Bathroom Remodel: Building a Vanity

Over the last few weeks, I have been making progress on my bathroom remodel. The biggest part of the remodel is building the custom vanity, and then designing the bathroom around that. I always like to start a project and then make selections on colors/accessories once I can begin to see things together in person.

After measuring and planning out the vanity layout, the next step for the vanity was building the drawer boxes. We are using pre-made drawer and door faces, which speeds up the process a little.

Building the drawers is pretty simple– the box size has to be slightly smaller than the drawer face size (so the face sits against the vanity when the drawer is closed). The insides of the drawers have a little notch cut across them in order for the base of the drawer to sit in, and then it’s all glued and screwed together. The face is then attached to the front of the drawer.

After building the drawer boxes, it was time to build the face frame. The face frame is basically anywhere the drawer box or door isn’t. It seem simple, but every measurement has to be exact and the placement has to be symmetrical. The hole for the doors is also slightly smaller than the doors themselves, so they have something to rest on.

After the face was complete, it was time to add the sides and bottom of the vanity. This was much easier than the challenge of piecing together the face! The sides tuck 1/8″ behind the face, so that you don’t see the corners from the front. One thing that was important to me was that the whole vanity was made of real wood so that it lasts in a humid bathroom.

Once the overall box was complete, it was time to add the drawers. They sit on metal glides that attach to a support piece at the back of the vanity. The glides were a little pricey, but they are so smooth and sturdy! Once everything is stained and varnished, we will attach the faces to the drawers and the cabinet doors.

I’ve been struggling to find a stain finish for the wood that I am happy with. I want it to have a really light and colorless look, but any varnish that I try has been making the wood look yellow. I like to buy samples of a lot of options and then play around with combinations on a swatch of wood. It’s always better to test and see in your lighting than to just guess how it will look together.

I ended up using a stain color called “Simply White” that I brushed on and immediately wiped off. That kept the wood feeling light and white, even when the satin varnish was added. You can see from my swatches that I did a lot of experimenting to get the perfect color!

The next step is to order the vanity top. I wanted to have the box complete to make sure I had the exact measurements in order to have the sink perfectly centered above the doors. As I previously shared, I am doing a white marble looking quartz for the top to keep things light and airy!