Home Q&A: Everything you need to know about bathroom vanity units
A bathroom without a vanity is sometimes easier on the eye, allowing light to flow across the room and right back to the wall. Picture: iStock
WHATEVER the dimensions of your bathroom, if you choose to include a vanity unit, it is likely to be the anchor furnishing. The showrooms are heaving with beautiful possibilities in fluted fronts, weighty period doubles and crisp colourways, but take note of a few considerations before diving in. As the vanity may (or may not) form part of the wider storage possibilities of the space, let’s start there, with storage notions in general.
Bringing storage under the sink makes sense for a number of reasons. First of all, drawers and cupboards both hide the dangling nuisance of visible pipework trailing out of the sink. This makes use of a space that’s utterly wasted in a pedestal or wall-mounted sink. Secondly, if your organisation is on point, you’re bringing what you need to attend to many grooming rituals directly to the water and mirror position. Finally, there’s styling and colour. Cabinet fronts with a bold aesthetic statement are often the first visual hit when you enter a bathroom clouded with grey tiling. It’s true that wall storage is extremely useful in a moderately sized bathroom, but bringing the weight of storage pieces down to the floor or low on the wall is less intrusive.
If you reserve the existing plumbing and waste positions, vanities make an excellent choice in cleaning up the slight physical re-jig demanded by a bathroom renovation. Many models have precut voids to take pipes and flexible lines to the taps. Freestanding units are usually easier to reposition than wall-hung models. Any good plumber will be able to bring their skills to bear in a close match to your plumbing and draining positions, but some vanity units are just trickier than others due to their profile. Get in a huddle with your installer before you flip out the credit card. Don’t purchase anything that isn’t designed to go together as a sink and cabinet match. Always trouble.
Sizewise, let’s start with height. This is an important area if you’re over the six-foot mark, as exaggerated stooping under the water stream from the taps will be a back breaker over time. Heights range around 51cm to 54cm in a legged unit, with complete flexibility offered by a wall-mounted (floated) unit. Widthwise, expect to have choices between 60cm and 120cm, with 150cm to 180cm commonplace for doubles. Once you pass 120cm, you’re likely to have a choice in the configuration of drawers and cupboards to suit. It’s possible to dip down to as little as 45cm for a tiny ensuite vanity, with a 40cm deep sink swelling over 30cm deep storage, just ensure you have room to balance a toothbrush or an obliging shelf set under your mirror. It’s wise to leave some breathing room to either side of the vanity (around 20cm is a good minimum), and I like 60cm of space to the front of any basin to ablute and fuss with my hair and so on.
In terms of materials, your main decision will come down to MDF (medium-density fibreboard) or MFC (melamine-faced chipboard). Both are durable and scratch-resistant, with melamine generally coming in a little more expensive. I have found MFC prone to chips, but it has a sleek, elegant finish that’s likely to draw you in. Plywood, solid timber and timber laminates must be protected under a high-quality lacquer. The attention and experience put into the assembling of your unit will make all the difference, whatever it’s made of. Opt for preassembled pieces where possible, where the item has been put together in a factory, and your supplier will have to stand over the build quality and the finish of those essential joint details. The sink is most likely to come separately and will be fitted by your plumber once he’s wrangled the first-fix plumbing into shape.
If you decide to set a lovely old sink into an antique chiffoniere, just ensure all wood surfacing is sealed against water ingress and choose an oily tropical wood that can tolerate the highly humid conditions. Ensure adequate ventilation to prevent condensation and site real timber away from the bath or shower. Except for high modern, a mixture of unfitted and fitted furniture generally works well in most bathrooms.
The look is up to you, but there are two basic divisions of vanity profile — the wall-hung vanity and the floor-standing vanity. Wall-hung models tend to be slightly more expensive, offer less cubic centimetres of storage, and demand secure fixings, especially where you’re setting them on a stud wall. Floor-standing pieces will be either raised on legs, creating a grot catching hinterland on the bathroom floor, or set over a kick board with the legs concealed. Obviously, wall-hung are easier to swipe under for tile cleaning, and they create a more airy, spacious feel. Wall-hung loo, wall-hung vanity? Your eye just travels further without bumping into great lumps of furniture. Floating vanities can be designed as wheelchair-accessible too. Both styles are available in modular ranges that can be built out right to the ceiling, combining toilet/vanity units and high storage towers.
Is there any reason not to include a vanity with storage in the base? Well, yes, there is. If your bathroom is especially small, the sharp lines of a vanity cupboard, cantilevered off the wall or floorstanding, can be harsh and intrusive. It is possible to dispense with one altogether, install a sink unit with a generous amount of surfacing to either side integrated into its design, or use the old trick of a curtain over shelving (fastened in or rolled in on casters).
Some householders will prefer a long run of 40cm deep counter with an inset or counter-mounted sink, the pipes disguised by a slight overhang to the front edge, banishing storage to a bathroom tall-boy, either wall-mounted or up on legs. Formed concrete sink vanities are trending. If the layout allows you to hide everything you need behind a double door mirror cabinet and/or into a vertical cabinet, you may not need a clunky cupboard in your tiny ensuite. Again, just look for enough “ears” to balance a tooth-mug or a shaver on the sink sides.
If you have a little wall-mounted sink and you need extra storage, explore Ikea’s range of little two-door wash basin cabinets that slot into position around a skinny pedestal or pipework; from €89. The Hampshire unit from Next is a lovely Edwardian-styled two-door slide-in storage cupboard for just €185 in sage or taupe, Next.ie.
Where space is an issue, always vouch for soft, rounded corners, recessed pulls or bump-operating cabinet doors and drawers to prevent bruising collisions to your naked legs. Also, consider white and reflective pale, neutral colours for the cabinet fronts to bounce and diffuse light around the space. Combine with an LED mirror, which will create a soft glow to complement your primary lighting — trimming about eight years off a pillow-mashed morning face.
Think about warming up all that cold surfacing in the smallest room with a wood look shelf set with baskets to hold additional toiletries and set with fresh, rolled hand towels (not directly over the toilet, please). All open storage is best treated as a display that you will have to repeatedly curate if you want that space to read as calm and chic.
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