Bathroom vanity ideas

[Nathan Hoffman]

I am going to build the vanity for our master bedroom in our new house, and I'm looking for some ideas. My thought is to take the basic shape of this sofa table from Woodsmith, but customize it to fit our room. It will be built in, but I want it to look like a piece of furniture. If I take this basic idea and go with one door on each side and a set of drawers in the middle, what do you think? LOML wants a laminate top with wood edges and 2 sinks. Basic size to be about 62" long and 22" wide. I am going to try to post a picture of it, but here is the address of where the picture is: http://www.woodsmith.com/main/sofatable-bookcase.html

Any ideas or suggestions? I am especially curious about how to attach it to the wall and still make it look freestanding.

[Lee Schierer]

Here's the one I made from a similar idea. I would suggest you check with your better hallf and see if she wants it to be open underneath. Mine was very firm that she didn't care to see what would collect under there if it was raised off the floor on feet like the original we saw.
http://home.earthlink.net/~us71na/BROOM3.JPG

Just make sure you leave enough room inside for the sink and associated fittings. Will the plumbing go out the back or the bottom?

[Todd Burch]

Nathan, that will be a FINE looking double vanity!

I have a couple thoughts for you.

The more built-ins I do, the more I learn about making life easy on myself. Make your frame and panel carcase with your legs, but don't put panels in the back of it, unless you are absolutely bent on trying to make the cut-outs for the plumbing picture perfect. Paint the wall behind the vanity first, and the just slide the piece up to it and screw it to the studs. If you want, you can put a back on the middle drawer-box section, but it's not needed.

On your rear stiles, allow extra length where they will be next to the wall. Scribe the stiles to fit the wall and be snug from floor to counter. You'll want two or three screws per side, and maybe a couple in the middle too. If your rear stile (behind the case) is 3/4" thick, and the sheetrock is 1/2" thick, you'll want to use 2 (OK) or 2½" (better) long screws. Don't screw into a water pipe! Run a fine bead of caulk between the case and wall after your screws are in. If your walls aren't white, use a 1" sash brush to cut a fine line and paint over the white caulk.

If that room has a baseboard, you can run it up to the case legs and butt it there, and then continue again under the case.

If you really want a fine furniture look - nix the cheap-looking plastic laminate counter and go with a single slab granite or other natural stone (I think granite is the best). Under mount sinks look great with granite, and that also makes the counter top super easy to clean and wipe up.

Todd

[Nathan Hoffman]

I am planning to run bead board on the wall of this room, up about 4 feet, so the vanity will be against that on the wall. I wasn’t going to put a panel in the back, just a frame to keep it stiff enough. I’m not sure what you mean, Todd, about keeping the rear stiles long. Do you mean the ones that are behind the case, or the ones on the sides in back? I like the idea of adding the baseboard later, even though it will make it look more “built in”, it will be a lot cleaner. LOML made it clear that the plastic laminate is not a negotiable point, but I gave up on that one since the budget is very limited and it should be easy enough to redo the top and sinks down the road if the $$$ situation changes. She really only wanted a particle board HD style vanity, and she doesn’t always like me “complicating” things on our house project by doing a lot of custom details. That being said, she is starting to get into it and was helping me in the shop until 11:30 last night making window trim.

Lee, I did talk my wife into the ‘off the floor’ look, but I like the way you achieve the separate leg look and filled in behind it to keep out dust. I may do that since I know LOML would really like to have it closed.

I’m not sure on the wood yet, but the bead board is going to be white, and the trim is probably going to be a clear tight grain wood like maple stained a dark mahogany color. The laminate top is going to be some variation of blue

[Todd Burch]

Hi Nathan. I meant the back stiles on the ends of the vanity - the side that touchs the wall. Not the stiles on the back of the case.

I went to a granite yard over the weekend with 2 different clients. MAN, what an awesome experience! They stock around 123 differernt types of granite from Brazil - some were to die for. So now, I'm hot for using granite on tops!

[Chris Padilla]

How about a nice slab of Bu-Bu-Bubinga? :D

[Chris Padilla]

My wife is into a more contemporary look. Yeah, I have a nice CMT raised panel set whose carbide has yet to bite wood.... :(

I gutted this 1/2 bath and redid everything myself. Found mice in the walls so I'm glad I took down all the drywall. Some minor reframing was in order, all new plumbing, new floor (green marble tiles), built the vanity and medicine/towel cabinet, corian/sink combo top, all new hardware, all new trim, new lights, new switches, new fan, new, new.... :)

[Mark Hulette]

Chris-
I'm not normally a "modern" fan but that is an amazing transformation! I especially like the faucet and the built-in magazine rack! Nice work.

Good thread, too.

[Chris Padilla]

Thank you, Mark. I was impressed with the transformation myself! :) LOML picks all the colors, styles and does the initial cabinet design work. Then I get to "make it happen."

However, I am proud to say that the built-in magazine rack was all my idea! I recall taking the toilet into the room and setting it down and looking around at the room and I noticed how the framing looked like it could accomodate a magazine. Quickly I grabbed a handful of mags and sure enough, even with 1/2" drywall, they fit very nicely. I sat on the toilet, marked a comfortable height, and "made it so."

