Cabinetry: Form versus Function

Our cabinet order needs to be finalized stat. It was supposed to be taken care of last week, but our builder is out of town with his family and, as such, our vendor slacked a bit. And now, in typical Niki fashion, I am rethinking a few things at the last second. As it is designed our master bathroom has a built-in tub deck flanked by open shelving.

I was worried that this open shelving wouldn't be as functional as it was aesthetic, so I brought our vendor this image and had him add a forward facing shelving unit to our vanity.

The cabinet drawing looked something like this when it was done. The shelving is 13" deep and runs to the ceiling. I thought I would fold towels and have things that we use daily (q-tips, skin products, etc.) displayed here in an easy to reach space.  

But I worry that 13" isn't enough depth for all of the functionality I want to create. And after seeing our bathroom drywalled I worried that the extra height shelf on the vanity would make our bathroom feel more closed in than it is in actuality.

{ our layout has been slightly modified since, but this is the rough layout }

{ paint, tile and fixture selections }

Today I took some time to mock up our vanity in photoshop to see how I'd feel with the tall cabinet staying versus removing it and I like it both ways. Here were some of my inspiration photos and the resulting drawings. 

#1: no cabinet, 2 mirrors, 4 sconces

#2: no cabinet, 2 mirrors, 3 sconces

#3: tall cabinet, 1 mirror, 2 sconces

#4: tall cabinet, 2 mirrors, 4 sconces

The twins came down with fevers this morning and we have a showing this afternoon, so in between tending to the wee ones and cleaning my house within an inch of its life, I'll be staring at these images trying to make a decision. Fingers crossed that this is the showing that sells our house, I'm so tired of living in a museum.