Have you ever considered building your own rustic vanity?
During our Hobby Homestead Project we wanted to find creative ways to save money and add some personality to our home! Building our own home was quite a journey. We are moved in now but we are definitely not done! So many things to wrap up still. That is pretty much always the case no matter where you move. Oh the joys of being a home owner! When we were designing the first floor bathroom we wanted to do something a little different. Our whole house style was pretty much craftsman with a touch of rustic farmhouse with a couple industrial elements here and there. Random? Maybe. It works for us though and I love it! We fell in love with the general style of this vanity from Pottery Barn. The $1699 plus tax plus shipping price tag definitely wasn’t working for us. I look at furniture like that and think “I can totally build that.” Our total cost for the whole project was about $350 (and that includes the sink, faucet, and lumber).
We built the vanity out of cedar. I love the look of cedar and it worked well for all of it but the top. If I were to do it all again we would have used oak or another hardwood for the top boards. Cedar was too soft for that area.
The overall dimensions we used to build our rustic vanity were the following:
32″ wide by 24″ deep and 35″ tall.
The materials you need to build a rustic vanity are the following:
- Four cedar 4″ by 4″ for the legs
- 1″ by 6″ cedar boards that we cut down to the desired dimensions for how we wanted it to look. It is like a puzzle, you have to make adjustments.
- 1 can of Minwax Stain
- 1 can of polyurethane
- Dewalt Drill
- Dewalt Mitre Saw (another awesome tool)
- Kreg tool to join the top boards together.
- Top mount sink. I bought this one by American Standard and I think it is perfect!
- Rustic faucet. I love the one I bought! 🙂
The picture below shows the way we set up the underside of the vanity sink area. We used a Kreg tool to join the 1 by 6 inch boards together (best tool ever) and then added support around the opening we cut for the sink.
We ripped down the 1 by 6’s into slats for the base. you can see how we built out the bottom with the blocks. We started doing it a more complicated way and then backed off and figured this out!
Once it was all complete we stained only the top to darken it up and then clear coated the entire piece in a polyurethane. We did three coats of poly with light sanding in between.
This is super cute! Thanks for the great tutorial. The pictures are very helpful. I love the old rustic look for a bathroom. It’s such a charming look.
Thanks! 🙂
where did you get the handle bar from on the front of the sink? I’m about to make this and I want to copy yours exact; I love it!
Thanks! 🙂
Where did you get the pull bar from on the front? I’d like to get the exact same one!
It was a little shop in Greenville, SC. I’ve tried to find the exact one online but without success. 🙁
Thanks for the response, I’ll find something similar. I built it today, Easy to build! Took me about 3 hours total. One other q, the faucet you have I love, but the amazon.com link that comes up looks a tad different, do you have another direct link? or maybe they just changed the actual faucet spout shape?
That is awesome! Please send me a picture! Try this link: http://www.faucetdirect.com/bathroom-sink-faucets/c64?f17776=bronze%20tones&f17866=widespread&f17783=Kingston%20Brass Mine is Kingston Brass.
I love this vanity! Perfect for a cabin bath! Wondering how the top has held up to water use? I really like the wood countertop, but wonder how well it is holding up to actual use…water splash, glasses, wet cloths?
Hi Jackie! It has held up well despite having two kiddos using it daily. 🙂