alison chandra: Bathroom Reno: The Vanity

As promised in my last bathroom renovation post, I wanted to share with you our beautiful new vanity.

This step in the renovation process was just that - quite the process. I can not tell you how many times we went back and forth on this decision due to the crazy prices of vanities! All of the vanities I even sort of liked were well over $1000 and that was #1 not in the budget and #2 just crazy to me. The DIY-er in my knew there was a better way! Even though we didn't want to spend that much on a vanity I still didn't want to "cheap out". I wanted something good quality that would last us a long time as well as something with a lot of storage since our second bathroom only has a pedestal sink. I was also struggling with the idea of possibly keeping our old vanity top (you can see photos of it here) since it was a beautiful granite top with a great Kohler faucet. That idea just didn't excite me though so it was back to the drawing board.

Jay and I have been wanting a vessel sink for a while that could sit on top of the counter - we just liked the look and thought it would be fun for something different. Our original idea was actually to find an old vintage dresser and turn it into a vanity! We wanted something that I could paint, maybe re-stain the top and add a vessel sink. I still love that idea but knew it wouldn't provide us with enough storage. We will most likely still do this in our second bathroom so stay tuned for that in future posts! So, with this idea as our inspiration we finally came up with what we think was the perfect combination. We decided to find a regular white vanity from Home Depot (something good quality but nothing too expensive), add our own wooden top and vessel sink, and freshen it up with new knobs and drawer pulls! I love how the modern vessel sink combines with the more traditional and rustic feel of a wooden counter top. I also love how the wood pulls together the feel of the first floor of our home which has a lot of original wood trim and doors. I didn't want the bathroom to feel too modern and disconnected from the rest of the house.

We started looking on Amazon and found a sink we loved that was a white rectangle shape. We found a great and affordable faucet on Amazon too! I enlisted the help of my amazingly talented Dad in building the vanity top - he helped us decide on the perfect measurements based on the sink and the vanity size - then built and sanded it perfectly for us. I stained the top then sealed it with a Polycrylic to protect the surface from future water splashes and cleaning. Check out the photos of the process below!