Old Projects: Bath Vanity Cabinet

[Anthony Watson]

This is the vanity cabinet I built for our master bathroom back in 2004. As with the majority of my projects, the carcass is birch plywood, the face frame and drawer fronts are made of pine. The door panels are made from pine scraps from the wood walls. I ripped off the tongues and grooves, glued them into panels, and planed them smooth.

[Anthony Watson]

This small vanity cabinet for our guest bath is actually the first one I built for the house. It was my first attempt at building doors, and I devised a unique drawer to make use of the wasted space on either side of the sink. The drawer doesn't hold a lot, but it's a place to keep hair brushes, mirrors, hair scrunchies, lipsticks, etc.

[Isaac Barnes]

I like your top drawer being functional opposed to being a dummy.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Nice work. I like the drawer under the sink..very clever.
-Jeff

[tom tangie]

seems like it would get cold next to the window

[Karl Brogger]

and I devised a unique drawer to make use of the wasted space on either side of the sink.

Its still wasted space. Now it just has slides. Been there done that.

[Anthony Watson]

Karl,

Another unique drawer to make use of wasted space.

It appears yours only has to clear the drain pipes, since the sink sits above the cabinet?

In my case, the sink is a standard drop-in, so my drawer had to fit around the sink itself.

Anthony

[Karl Brogger]

I had to do something similar on another vanity cabinet, but with a dovetail drawer. I went crosseyed trying to keep the parts straight, and what size they needed to be.

[tom tangie]

the wood next to the tub will not fare well at all in very short order

[Anthony Watson]

the wood next to the tub will not fare well at all in very short order

We've lived in our house for four years now and there have been no problems whatsoever. We're not splashing water all over the place, and there's no shower in the tub area, so the wood never gets wet at all. If any water should escape the tub, I waterproofed the tub deck, the shower walls, and the entire bathroom floor with Schulter Kerdi waterproofing membrane.

Anthony

[tom tangie]

the combination of cold air on the window, steamy air on the inside will result in a lot of condensation and the wood will not fare well. Its a bad choice for around a sink and worse around a tub especially with a window to the outside.

[Corey Wilcox]

Anthony- Looks great! What did you use for a finish on the vanity?

[Anthony Watson]

Corey,

What did you use for a finish on the vanity?

The face frames, drawer fronts, and doors are built of pine. I sanded to 150 grit, applied Minwax preconditioner to prevent splotching, and wiped on Minwax "Windsor Oak" gel stain. Then three coats of oil based satin poly, sanding lightly between coats with 220 grit.

Tom,

the combination of cold air on the window, steamy air on the inside will result in a lot of condensation and the wood will not fare well. Its a bad choice for around a sink and worse around a tub especially with a window to the outside.

Perhaps in an older house or a colder climate, but we haven't experienced any condensation problems. Even with both showers running hot water on a cold day, we rarely get any condensation on the windows or mirror. The room is completely open, well insulated with energy efficient windows, and we have good ventilation (whole house ventilation plus a dedicated fan for the bath). Even on the coldest days our tile floors are comfortable and it's never cold around the windows (we have two windows in the bathroom).

Besides, the T&G pine we used is sold as exterior siding and would endure a lot more moisture outdoors than it will ever see in our bathroom. All of the wood in the bathroom has at least two coats of polyurethane.

Compared to drywall that is used in most bathrooms, wood walls are much more durable. And again, none of the woodwork is exposed directly to water.

Anthony