Patent Application
20250151896
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The disclosure relates to recessed cabinets and more particularly pertains to a new recessed cabinet for storing toilet cleaning accessories.
The prior art relates to recessed cabinets. The prior art discloses decorative recessed cabinets with trim pieces that act as a perimetric limit stop to set the depth that the cabinet is inserted into the frame wall. The prior art also discloses mounting methods for securing recessed cabinets within frame walls, such as arrangements of slots or apertures and pegs or other fasteners that secure the cabinet within the frame wall. Some recessed cabinets are designed for bathroom use, for example recessed medicine cabinets with hinged doors having shelving arranged within the interior of the cabinet. However, those medicine cabinets are generally designed and configured to hold hygiene supplies for personal use and are ill-equipped to store cleaning products such as toilet brushes and plungers. For example, such toilet cleaning devices are often wet after use, dripping toilet water onto the surface of wherever they are stored. Accordingly, various caddies and holders have been designed to hold the plunger cup or brush head thereby containing the water and reducing the amount that drips onto the floor or other areas of the bathroom. However, such solutions still leave the toilet cleaning devices sitting openly in the bathroom. Thus, there is a need in the art for a storage solution that can contain the water dripping from the cleaning devices while subtly placing the cleaning devices out of direct view within the bathroom space.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a cabinet having a housing with a rear wall, a front wall, and a peripheral wall extending between the rear wall and the front wall to define an interior space between the rear wall and the front wall. The front wall is movably coupled to the peripheral wall such that the front wall is openable to provide access to the interior space. The cabinet also includes a lip having opposite ends coupled to the peripheral wall and being spaced from the rear wall. The lip has a bottom edge coupled to the peripheral wall between the opposite ends of the lip, wherein the lip defines a well at a bottom of the interior space whereby the lip is configured to retain a fluid within the well. The cabinet may be recessively mounted within a frame wall in a bathroom.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter, and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The housing 20 may be any shape, although the embodiments in the figures depict the housing 20 having a rectangular shape. In some embodiments, the housing 20 comprises wood, or a wood-like material. In other embodiments, the housing 20 comprises other natural or synthetic materials.
The front wall 24 is movably coupled to the peripheral wall 26 such that the front wall 24 is openable to provide access to the interior space 28. For example, a hinge 34 may pivotably couple the front wall 24 to one side of the peripheral wall 26. In other examples, the front wall 24 may be slidably coupled to the peripheral wall 26, for example comprising a roller door that can extend and retract from the peripheral wall, a retractable door, or a tilt-up door. Additionally, although the figures depict the front wall 24 being pivotably attached to one side of the peripheral wall 26, in other embodiments, the front wall 24 may be movably coupled to the peripheral wall 26 adjacent the top side 30 or the bottom side 32.
In some embodiments, a closure 36 is attached to the housing 20 that releasably secures the front wall 24 against the peripheral wall 26 in a closed position. In other embodiments, the closure 36 is omitted and the front wall resist against the peripheral wall 26 in the closed position. For example, the hinge 34 may be configured to bias the front wall 24 against the peripheral wall 26. Some embodiments of the closure 36 may comprise a first magnetically active material 38 that is positioned on the front wall 24 and a second magnetically active material 40 that is positioned on the peripheral wall 26. The second magnetically active material 40 is in alignment with the first magnetically active material 38 when the front wall 24 is in the closed position. The first 38 and the second 40 magnetically active materials can be magnetically attached to each other thereby removably coupling the front wall 24 to the peripheral wall 26. For example, as shown in
The recessed storage device 10 also generally include a lip 42 having opposite ends 44 that are each coupled to the peripheral wall 26. The lip 42 is generally spaced from the rear wall 22. The lip 42 has a bottom edge 46 that is coupled to the peripheral wall 26 between the opposite ends 44 of the lip 42. Thus, the lip 42 defines a well 48 at the bottom side 32 of the interior space 28 whereby the lip 42 is configured to retain a liquid (not shown) within the well 48. In other words, when toilet cleaning accessories 62 such as a toilet plunger 64 or toilet cleaning brush 66 are placed within the interior space 28 after being used to clean a toilet, those accessories 62 can drip-dry in the well 48. The dirty water and other liquids therefore do not spread across the bathroom floor or any other surface and are retained within the well 48 thereby keeping those other surfaces cleaner and more sanitary. In some embodiments, the lip 42 may be plastic or a plastic material to facilitate easy cleaning of the recessed storage device 10.
To further facilitate cleanliness, a liner 50 may cover an interior surface of the housing 20. The interior surface is generally positioned on the front wall 24, the rear wall 22, and the peripheral wall 26 within the interior space 28. In some embodiments, the liner 50 covers the entire interior surface, covering all of the front 24, rear 22, and peripheral 26 walls. In other embodiments, the liner 50 only covers some of the interior surface, for example the bottom side 32 of the interior area or the peripheral wall 26. The liner 50 may be plastic or a plastic material. Other materials that are easily cleaned, relatively non-porous, and resistant to water damage may also be used. The liner 50 protects the wood or wood material of the housing 20 from absorbing the water or other liquids that may drip from the cleaning accessories 62. The liner 50 may also protect the housing 20 materials from damage that could be caused by cleaning solutions such as bleach.
To facilitate mounting the recessed storage device 10 within a wall, the peripheral wall 26 may have a plurality of apertures 52 extending therethrough. The plurality of apertures 52 are configured to receive a plurality of fasteners 54, such as nails, screws, pegs, or other fasteners. The plurality of fasteners 54 are configured to secure the housing 20 within a cutout 56 formed in a wall 58. For example, the housing 20 may be installed in a bathroom wall 58 near a toilet for convenient use of the toilet cleaning accessories 62. When the housing 20 is mounted within the cutout 56, the front wall 24 opens outwardly from the bathroom wall 58. In the embodiments shown in
In use, the cutout 26 may be formed in the wall 58 of the bathroom. The cutout 26 should have dimensions that are configured to receive the housing 20 of the recessed storage device 10. The recessed storage device 10 may be positioned within the cutout 56 and secured by coupling the plurality of fasteners 54 to the wall 58 through the plurality of apertures 52. Once the recessed storage device 10 is mounted within the frame wall 58, the cleaning accessories 62 can be placed within the interior space 28. For example, the cleaning accessories 62 may include a toilet plunger 64 and a toilet cleaning brush 66, as well as bleach products, drain snakes, or other supplies. When the recessed storage device 10 is mounted within a bathroom wall 58 proximate the toilet, the cleaning accessories 62 are easily accessible for cleaning the toilet and can be quickly put away after use, minimizing the amount of toilet water or other fluids that drip onto the floor from the accessories 62. The toilet plunger 64 and toilet brush 66 may also be stored out of sight within the bathroom, making the space look and feel cleaner and more sanitary.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the elements is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
