A Dream Bathroom Vanity
The master bathroom in our new home is quite large, at least compared to our previous bathrooms. Many years in NYC will make any bathroom outside the city look like a damn spa! My first Brooklyn apartment had no bathroom sink…true story.
Our master bathroom has two sections: one area with double sinks, and another area with the toilet and shower. Across from the sinks was a large empty area perfect for a built-in vanity for me. So we built one. AND IT IS GLORIOUS. Behold:
Here’s a look at the vanity from another angle:
For comparison, here’s what the area that now houses my vanity looked like prior to renovation:
Vanity Details
While renovating our bathrooms and painting the house prior to moving in, we spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where to get a custom vanity. We weren’t looking for crazy luxe cabinetry, but we did want something custom made to fit the space available. Another challenge: we wanted the vanity to match the existing sink cabinetry as closely as possible. We didn’t want to spend money on brand new sink cabinets on top of everything else we were doing.
During renovations, we made MANY shopping trips to Lowe’s…sometimes daily. We asked about custom cabinets so many times and they kept telling us they only did them for kitchens. Sears was an option but that didn’t work out. And buying a pre-made vanity didn’t seem appealing because it wouldn’t fill the space.
Finally, on one of our many Lowe’s visits, I spotted a vanity on display and said “that’s what I want, but in a different style.” We asked one of the employees about it and she said that they indeed do that kind of thing. Why everyone else told us they couldn’t do it is a mystery. She said we could make an appointment with one of their cabinet designers, so we did. Lowe’s offer cabinets from a couple different companies. After looking at the catalogs we decided to go with KraftMaid because they had an option that looked like it would most closely match our sink cabinets.
We spent about an hour with the designer picking out the components for the vanity. We had already come up with a basic design, so it was helpful to go into the meeting with that (and the measurements, of course).
And you know what? I think we did a great job matching the existing cabinets. Here’s a shot of them pre-renovation (with the old countertop):
It took about five weeks for the cabinets to come in from the time we ordered them—it’s not an off-the-shelf kind of situation. We saved $350 on delivery by picking the cabinets up at Lowe’s ourselves. (Though we couldn’t quite fit everything in our car so I had to take a Lyft home with one large box that just wouldn’t fit. Still WAY cheaper than the delivery fee.) Lowe’s wouldn’t install the cabinets because we didn’t buy our countertop from them (see below about countertops). No biggie—my husband hired someone to install everything, and it turned out great. The vanity does indeed fit the space perfectly!
Knob Job
You may have noticed that my new cabinets have no knobs. That’s because we haven’t picked them out yet. We want to replace the knobs on the sink cabinets so that all of the knobs in the bathroom match. We’ve ordered a few knobs to take a look at and and decide which one we want to go with.
The Countertops
John knew of a stone place for countertops through work, so we drove to the warehouse in Maryland one day and looked at our options. We settled on a beautiful white quartz piece that was large enough to serve as the countertop for both the sink and my vanity cabinets. They took measurements in our bathroom and cut the pieces to fit. And I’m very happy with the countertops. They’re beautiful!
The Mirror
I had a vague sense that I wanted an old Hollywood-style mirror with lights for my vanity. After Googling and a lot of browsing on Amazon, I selected this Chende Hollywood Makeup Vanity Mirror. It came with dimmable LED bulbs and sits on the countertop (it’s not wall mountable). The mirror arrived this week and it is gorgeous!
When turned up to their brightest, the lights are SO GOOD. I basically see every little eyebrow hair that I’ve missed, so I’ll be spending a lot of time plucking in front of this mirror.
The mirror base takes up more space than I expected, but I think I can make it work. I can display products on the base, so it’s not like I’m losing a ton of counter space.
I’m still very much in the process of organizing my vanity. Some drawer organizers for my makeup are en route and if I like them I’ll need to order more. I also need to find a chair or stool. I have a stool that I’m using temporarily, but I want something taller that goes better with the bathroom decor. Once I’m happy with my vanity organization and setup, I’ll share more pics!
Before I sign off here, I want to briefly address something. Though it’s not my intention, I realize that posting about something like this can make people envious. I’m simply very excited about my new “toy” and want to share it, especially because it ties in so closely with much of what I blog about. I realize that I’m extremely lucky to have this new setup, and I’m very, very grateful for it!
