Plywood construction bathroom vanity
November 20, 2010 4:28 AM Subscribe
We are redoing a bathroom. We need a wooden vanity cabinet that is made with plywood, not particle board or furniture board. Ideally we need this within the next few weeks.We have a sink top, just need the cabinet. Everything at Home Depot was particle board. We are in Morris County NJ, north central Jersey. Any suggestions, ideas?
Try to find a piece of furniture at a furniture store that has doors instead of drawers. If it is the right size, you just remove the top (or cut a big enough hole for your sink to fit), attach it to the wall and call it your "vanity." You might have to remove legs/feet, or add a skirt/toe kick.
posted by yesster at 4:48 AM on November 20, 2010
posted by yesster at 4:48 AM on November 20, 2010
You also might want to see if you have an Habitat for Humanity ReStore nearby; In addition to having some new remaindered stuff at a very good price, they often have nice used or rejected pieces (in addition to some gloriously ugly and out of date pieces). For a little bit of rehab and money, you can often end up with something very nice.
posted by julen at 5:12 AM on November 20, 2010
posted by julen at 5:12 AM on November 20, 2010
you are under a misperception about cabinetry: particle board is stable, flat, straight and predictable. even very expensive cabinets with fancy wood veneers are very likely to have particle board underneath those veneers. what distinguishes cheap from expensive cabinetry is first of all, whether it is custom designed or not, and secondly how it is constructed and what the surface on the cabinet is and what the doors are made out of.
that said, the vanities at home depot tend to be kind of junky. but the bottom line is that almost anything you buy new, that is a cabinet (that is, a box with a door on it) will be made out of particle board in some way.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:01 AM on November 20, 2010
that said, the vanities at home depot tend to be kind of junky. but the bottom line is that almost anything you buy new, that is a cabinet (that is, a box with a door on it) will be made out of particle board in some way.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:01 AM on November 20, 2010
Custom cabinets can, of course, be ordered. We got one through Home Depot's now defunct Expo stores. Made by Omega in Iowa. Full wood throughout. Paid a pretty penny (north of $1k, iirc) but got exactly the custom-designed piece we wanted.
If you install things correctly the type of material really isn't going to matter that much. Proper ventilation and guarding against water damage are key. As long as you don't let water become a problem there's really not much wrong with MDF products. If you've got water problems those need to be addressed first, otherwise you're just wasting money getting something better than MDF.
Stop by a custom kitchen/bath center. See about standard sized cabinetry. No doubt they'll be able to recommend several different vendors. Some may have quicker lead times than others. You might even find a supplier that has something in stock, possibly left over or a wrong order.
posted by wkearney99 at 7:56 AM on November 20, 2010
If you install things correctly the type of material really isn't going to matter that much. Proper ventilation and guarding against water damage are key. As long as you don't let water become a problem there's really not much wrong with MDF products. If you've got water problems those need to be addressed first, otherwise you're just wasting money getting something better than MDF.
Stop by a custom kitchen/bath center. See about standard sized cabinetry. No doubt they'll be able to recommend several different vendors. Some may have quicker lead times than others. You might even find a supplier that has something in stock, possibly left over or a wrong order.
posted by wkearney99 at 7:56 AM on November 20, 2010
Amen to ennui.bz. I have had more problems with cheap plywood delaminating than particle board doing, uh, anything. Neither handles getting wet very well. It's all wood, but the glue holding particles together in particle board has an easier job than the glue holding plys together in plywood. Good furniture grade plwood can be over $100 a sheet, depending on the veneer. Home despot and their ilk have given the whole cabinet industry a bad name with the crap they sell. People buy it because it's cheap, then complain because it's crap. A deep metaphor about consumerism, mass production, and the american waydecay
posted by Redhush at 8:01 AM on November 20, 2010
posted by Redhush at 8:01 AM on November 20, 2010
I've had really, really good luck using plans from Ana White's site (formerly knockoffwood.com). I built our king size captain's bed and headboard using her plans, plywood/wood from Home Depot and a circular saw. It turned out *beautifully*. It did take a lot more effort that just buying it but I love walking into my bedroom and seeing something beautiful I made myself! She doesn't have a vanity plan per se but people have modified existing plans of hers to make vanities. Maybe there is a plan (with non-glass doors?) that could be modified for your purposes.
