Bathroom vanity

[Jesse McGowan]

I am building a vanity for our master bathroom. It will be 78" long, with drawers on either side, and doors in the center. The drawer fronts and doors will be inset into the face frame. It will have a single, low, wide vessel sink in the center. The exterior and top will be walnut.

The front corners will be made to have the look of furniture legs. I just finished carving the lambs tongues on these parts, my first time doing anything like this, and I'm quite pleased!

Practice piece on off-cut:
Applied sample finish: Heritage oil finish plus Lockwoods oil soluble dye in dark walnut
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Completed parts:
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I had trouble holding the first part in the vise, so I made this little adapter:
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Here is what is looks like against the cabinet box:
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[Jesse McGowan]

I dressed off a bunch of the 4/4 stock and got the front face frame together. I test fit it on the installed carcasses. Everything looked good, with small overlap everywhere.
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I also milled up the profile for rails and stiles of the doors and the cabinet end cover panels.
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[Jesse McGowan]

I got the side panels put together . I also go the top glued up, sized, and profiled. I stilll need to scribe it to the wall. I also still need to attach everything to the boxes.
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[Jim Becker]

Great start on that nice vanity!


I find this project interesting as it somewhat mirrors what I'd like to do with the vanity in our master bath here at our "downsize" property. The current two bowl 1993 design has significant compromises on counter space with virtually unusable cabinet space below. It's rare that Professor Dr SWMBO and I need to use a sink simultaneously, if at all. And we adore drawers. Your build is helping to cement where I want to go with things here. Thanks!

[Jesse McGowan]

Thanks for the encouragement, Jim. My wife and I are getting pretty excited to have a vanity in our bathroom at last. I think you are right that there are few times that a second sink would be needed.

I got the rest of the bits and pieces made up this weekend. Here everything is just balancing in place, but nothing is attached. After the photo, I dragged everything back out to the shop for finishing.

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

Nice looking vanity Jesse! Can't wait to see it finished!

[Jesse McGowan]

Thanks, Ken!

We had a busy weekend with a lot of good family time, but I still managed to make some progress. I applied finish to all the walnut, assembled the drawer boxes, attached the face frame and side panels, and wired the switches for the lights above the mirrors. I integrated the switches into the side panels of the cabinet. There is a 3 way switch on each end, so you can turn both sets of lights on or off from either end.

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[Jeff Monson]

Thats very nice!! Lambs tounge I have not seen before but it sure looks great. Clever way to control the lights also.

[Jesse McGowan]

I put the done stamp on this project yesterday! We wrapped up assembly, plumbing, and wiring. We moved our stuff into the cabinet, and got a few new plants to decorate. The little drinking cup in the third picture is one of my wife's first pottery creations. I'm looking forward to swapping out more of the plant containers for her items.
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We both love having lots of big drawers. We each plan to keep our daily-use stuff in one of the top drawers, keeping it easily accessible but neat and tidy. My wife had the clever idea to use a flatware organizer for her stuff. She is tickled with the outcome!
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I also added an outlet in her middle drawer. This allows the hair dryer to be stored plugged in and ready to use. I achieved this with a power strip and some cable carrier drag chain. The power strip includes a few USB ports, which should be nice with some many things charge by USB these days. It came with a male plug end, but I cut that off and hard wired it into a junction box in the center cabinet. The cable carrier protects the cable and ensure it travels in a predictable path. I also installed a second power strip, just like this one in the center cabinet. Our cordless waterpik is charging in there.
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All the tools are hauled back out to the shop, but I still need to spend a couple hours cleaning and organizing out there. I'll just need to choose some good tunes to listen to for that task :)

[Jim Becker]

That project really looks wonderful! Good idea with the drag chain, too. (taking note of that for the future. :) )

[Bob Riefer]

Wow, really awesome job, and thank you for documenting along the way because it really does help guys like me pickup new ideas and approaches etc. Many cool details and nice execution!

[Jesse McGowan]

Thanks, Jim and Bob. It was a fun project, but I didn't even last 1 day before dreaming up a couple new projects to start.

[Jim W. White]

Sweet execution!

[Mike Allen1010]

Very well done indeed Jesse! What a beautiful piece that you and your wife will get to enjoy every day. Thanks much for posting the pictures! In my experience, a beautiful cabinet like yours usually leads to requests for other similar built-ins. I'm sure you're up to the task!

Cheers, Mike

[Jesse McGowan]

Thanks for the kind words, Mike and Jim! We have both really been enjoying all the drawer space. We are also finding that the single sink works well even when we are getting ready at the same time.

More built-ins are certainly in the plan, and I'm looking forward to it. For now, I'm working on a guitar amp build with my daughter.