apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Good luck Meredith!

I spent the better part of a year searching for a less expensive vanity.

My conclusion: There is a premium placed on good design. Unfortunately, in the US it is very difficult to find bargains on modern bath furniture and fixtures. I wish we had a www.bathstore.com/ in this country! I get their emails just for ideas. They have sales all the time.

My suggestion is to first look at all of your local big home stores--home depot, lowes, menards, great indoors, etc. They will often bring in some surprisingly modern and interesting pieces and price them lower because they can.

Also, look for display sales in bathroom showrooms.

There are a lot of Chinese importers now who are flooding the market with vanities that mimic high-end European models and have a much lower price tag. These can be found on ebay and in big cities in and around Chinatown.

When you say porcelain white top do you mean a porcelain sink that takes up the entire top of the vanity? If this is the case, I believe Ikea makes a vanity sink that is designed like this. It could then be set into one of their or someone else's vanity cabinet. The sink/vanity top would save the expense of another material for a top like granite.

If you want to go the IKEA route, try using their kitchen cabinets instead of the (comparatively limited) bathroom vanities. The NEXUS door/drawer style comes in a dark espresso finish, and there are a multitude of size options. IKEA also sells numerous handles, several of which could be used to replicate the look above.

The sink above appears to be either a solid stone or synthetic solid surface with an undermount porcelain sink. As long as the sink itself is smaller than the top of the cabinet, the surface it's mounted to can be custom cut to any size.

By the way, an advantage of using kitchen cabinets rather than standard-height bathroom cabs is that you wont have to hunch over to wash your face! Higher bathroom vanities are becoming more and more common, and unless you are unusually short, I imagine they're quite pleasant to use.

Ikea kitchen cabinets could be re-purposed as bathroom vanities, however, keep in mind that standard cabinet depth is 24" which for a small bathroom can be pretty deep. Bathroom vanities are typically 21" deep and smaller.

I have known people to slice the backs of kitchen cabinets though to make them shallower but that takes a little tinkering.

I found the Ikea Hollviken sink on top of a Vattern sink cabinet to be a good looking and economical solution to the space problems you describe. (Maybe not as good looking as the vanity in this picture, but I think the sink, cabinet and faucet cost about $250 all together! Maybe you have to prep and paint the cabinet to get the color you want, but still, not $2K .) It does not have drawers -- I use woven wicker baskets to hold things on the shelves, and did not put doors on mine, due to the slim space in my bathroom.

hi meredith!

check out this ikea hack: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morte100/1875644306/

i think it was blogged on www.grassrootsmodern.com

That's a sweet hack meredith.

That's the exact same sink basin I have for my floating vanity.

I'm wondering--next to the vanity there appears to be the controls for a Toto washlet. That would be a trip! An Ikea hack next to a $1000.00 toilet seat!

I faced the same problem when renovating my bathroom a few months ago.

I went with this one by Sunelli, which is a Chinese company (I think).

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/flickr-finds/flickr-finds-kathryns-bathroom-renovation-032309

It's a espresso colored wall-mounted cabinet with a square porcelain sink for about $700, faucet not included.

terrific! thank you all!!!

please let me know also if anyone can find a similar vanity but with more counter space!

Thanks again!

Hi,

Purchased this one in a red oak. Pleased with it except faucet quite loud when running, but that aside its nice, has a bit more counterspace than the one in your picture and is less expensive than most 4' vanities. Here's the link

http://www.maxfurniture.com/%3CFONT face%3D%22times new roman%2C times%2C serif%22 size%3D3%3ESingle Vanities Click Here%3C%2FFONT%3E /2737/147-117-5231-1.asp

re: IKEA's Hollviken sinks. These actually come in 2 sizes. I have one of the larger sized ones on an IKEA cabinet base in our larger bathroom but needed a smaller cabinet in out 3/4 master bath.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesc/406118494/

Ikea didn't make a cabinet I was happy with but I designed and had a local cabinet shop build a custom wall hung cabinet. While it cost more than IKEA's off-the-shelf options it was still very reasonable ($275) and created specifically for my needs. The sink and faucet were $80 each at IKEA so the whole vanity ended up costing me $435 (you could, of course, further customize the look with the faucet of your choice.)

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesc/2212397304/in/set-72157603730924627/

wow wes that is one GORGEOUS vanity!
that's pretty much just what i'd love... did you have it custom built by anyone in NYC?
thank you so much for your assistance and congrats on your GORGEOUS bathroom!

that's a very cool solution, wes. I'll keep it in mind should I ever want to upgrade my Hollviken setup! The sink itself is great; the Vattern cabinet does the job but won't win any style points.

missmizu,

No. The cabinet maker was a great local shop here in South Carolina called Frost and Keading (frostkeading.com). They build custom, solid wood furniture and cabinets.

I just took a sketch into the shop and discussed what I wanted and chose the finish. I left the sink top with them to make sure I got a good fit.

I'd imagine any cabinet maker/shop could take your ideas and do the same thing.