rod set higher than eye level, then mount a narrow shelf above the rod line. The shelf sits over the towel bar and holds extra towels. It sounds small, but in a five-by-eight bath every layer counts.
Shower niches should be sized and sloped properly. We slope the bottom tile about 1/16 inch per inch for drainage, use a single slab or a bullnosed tile to avoid grout joints where gunk gathers, and always waterproof with a sheet membrane or liquid-applied system. A 12 by 24 inch niche split with a shelf gives you space for tall bottles below and short items above. If the wall is exterior, consider insulated niche boxes or bump the niche out with a shelf instead of cutting into the cavity.
For tub-shower combos, an apron with a small pull-down panel offers a place for cleaning tools. We rarely see it in catalogs, but a carpenter can build a discreet access panel that doubles as a shallow cubby for a scrub brush and small bottle of cleaner. It saves trips under the kitchen sink and encourages quick wipe-downs that prevent mold.
Lighting and mirrors that double as storage
Light is a form of storage. If you can see clearly, you need less space for duplicate items. Layer task, ambient, and accent lighting so you can find what you need without rummaging.
I’m partial to mirrored cabinets with integrated lighting on each side. They eliminate shadows on your face and make a small room feel twice as wide. Some models include demisters and internal outlets. They cost more up front, but they let you skip separate sconces and a GFCI on the wall, simplifying the layout. In a compact bathroom remodeling Lansing project near MSU, a 24 inch lighted cabinet replaced two tired sconces, freeing the side walls for narrow recessed shelves. The storage netted out higher, not lower.
If you choose a plain mirror, add a slim shelf beneath it for daily-use items. Even a 2 inch deep ledge holds lip balm, floss, or that glass you never want near the sink edge. Space the shelf so it doesn’t crowd the faucet handles, and keep finishes that can handle splashes.
Smart material choices that don’t fight you
Clutter grows where surfaces collect water, lint, and dust. Certain finishes help you stay ahead of it. Large-format tile reduces grout joints, which cuts down on grout lines you’d have to scrub. Semi-gloss paint on walls cleans easily and reflects light, making the room feel larger. Matte black hardware hides smudges but can show mineral deposits. Brushed nickel or stainless tends to strike a balance in hard-water areas around Lansing.
Shelves that wipe clean make storage usable. Shallow tempered glass shelves show what’s there and discourage overfilling. If you prefer wood, seal it well. I like white oak or maple with a marine-grade varnish in baths. Stay away from highly figured open-grain species unless sealed thoroughly, because product spills will darken the grain over time.
Heating, ventilation, and the storage ripple effect
Ventilation isn’t glamorous, but it protects storage from moisture. A quiet fan with a humidity sensor keeps towels from getting musty in winter when houses are sealed tight. Look for fans rated around 1.0 sones or less and sized appropriately for your room. In a typical 5 by 8 bath with an 8 foot ceiling, that’s 40 cubic feet per minute by volume math, but real-world needs push that to 80 CFM minimum. If your fan exhausts through a long duct run in the attic, size up to 110 CFM to overcome resistance, and insulate the duct to prevent condensation that can drip back.
Hydronic baseboard heaters under vanities limit cabinet options. If you plan to swap to electric radiant floor heat, you can reclaim that wall for storage and enjoy warm tile in January. Floor heat also dries bath mats faster, which means you can keep fewer towels in circulation. That’s storage you feel, not just see.
The case for custom - and when stock cabinets win
Not every small bath needs custom cabinetry. Off-the-shelf vanities and medicine cabinets from Lansing suppliers can be durable and affordable. Stock sizes like 24, 30, and 36 inches cover most scenarios, and you can add organizers inside to tame the space.
Custom earns its keep when the room has oddities. Slanted ceilings in upstairs dormers. Narrow alcoves. Plumbing stacks that refuse to budge. In those cases, a local contractor or millworker can build a vanity to the inch, tuck a shallow tower behind a door, or integrate a laundry chute door with a cabinet face. I worked on a Westside two-story where we built a 9 inch deep full-height cabinet that stepped around a vent stack. It looked like part of the wall paneling. That single piece held all the family’s bath supplies and freed the vanity to be a clean drawer base with zero clutter on top.