posted by hecho de la basura at 8:16 AM on November 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by hecho de la basura at 8:16 AM on November 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
Maybe check the phonebook and the internets for unfinished shaker furniture makers - either in your area or mail order?
posted by jbenben at 10:35 AM on November 20, 2010
posted by jbenben at 10:35 AM on November 20, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks everyone:-) Nobody here is about to build anything, we have a carpenter and plumber doing the bathroom. We are not high-end people, but the old vanity from Home Depot seriously disintegrated and crumbled at the ends when the carpenter took it out. It was 3 or 4 years old, and yeah, it was cheap. It was not water damaged, no leaks, just a piece of crap.
We are willing to pay more for something decent but not outrageously more as we live in an old house inherited from my parents and nothing is fancy. We are replacing the original tub, almost 60 years old to give you some idea. And most of the furniture was my Mom's.
I did find a local lumber place that does kitchens and bathrooms and they said they could do what I wanted, and the person to talk to would be in on Monday so we shall see how that works out.
posted by mermayd at 10:42 AM on November 20, 2010
We are willing to pay more for something decent but not outrageously more as we live in an old house inherited from my parents and nothing is fancy. We are replacing the original tub, almost 60 years old to give you some idea. And most of the furniture was my Mom's.
I did find a local lumber place that does kitchens and bathrooms and they said they could do what I wanted, and the person to talk to would be in on Monday so we shall see how that works out.
posted by mermayd at 10:42 AM on November 20, 2010
Seconding yesster, but with a twist.
Two times we've used old desks for our vanities. We pick them up a thrift shops, use the drawers for toiletries, and put a laminate top on them. If you've already got a carpenter, you can have them cut the hole for the sink.
Our first desk was one with drawers on one side only, it was slightly shorter than the space we had, so we make a 'blank' (piece of plywood - again, your carpenter can do this), and painted it the same color as the desk. The small drawer under the desk is rendered unusable, but just cut the drawer off, and nail it 'shut'.
The current vanity was a somewhat 'traditional' looking knee-hole desk, with drawers on either side. Again, the center drawer is no longer usable, I think we replaced that with a blank of plywood. We painted this one the same color as the trim, and replaced the drawer pulls with new faux-vintage glass knobs. Total cost was about $100 (including the desk).
posted by dbmcd at 12:13 PM on November 20, 2010
Two times we've used old desks for our vanities. We pick them up a thrift shops, use the drawers for toiletries, and put a laminate top on them. If you've already got a carpenter, you can have them cut the hole for the sink.
Our first desk was one with drawers on one side only, it was slightly shorter than the space we had, so we make a 'blank' (piece of plywood - again, your carpenter can do this), and painted it the same color as the desk. The small drawer under the desk is rendered unusable, but just cut the drawer off, and nail it 'shut'.
The current vanity was a somewhat 'traditional' looking knee-hole desk, with drawers on either side. Again, the center drawer is no longer usable, I think we replaced that with a blank of plywood. We painted this one the same color as the trim, and replaced the drawer pulls with new faux-vintage glass knobs. Total cost was about $100 (including the desk).
posted by dbmcd at 12:13 PM on November 20, 2010
Response by poster: We did find just what we wanted at a cabinet place our carpenter recommended, and at a reasonable price. The Habitat store was going to be the next stop, but we liked what we got from the cabinet place so went with that.
posted by mermayd at 6:49 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by mermayd at 6:49 PM on October 4, 2011
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posted by princelyfox at 4:36 AM on November 20, 2010