Good Questions: Shelf Brackets for Medicine Cabinets?

Reader Simi needs some advice: I live in an average Manhattan apartment with an average Manhattan medicine cabinet in our bathroom (with glass shelves). Do you know where I can find the "clips" to hold each glass shelf?

(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first. Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: newyork(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com)

Anyone?

Comments (9)

Take one of the clips you have to your local hardware store - they'll be able to get you what you need.

yeah, i was going to say...wild guess but anywhere that sells medicine cabinets!

I went through this a couple of months ago and also reside in NYC. I don't have good news for you, except that I've already done the grunt work and may save you a lot of time. Nobody has these clips, nobody. I went to approximately 25-30 hardware stores, clips in hand, and got as many funny looks and negative responses. So what did I do? I' pretty much given up when one day I was walking by a building in the east village that was being renovated. There was a medicine cabinet, among other fixtures, outside by the curb that had just been placed there. I walked by it, and then turned around to check it out. I opened the door to the medicine cabinet and, lo and behold, inside were shelves and clips. I popped out the clips, washed them thoroughly, and have been using them ever since. Good luck!

Hon office shelves use similar clips. Not sure if they sell these separately as replacement parts or if they are the right size for a medicine cabinet, but worth a call I suppose.

Or you could fashion a few thin wood strips (with at least 1/8" projection) glued/nailed to either side of the cabinet for your glass to rest on and paint them out the same color as the medicine cab.

there's a hardware company called hafele that carries those types of shelf clips a about a hundred different varieties, both metal and plastic. they have a location in new york on 26th street, and i bet if you stopped by they might be able to help you out.

their number is 212.897.4460

I made a few calls around for you (out of curiosity). The part is called a "pilaster clip" (term used for clip/brackets that have side to side slot holes rather than the up and down variety (like elfa). and I found this online: http://www.cabinetparts.com/shop_2008/categories/?cat=1163.

Maybe that will do the trick. Good luck.

If you live on the Upper West Side, University Hardware is the place to go (114th and Broadway). They'll hunt down the tiniest, lowest-profit-margin items imaginable, and cheerfully. I recently went in to get "the little plastic thingie that holds my bathroom lighting fixture's glass in place." They went to the basement and got me the very thing I needed, for less than a buck. I love this store.

Hurray! After struggling with tippy shelves in our antique medicine cabinet using the standard pilaster clips, I finally found a pilaster clip + shelf combo on a few online resources:

http://www.plumbersurplus.com/Prod/Knape-Vogt-243-ZC-243-Series-Shelf-Pilaster-Support/223011/Cat/1644

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006FKPF4/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details