Bathroom vanity

[Shawn Christ]

Here are pics of my most recent project - a bathroom vanity cabinet. Completed for a coworker and only my second customer project. They saw a vanity they wanted at Lowe's but didn't want to pay $800 to special order a 42" cabinet.

The model cabinet was completely frameless, euro-style. This wouldn't work in their application because the cabinet will sit up against a side wall next to door trim. So I opted for a hybrid euro cabinet with a 1-inch perimeter frame, as found on another thread here.

This is my first vanity project and first attempt with dovetail construction. The carcass was assembled with dado joints, glued and screwed where the heads would not be visible. I also used pocket holes and screws to attach the face frame.

Cabinet: 3/4 B-2 birch ply (from Menards - I was impressed with this)
1/4 poplar ply back
Doors, drawers, and door fronts: 4/4 poplar
Slides: economy 100 lb. full ext (from wwhardware.com - also impressed)
Hinges: Blum 120-degree (also from wwhardware.com)
Exterior finish: Benjamin Moore Regal 100% acrylic pearl finish paint
Interior finish: Minwax water-based polyurethane

This was a good learning experience for me. I am a SLOW woodworker; spend way too much time thinking about my next step in order to avoid mistakes. I'm ashamed to admit this took me about 85 hours to complete.

Hopefully my coworker and his wife will like this...

[Jason Tuinstra]

Great looking piece. I'm sure your coworker will be thrilled.

[John Keeton]

Shawn, I think the vanity turned out great, and I am sure it is of significantly better quality than the BORG one.

It was also a good lesson in economics for you that should help with future customer orders. Sounds like you probably had well over $200 in materials, and although you did not state a price, I would say your labor figured out at less than $5/hr.

If your co-worker doesn't put you on his Christmas list, I would be surprised!

[Shawn Christ]

Thanks guys. Very good point, John; your figures are very close. As you noticed, this was not a true customer job, or a money maker. It was a favor. I did not intend to charge for labor or to make money. But I did decide to charge for the couple of tools I bought to complete the work (PC dovetail jig & forstner bit) . Thought that was fair.

[Todd Burch]

Here are pics of my most recent project - a bathroom vanity cabinet. Completed for a coworker and only my second customer project. They saw a vanity they wanted at Lowe's but didn't want to pay $800 to special order a 42" cabinet.

...

This was a good learning experience for me. I am a SLOW woodworker; spend way too much time thinking about my next step in order to avoid mistakes. I'm ashamed to admit this took me about 85 hours to complete.

Such a deal for them!

I've always said, the more you know how to fix mistakes, and EVERYONE makes mistakes, the better woodworker you become.

One-off pieces are difficult to make a decent living on, unless you can associate some type of name (as in, you are not Sam Maloof) or "artfullness" to the piece.