For budget context, a stock vanity with top and basic plumbing swap can run anywhere from $1,200 to $3,000 installed, depending on faucet and sink choices. A semi-custom vanity with plywood box, quality hardware, and a quartz top can land between $3,500 and $6,500. Full custom with integrated towers, specialty finishes, and custom tops might range higher, especially if we’re moving plumbing.
Hidden helpers: organizers that actually work
The best bathroom remodeling Lansing homeowners brag about later usually includes small inserts that keep chaos at bay. But they have to fit the items you actually use.
Shallow drawer inserts for makeup and grooming work if the compartments are under 3 inches deep. Anything deeper and you stack things, which recreates the junk drawer problem. Adjustable dividers beat fixed cubbies in shared baths where needs change. For doors, a small caddy on the inside holds cleaning spray and spare sponges. Stick with low-profile designs so door hinges don’t bind.
Magnetic strips inside medicine cabinets keep tweezers and nail clippers in plain sight. A vertical file organizer mounted inside a tall cabinet turns flat items like hair irons and cutting guides vertical. Label the shelves lightly. Labels sound fussy, but in households with kids or guests, they reduce the “Where does this go?” friction that leads to piles on the counter.
Plumbing choices that unlock space
Wall-hung toilets are underrated space makers. By moving the tank into the wall, you visually free up floor and gain the chance to run a shelf across the top of the carrier. In a tight bath, that shelf can connect to a side cabinet, creating a continuous line that doubles as storage and a ledge for decor. Expect a higher upfront cost for the carrier and installation, but the payoff is a cleaner footprint and easier cleaning around the base.
Single-hole faucets simplify the countertop and leave more usable surface. If you prefer widespread faucets, choose compact handles so they don’t crowd your soap. A deep, narrow sink bowl with vertical walls gives you the same volume as a wide, shallow sink but leaves an extra inch or two of counter at the sides. Those inches hold a soap pump or tumbler without hanging over the edge.
For shower valves, a thermostatic unit lets you mount the on-off control closer to the entrance and the head farther away. That way, you can turn the water on without stepping into spray. It’s not storage, but it changes how you use the space and helps you keep shelves tidy because you aren’t dodging water while putting bottles away.
Sequencing the work so storage comes out right
Many small-bath projects balloon because decisions happen in the wrong order. Storage is one of those decisions. Decide early, before drywall, where your recesses, electrical, and blocking go. Blocking means pieces of 2 by lumber between studs that hold future screws. If you plan a recessed cabinet, a heavy mirror, or a tall tower, ask your contractor to add blocking at the exact heights. You’ll get a solid mount and avoid molly bolts into crumbly plaster.
Tiling around niches takes time. A tile setter slows down to miter or edge those openings. If you’re trying to keep labor hours in check, limit yourself to one main niche, one recessed medicine cabinet, and one over-the-toilet cabinet. Do three things perfectly rather than six things that are “fine” but cost more in time.
If you need permits, the City of Lansing or East Lansing will care most about electrical, plumbing, and ventilation. Storage changes rarely trigger extra scrutiny, but recessed cabinets with outlets do. Coordinate with your licensed trades so the inspector sees a clean, code-compliant plan. A good contractor in Lansing MI will stage inspections to keep the project moving, especially in winter when backlog can stretch.
Real examples from small bathroom remodeling in Lansing
A 5 by 8 hall bath near Old Town had this brief: no more cluttered counter, space for backup supplies, and a brighter feel without moving walls. We chose a 30 inch vanity with three drawers, added a 6 inch pull-out for hair tools, swapped in a 24 inch recessed lighted medicine cabinet, and recessed a 24 by 12 niche in the shower on the interior wall. Above the toilet, a 9 inch deep cabinet matched the trim color. We rehung the door to swing out and replaced the baseboard heat under the vanity with electric floor heat. Out of pocket, the storage-related elements accounted for about a quarter of the $18,000 project. The client’s counter stayed clear, and towels dried faster with the better fan and heated floor.