Getting the drawer bar secured as a mag holder was another story entirely!

[Jim Becker]

I gutted this 1/2 bath and redid everything myself.

Wow, Chris, that's a huge transformation! Magazine quality!! Everything "works"... :)

[Chris Padilla]

Few more angles....

[Todd Burch]

Uh oh - shouldn't have posted that worm's eye angle - I see a gap at the top of the inset shelf.... oops.

I really like the inset shelf with lighting. In a close-quarter spot like right next to the toilet, an inset shelf is a fantastic idea. I guess if you think about it - there is a WHOLE lot of wasted space in a house between walls that could use used like that.

[Chris Padilla]

Yeah...I knew I'd get some flack for that! :)

I should take a more recent picture...that "medicine cabinet" (towel storage and lilac scented spray) is in and covers the gap no problem.

I am kind of an inset/alcove lover. I try to put them in where I can. I managed 3 in this tiny bathroom! :D The only thing, they are tough to mud and tape smoothly or at least I haven't figured out the trick.

[Todd Burch]

Chris, build a wood box and inset it. A thin picture frame could wrap the edges and hide the edge of the drywall. I've done that before. Too simple. But, it's not quite as "contemporary" as your method.

[Nathan Hoffman]

Chris,

I, too, love little alcoves and built ins. I've been driving my wife crazy in building our house with all of the little alcoves and jogs in the wall so there are places to build in bookcases, etc. I like your idea, Todd, about the box and the picture frame - that would work well in my house, because we are doing a lot of it in a formal style, like Federal or Georgian. What are the insets made of, Chris - just drywall?

[Don Abele]

Chris, did you use aluminum corner bead? You ususally use it on outside corners with drywall. I've made a few alcoves myself in the past and that's what I used, made it real easy.

Be well,

Doc

BTW: I like the way the lights make the "throne" glow :D

[Chris Padilla]

The insets were framed in since I did a full gut of the room and then drywalled over. The back of the insets is simply the back of the drywall on the other side of the wall...I just mudded it relatively thickly. I did use Al corner beading.

The issue with mudding and taping was difficult with the magazine rack due to its small size and you can only do opposite sides at a time. In the end, I ended up cutting down a cheapie plastic drywall knife to help with spreading the mud smoothly but I still don't have the technique down.

Here are a few more shots I took last night of the "medicine" (towel) cabinet above the throne.

Basically, I just made a square box and then dadoed away about a 1/4" or so all the way around to inset the box. We wanted just that extra couple of inches of depth in order to house several towels more easily. While doing that, I came up with the idea of adding a small extension to house the Glade spray (lilac aroma no less!).

My routing of the rabbett for the glass didn't turn out so well but I was in a hurry and tried to be too perfect with getting the glass seated but you don't usually see this side anyway so oh well. :)

Thanks very much, Everyone, for your kind thoughts. I guess my wife does know colors! :)

[Scott Coffelt]

I have been designing an upgrade to our master bath, may wish to hijack a couple of ideas. The mag rack is a great idea.

[Chris Padilla]

Scott,
I'll email you a little form to fill out with a small filing fee and then you are free to use any of the ideas! ;)

My wife picked out a drawer pull to use for the mag rack holder.:confused: If you go that route (and you should try and steer CLEAR of it!), let me know and I'll tell you what I did to cleanly install it. I even have some leftover parts that I could give you that might help depending on your situation.

[Scott Coffelt]

I see that it seems to be a real interesting way to do it, since you can't easily get to the back to screw. I'll let you know when I get that far. I am going to a home remodeling show this weekend and may get some ideas for cabinets and other things. I don't plan to start until at least this spring.

[Nathan Hoffman]

Here is the vanity idea after some dimensional tweaking to make it fit my location. The top is 60" X 23" and is 31" high. What is a standard vanity height? The front of the vanity has a door on each side and a set of 3 drawers in the middle. I didn't want to take the time to add all of that detail since I did this in Unigraphics and I don't have enough time during lunch to make a real model.

Feedback on the overall appearance? I'm not sure I like the resulting proportions, but the space is only 68" wide and I want it to look freestanding, hence the 60".

[Chris Padilla]

Nathan,

The height should be something that is comfortable to you and your family.

I had a lot of fun getting my height right. For starters, I had to make sure I was damn accurate about it since my faucet went into the wall! On top of that, I pulled out the old floor.

Just make sure you measure everything carefully and then go ahead and build the legs a tad longer just in case. :)

[Jim DeLaney]

Here is the vanity idea after some dimensional tweaking to make it fit my location. The top is 60" X 23" and is 31" high. What is a standard vanity height...


31" seems a bit low. I just tore one out that was 32", and I've been uncomfortable with it for a long time. My 5'0" tall wife decided she wants one between 34 & 35" high, so that's what I'm currently working on.

FWIW, that'll make it about an inch lower than my workbench, which is a very comfortable height, so I figure it ought to work quite well. YMMV