Shelf Life

The medicine cabinet is a highly useful invention, but it has seen few innovations since man first thought to stash his Band-Aids and prescription- drug bottles behind the bathroom mirror. That finally changed, however, at January’s Maison et Objet, in Paris, where the German manufacturer Authentics exhibited a new line of bathroom accessories by the London design studio Doshi Levien. The centerpiece of its collection, called Kali, is a charming medicine cabinet with several key improvements over the standard variety. For one, it has an electric socket built into the interior, a boon for Sonicare converts tired of keeping their toothbrush-charging bases on display. Even better, the cabinet shelving itself is customizable: users can insert up to four glass shelves into slots in the ASA-plastic body, then slide them to create the desired arrangement of interior and exterior storage space. That way, frequently used toiletries can be within easy reach, while your oversize Selsun Blue bottle can remain, thankfully, out of sight.