How to Build a Cottage-Style Vanity

When decorating a bathroom in a cottage-style, most standard home-store vanities look sleek and out of place. To carry your decorating over into the fixtures of the room, build a cottage-style vanity using a flea-market dresser or a family hand-me-down. The basin is built into the dresser and will have a wonderfully shabby chic look.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Wood dresser
• Sink basin
• Marking pen
• Drill and 1/2-inch bit
• Jigsaw
• Hammer
• Finishing nails
• Household cement (optional)
• Wood glue
• Sandpaper
• Paint or stain
• Paintbrushes
• Polyurethane
• Caulk
• Caulking gun

Instructions

1. Measure the space for your vanity. Purchase a wood dresser that will fit within those measurements and will be a comfortable height for a vanity. Purchase a sink basin that will fit within the dimensions of the dresser top. Do not include a lip or protrusion on the front of the dresser top in your dimension measurements. The basin needs to fit inside the dresser.

2. Center the paper pattern that comes with the basin on top of your dresser. Trace around the pattern. Remove the drawers from the dresser. Drill a 1/2-inch pilot hole inside the traced shape. Insert the blade of a jigsaw into the hole and cut out the traced shape. Place the basin in the hole to check for fit. Remove the basin.

3. Measure the plumbing area below your existing sink. You will need to measure how low and wide the pipes set. A plumber may have to adjust the height of your plumbing to fit the height of your new vanity, but the shape and depth will be the same.

4. Trace the width and height measurements onto the back of the dresser. Drill a pilot hole and cut out the dresser back using a jigsaw. This will accommodate the pipes emerging from the wall.

5. Remove the front of the top drawer from the inside of the drawer. This drawer will no longer function because of the basin. Replace the drawer front on the front opening of the dresser using small finishing nails or household cement.

6. Adjust the next drawer to accommodate the plumbing. The plumbing takes up less space than the basin so you will adjust the drawers to fit and still be functional. Measure the center back and the inside of your drawer using the width measure of the plumbing area and the measurement from the wall to the front of the plumbing. Cut the back of the drawer and the inside using a jigsaw. Check for fit.

7. Measure from the inside back of the drawer to the inside front, and the top of the drawer to the inside bottom. Use these measurements to cut two pieces from scrap wood or the wood pieces left over from the top drawer.

8. Apply wood glue to the short end edges and one long edge of each board. Stand the boards on the long glued edges, from the inside front of the drawer to the back, on each side of the cut out center of the drawer. Add finishing nails to the back of the drawer into the ends of the boards and the bottom of the drawer into the long edges of the drawer. This will give you two functional storage areas on each side of the basin. For most dressers this drawer may be the last one needing to be adjusted. If not, repeat the steps for each additional drawer.

9. Sand your dresser and paint or stain as you desire. Apply six coats of polyurethane to the top of the dresser to prevent water damage.

10. Apply caulk to the top of the dresser, around the cut out basin opening, using a caulking gun. Insert your basin and press down. Attach the faucets and reconnect the plumbing.