vanities, cabinets & storage

Elegant bath cabinetry upgrades the look of your bath—and adds versatile storage space. Here’s what to think about before purchasing a vanity or designing cabinets for your bath.

Cabinet Basics

Like kitchen units, ready-made bath cabinets come in two basic constructions. American-style framed cabinets have a face frame applied to the front of the cabinet boxes. Door hinges are often visible. European, or frameless, cabinets have no face frame. Doors cover almost all of each cabinet box, and hardware is hidden when the doors are closed. The former suggests a traditional look; the latter usually feels more contemporary.

Stock cabinets offer the fewest variables in materials, finishes, sizes, and details, but they’re also the most affordable. Semicustom and custom cabinets increase your options—but also your cost, and typically your delivery time.

Vanity Construction

When you’re shopping for bathroom vanities and cabinets, remember that you typically get what you pay for. Quality materials, such as plywood cabinet boxes and drawers with solid-wood sides and dovetail joinery, are more expensive than some other materials, but they’re likely to hold up longer. You’ll also need to decide if you want a vanity with a top. A vanity with a countertop simplifies your choices, but one without a top lets you pick from a wide range of countertop materials.

Style Details

Exotic woods, specialty finishes, and milled details can bring a furniture look to the vanity area and upgrade your bath’s overall style. Choose a model with a bowed front for an extra dash of style, or add custom moldings or pilasters to upgrade the look. Remember the decorative impact of knobs and pulls, as well. Use this cabinet jewelry to dress up a simple style or emphasize a design theme. Match your faucet finish or not—it’s up to you.

Storage Features

When selecting a vanity, consider how you’ll use it. What will be stored there? Do you want a single sink or a double vanity that offers more storage space? Most vanities combine drawer and shelf space, but semicustom and custom units include more customizable features, such as pullout shelves, roll-out hampers, and built-in bins for hair dryers and curling irons. Increase the versatility of stock models with retrofitted wire shelves, a pullout wastebasket, towel rods, hooks, and interior drawer dividers.

Medicine cabinets also boost storage space in the vanity area. Look for cabinets with adjustable shelves, built-in electrical outlets, and a mirror defogger (if you can afford a splurge). Use cosmetic organizers to keep small items tidy. If you’re remodeling, you may want to choose the same type of medicine cabinet that you’re replacing (a surface-mount or recessed unit) to avoid breaking into the wall.