Bathroom Vanities: Freestanding, Floating and Built-In

The vanity is the furniture of the bathroom. It holds the sink, carries the countertop, stores most of what you use every day and sets much of the room's style. It also lives with splashes, steam and the occasional slow leak under the sink. This page covers vanity styles, how they are built, how to plan storage and how stock, semi-custom and custom vanities differ. Sizes and heights are on our vanity sizes and heights page.

Freestanding, floating and built-in compared

Floating vanities need planning behind the wall

A wall-hung vanity is a small structural detail. The cabinet, the countertop, the sink and anyone who leans on it all hang from the wall, so the wall needs solid blocking between the studs at the right height before drywall. Three more things change with a floating vanity:

• Plumbing height. The drain and supply lines must come out of the wall inside the cabinet's footprint, above the cabinet bottom. In a remodel this often means moving them up.
• Storage. The cabinet is shallower top to bottom, and the trap takes space in the top drawer. Ask for drawers notched around the plumbing.
• Height is adjustable. Because the cabinet hangs, it can be set at whatever height suits you, within the plumbing.

How a vanity is built

Two vanities that look alike in a showroom can last very differently. Open the doors and drawers and look at these parts.

• The box (carcass). Plywood holds screws well and resists swelling if it gets wet. Particleboard and MDF are flat, stable and lower cost, but swell where water reaches a raw edge. The sink base bottom is the panel most likely to see water.
• Edges and finish. Every cut edge should be sealed. On painted vanities, a factory-applied, cured finish holds up to humidity better than paint applied on site.
• Doors and fronts. Solid wood frames with MDF center panels are common on painted vanities, because MDF moves less with humidity than solid wood panels and so cracks the paint less at the joints.
• Drawers. Look for full-extension, soft-close slides and drawer boxes that are joined, not stapled. Check the slide's load rating if you plan deep drawers for heavy items.
• Back and sides. A back panel that can be cut neatly for plumbing, and finished sides on any end that will show.

Drawers or doors

For most bathrooms, drawers store more usefully than doors. A door opens to a deep cabinet where things get lost behind the plumbing. Drawers bring everything forward and let you see it from above.

• Top drawers: shallow, divided, for daily items. A drawer with a built-in outlet keeps a hair dryer or toothbrush charging out of sight; plan it with the electrician, since bathroom outlet rules apply. See the bathroom electrical code page.
• Middle and lower drawers: deep, for towels, hair tools and bottles stored upright.
• Under the sink: a U-shaped drawer that wraps around the trap, or a door with a pull-out organizer.
• Doors still make sense for cleaning supplies, a step stool or a laundry bin, and in smaller vanities where the drawer hardware takes too much of the width.

Our bathroom storage page covers medicine cabinets, linen towers and niches as well.

Stock, semi-custom and custom

Stock vanities with an included top are the quickest route and work well in powder rooms and secondary baths. If the room has an odd width, a sloped ceiling, or you want drawers built around the plumbing, semi-custom or custom pays off. In JDI's published tiers, Essential projects use standard cabinetry, Signature projects use custom-built cabinetry and Luxury projects use fully custom millwork.

Single or double vanity

Two sinks make sense when two people get ready at the same time and the vanity is wide enough for both to stand without bumping. Otherwise, one sink with more counter space is often more useful. The widths that make a double vanity work are on our vanity sizes page. In JDI Construction's published bathroom cost calculator, a double vanity is an add-on with a planning range of $3,000-$8,000, on top of the base bathroom range. It is a planning figure, not a quote; see bathroom remodel cost in Vancouver, WA.

What to check before you buy

1. Box material, especially the sink base bottom.
2. Drawer slides: full extension, soft close, load rating.
3. Finish: factory-cured, with all edges sealed.
4. For floating vanities: the mounting method and whether it is made to hang on a wall.
5. Where the drain and supply lines will sit inside the cabinet, and whether drawers are notched around them.
6. Whether the top and sink are included, and if not, what top thickness the cabinet is designed to carry.
7. Finished end panels where a side will show.
8. Lead time, and whether it fits the schedule before the countertop is templated.

Who should choose which

• Powder rooms and simple hall-bath updates: a stock or semi-custom freestanding vanity with an included top.
• Small bathrooms that feel cramped: a floating vanity, which shows more floor. See small bathroom ideas.
• Primary baths and households short on storage: built-in or custom cabinetry with a drawer plan, possibly a linen tower.
• Older homes with uneven walls or floors: semi-custom or custom, scribed to fit.

The countertop and sink are separate decisions; see vanity countertops and bathroom sinks. At JDI Construction, our bathroom designer plans the vanity with the plumbing, outlets and lighting so they line up, and shows it in a 3D layout. To start, see bathroom remodeling in Vancouver, WA.