Bathroom Vanities

 One of the design/budget choices I made was to use dressers for the bathroom vanities. Buying new vanities would be about $1000 for each bathroom, an expense I knew I could do better than. For months last year I stalked online sources for appropriately sized dressers. They had to be the right length, and had to have a design that would allow for the plumbing in the middle. I eventually found one for the upstairs bathroom for $150.

I would have liked to refinish it to match the rest of the woodwork, but various logistics made that impossible, so it will have to be done later, if it ever is. I did, however, sand the top and reseal it with a marine-grade varnish. The sanding did a nice job of highlighting the grain, and now I want even more to re-do the whole thing. 

This dresser was the perfect length according to the numbers, but when we went to put it in place, it was about 1/4" too long, so Sid had to trim the tiniest strip off each end. Also, the trim around the doors was in the way, so we had to have Troy remove the trim for us. It was about 3" taller than a kitchen cabinet, so it had to be shortened. I like the kitchen height rather than a typical bathroom height because we are tall people. To shorten it, I removed the front and side trims, cut 3" off the bottom edges, cut 1" off the trim pieces, and reattached them. 

For the sink, we bought one that is intended to go on top of a small vanity. I like the sink integrated into the countertop so there are no edges to get gunky. A hole cut into the top, and the sink dropped in. Some adhesive underneath, and clear sealant around the edge.

The dresser came with a mirror, but it's frame was intended to sit on top of the dresser, which did not work with the sink, and I thought it looked too bedroomy, so I took the mirror from the frame and mounted it on the wall instead. 

In the downstairs bathroom, Sid did not like the idea of a dresser, and I was having a horrible time finding one long enough that did not look downright UGLY. Dressers of that length were a 70s style, and the furniture designs from that time were awful. At one point I bought 2 kitchen drawer cabinets to use, planning for Sid to build a central section with doors between them, but we learned that as well as being shorter, bathroom cabinets are also less deep, and the kitchen size ones would not fit between the back wall and the adjoining doorways. These cabinets will end up in my sewing room instead. 

We then decided to take a day to check out the various salvage and clearance outlets in the city to find something that would work. Our first stop was Building Materials Outlet in Eagan. A friend had told me about this place, but I had not yet been there. It was a gold mine! If we had been building this house ourselves from scratch instead of using a GC and his suppliers, we could have saved a LOT of money shopping here! In the end, we came away with 2 drawer cabinets, and one with double doors, total of only $320. They are the same brand and same finish, but the drawers are kitchen-height, and the door cabinet is bathroom-height. All the same bathroom depth though. I knew we would need some filler strips to complete the fit, and tried to track some down from the manufacturer so the color would match (It's amazing how many different shades of white exist!) but could not find a local dealer or one that would ship them to me. I ended up ordering white filler strips from Menards, but the color does not quite match. While Sid was messing with kitchen cabinets,  I put these together. A little math to make the strips fill the right spaces, a little caulk to fill the cracks, and the same handles as the kitchen cabinets.

The countertop for this cabinet DID arrive in just a week. It's only formica, but it has the integrated sink I want. The mirror came from one of the salvage dealers. I priced large mirrors online, and they go for about $1000, IF you can even find a place to order from, as they are not currently in style, but we got this one for $50! 

All in all, I'm VERY happy with the outcomes in both bathrooms.