A basement bath in a Mid-Century near Moores Park had plumbing fixed in concrete and no room for a bigger vanity. We leaned into recesses: a full-height recessed cabinet in the stud bay behind the door, a slim shelf over the shower rod, and a floating vanity with a drawer. We painted the walls a pale neutral, used a big mirror to reflect light, and tucked a bin system into the wall cabinet. The floor felt bigger because nothing heavy touched it, yet the bath stored more than before.
These aren’t high-drama remodels. They’re the kind that make daily life easier, which is the quiet measure of best bathroom remodeling Lansing homeowners recommend to friends.
Budgeting and trade-offs, plainly
You can do a lot with a small budget if you target labor where it matters. Recessed medicine cabinets and shower niches add cost because they require framing and waterproofing detail, but they pay you back in usable inches. Over-the-toilet cabinets are cheaper, especially if surface-mounted. Pocket doors cost more than outswing swaps. Wall-hung toilets cost more than floor-mounted, but they keep the floor open and ease cleaning.
Materials affect cost and maintenance. Quartz tops resist staining better than marble and don’t need sealing. Porcelain tile outperforms ceramic in durability and gives you more sizing options. Semi-custom vanities with plywood boxes hold hardware better than particle board in humid baths, which matters if you plan to load drawers heavily.
If the choice is between one tall storage cabinet and better ventilation plus two smart recesses, pick the latter. Fewer pieces, done well, get used. Tall units stuffed into corners often become catchalls for things you never need in the bath.
Working with a contractor in Lansing MI
A capable contractor understands both building code and how people actually use bathrooms. Ask yours to walk the room with you and physically mark proposed cabinet edges and door swings with painter’s tape. Bring the items you want to store in a tote. Place them where they’d live. If the plan doesn’t accommodate your electric toothbrush, favorite hair dryer, backup shampoo, and a week’s worth of towels for the household, keep sketching.
Timelines vary by season. In winter, schedules can be busy with indoor projects. Lead times for vanities and specialty cabinets range from two to eight weeks depending on brand. Tile is usually available faster, but trim paint and custom finishes can run longer during peak months. A typical small bath with moderate storage upgrades, without moving walls, takes two to three weeks once demolition starts, assuming inspections line up and no surprises lurk behind the walls.
If your bath shares a wall with a kitchen, coordinate any kitchen remodeling at the same time if you can. Trades like plumbing and electrical can combine visits, which saves mobilization costs. I’ve had clients doing kitchen remodeling Lansing MI projects who piggybacked a bath niche or medicine cabinet wiring while the electrician was already on site.
A simple plan you can adapt
- Decide on three core storage moves: one recessed medicine cabinet, one shower niche, and one over-the-toilet cabinet. Add a vanity with drawers and, if space allows, a 6 inch pull-out. Choose door strategy: pocket, outswing, or upgraded hinges, then claim behind-the-door space with a slim hook rail. Confirm blocking, electrical, and waterproofing for all storage before drywall. Label heights and widths on studs with marker.
Those steps keep the project focused. If you have the appetite and budget, layer in extras like a wall-hung toilet with a shelf, a floating vanity, or a recessed tall cabinet.
Small space, big payoff
Small bathrooms in Lansing can carry a surprising load if every element earns its keep. Recess what you can. Keep depth in check where bodies move. Prefer drawers to doors. Use doors and walls for skinny storage. Vent well so towels and cabinets stay dry. Work with a contractor who measures in inches and sketches around your real stuff, not a showroom’s ideal.
When you take that approach, you don’t need to chase square footage. The room becomes calm and efficient, which is what most of us want at 6:30 in the morning when the house is waking up and the hot water line is humming. Storage isn’t just places to hide things. It’s a way to make a small bathroom feel generous, even in the heart of winter, even with the door closed and the fan humming quietly above.