How to choose a bathroom vanity

The vanity is the piece of a bathroom you touch every single day. It is also the piece people choose last, usually online, usually from one photograph. That is backwards, and it is where most bathroom regret comes from.

Here is the order we would decide it in.

1. Measure the space you actually have, not the wall

Width is the obvious one. The two that catch people are depth and swing. A deeper cabinet gives you more counter, and it also narrows the walkway and can stop a door or a shower door from opening the whole way. Before you fall for a size, measure the clear floor in front of the vanity with the door open.

Also look up. If there is a window, a sloped ceiling or an existing light above the vanity, that decides the mirror, and the mirror decides how tall the cabinet can look without crowding.

2. Single or double, decided honestly

A double vanity is the most requested upgrade in a primary bath and it is not always the right one. Two sinks in a narrow cabinet leaves you with two small counters and nowhere to put anything down. One generous sink with real counter on both sides is often the better morning.

The question worth answering out loud: do two people genuinely use this room at the same time, or does it just sound nicer? If the answer is yes, plan for the width to carry it. If it is no, spend the width on counter and drawers instead.

3. Decide storage by what you own

Doors are cheaper and give you one big cave. Drawers cost more and are the reason a bathroom stays tidy, because you can see what is in them. Most people are happiest with a mix: drawers for the daily things, a door for the tall bottles and the spare rolls.

A tall storage tower next to the vanity is worth considering if you have the wall for it. It takes the clutter off the counter without eating floor space, and it can match the cabinet exactly.

4. Choose the countertop WITH the cabinet, not after it

This is the one we would most like people to hear. The top and the cabinet are one decision, because the colour, the edge and the sink cutout all have to work together, and because the way a top gets made is not a catalogue purchase.

We carry custom vanities with granite and quartz tops, and the templating, fabrication and installation of the top is priced as a package with it. Templating means somebody comes out and makes a pattern of your actual space, so the top fits your walls rather than a drawing of them. Bathrooms are old, walls are not square, and this is where that shows up.

5. Then the sink and the faucet, in that order

The sink style follows the top. An undermount sink gives you a counter you can wipe straight into it and is the usual choice with a stone top. A vessel sink sits above the counter and changes the working height, so if you go that way, check the height against the person who uses it most.

The faucet follows the sink, because the number of holes and their spacing has to match. Choosing the faucet first is how people end up with a beautiful faucet that will not mount.

6. See the combination in person

A vanity is four or five finishes standing next to each other: the cabinet, the top, the sink, the faucet and the hardware. Each one can look right alone and wrong together, and a screen will not tell you, because a screen shows you five photographs taken in five different lights.

Our Littleton showroom carries 87 manufacturers across cabinets, countertops, tile, flooring, vanities, fixtures and hardware, so you can hold the whole combination together in one place. We will also draw the room in 3D before you commit, which is the cheapest time to find out the double vanity does not fit.

You do not have to hand us the whole project

Three ways to do this, and all three are normal here. Buy the vanity and the top and install them yourself. Buy them and hand them to your own contractor. Or let us handle the whole bathroom from the first sketch to the last outlet cover. Same showroom, same pricing either way.

We design and install across the southwest Denver metro, so Ken Caryl, Columbine, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood and the rest of it are all a short drive from the Belleview showroom.

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