Alison and Nicholas purchased their first home last year and after gutting the bathroom out completely, they've recently been in the process of building it back up. They've done all their own labor and one of our favorite pieces of their transformation process is this dresser turned vanity.
Bathroom vanities always seem a little on the boring and awkward side of things. They never quite hold what you need them to and you end up turning to additional storage elsewhere. When you repurpose a dresser like this couple has done, you've not only salvaged a great piece of furniture and given it new life (after countless hours of sanding and painting), but you give yourself large storage drawers to hold everything from towels to blow dryers.
You can see more of their bathroom makeover process, along with a few "in process" photos of this dresser makeover on Flickr. Thanks Alison and Nicholas!
(Image: Flickr member Alison_Rose from the Apartment Therapy Home Cure Flickr Pool)
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love it, and it looks great in white.
Very nice solution. (I'm curious as to how much dresser space they lost to plumbing. I've seen bureaus with artful cutouts in the middle of drawers, but sometimes that's not required.)
I've done several of these and the trick is to have the plumber push the pipes as far back and as close together as possible. Only modify the drawers once the plumbing is in.
Fantastic work. But I think it would be even better with a white carrera marble top.
I want to try this with a somewhat antique buffet that I own. I'm scared to make the first cut because I don't want to make a wrong cut!
"But I think it would be even better with a white carrera marble top."
Agreed - Like Sarah Richardson did in the recent bathroom remakes of her homes.
i third it that a white carrera marble top would have really been perfect, with an undermount sink if possible. and i would have painted the delicate trim a contrasting color--perhaps the same blue as the walls.
I think it also would have been gorgeous with a black marble top, with a white undermount sink.
Also could have been cool with two sinks.
Neither comment meant to be criticism, btw. Just alternate ideas.
Awesome!
Gorgeous, but agree that 2 sinks would have been cool. Those 2 drawers right underneath just seem a perfect setup for that.
Love it white, and it's awesome as a vanity!
Looks great! Though I disagree with the posters who suggest two sinks... I don't think there's enough shoulder room for that.
My first thought was white carrera marble, too :)
Looks great!
that dresser is way too small for two sinks. there wouldn't be any room left to use it as a vanity, and i don't even think there are sinks small enough that would look right.
also, i didn't mean for my previous comment to be critical--this is a beautiful DIY job.
Well done. It's never too late to consider a marble top.
what a transformation and brand new life given...beautiful!!!
Well, getting a slab of marble cut to size can be pricey. Not a big fan of tiled vanities (but I had to rip one out of my bath and hated it oh-so-much, so I may be prejudiced), but I'm wondering if leaving wood top would work?
I have one more bathroom to go, and it has a pedestal sink in now, which means almost no space for storage in the bathroom. I don't like the cheaper HomeDepot/Lowes vanities and have no place in reno budget left for a nicer one, so I wad considering finding a piece of furniture to refinish as vanity. Is leaving the top wooden a bad idea?
I'd prime and cover it with high gloss lack, but not sure about wear and tear on such surface...
Thorndale, judging from the photo, this wasn't a real antique. It looks like a factory-made reproduction, so paint isn't a travesty.
@MartyGr:
You should call around to stone yards in your area, they often have leftover pieces of marble or granite from counter tops. I did that for my bathroom vanity and only spent $30.
I love the tile top - I think it gives the vanity some dimension & texture. I'm so sick of carrera marble in bathrooms, and granite countertops in kitchens.
I refinished a dresser to be a bathroom vanity. If you leave the top wood, refinish with 2-3 coats marine-grade polyurethane. The dresser has been in action for about 6 months, and so far no problems.
MartyGr - Our local ReStore always has marble and granite, though you can leave the top wood without any problem. You just need to make sure it's sealed well to keep water out .
wait a minute... if the drawers are all still functional, where did you hid the plumbing?
Are those the same drawer pulls, or just the same style in different material? They look like brass in the before, and stainless in the after.
I think this was a great idea, but I wish they would have kept the original wood stain. I think it would have looked amazing with a marble top.
A friend of mine did a dresser-turned-vanity transformation and I want to try it myself. He didn't put a hard surface like tile or marble on the top - instead, he put two coats of decking sealer (?) on the wood and he says it's waterproof and hard as nails. My memory here isn't so good, though. Could it be boating/mariner/somethingoranother sealer? Anyone? I will ask. Anyway, it sounded hardcore.
Unless the original drawer boxes have been reconstructed at a shallow depth, there is no way the drawers can be functional and still accomodate the plumbing. Offsetting the sink in a furniture piece might allow the opposite drawers to remain functional. 60" is considered the absoute minimum width to accomodate two sinks. This looks to be about 54" or so and is too small for a double sink.