Do you have an awkward sized space in your bathroom where a traditional vanity won’t fit? OR want something super custom that won’t be ridiculously expensive? Did you know you can use kitchen cabinets as a bathroom vanity!? Check out all the details and photos of our new Ikea Sektion cabinet bathroom vanity!
While I have a bunch of projects to share from our recent camp renovations, nothing is 100% complete. I’m crossing my fingers I can get things cleaned up/photographed soon to share. But until then, I figured it would be a good idea to talk about our new bathroom vanity!
A few months ago I shared my ideas for our main bathroom refresh, and we’re here! Full disclosure: I ordered most of the Ikea kitchen pieces during their kitchen even back in October. And yes, we totally just did this project in February. In my defense, the countertop was back ordered for a long time… then we got busy.
Before I go into all the details of the new vanity, let bring you back to how this bathroom looked:
This bathroom was one of the first spaces we tackled in our new house. I kept almost everything in (minus the floor tiles and the toilet), giving it all a fresh coat of paint.
I painted the wall tiles and tub, the vanity and even the old countertop. After five years with three young kids, things were not looking as fresh as they once did.
Honestly, the countertop and vanity weren’t in the best condition when I painted them. I did a video recap of everything (you can watch it on YouTube here). It shows the drawers rubbing, the water damage on the counters, the space issues. Fun fact: when I removed the drawer from the old vanity for this renovation, it literally came apart at the back, ha.
Bathroom Vanity Construction
Essentially, we ordered three 18″ Sektion cabinets from Ikea, with one center door and two towers of three drawers.
At this point, we had already built/installed the kitchen at the camp, and these cabinets were easy peasy. We also realized that trying to complete two reno projects at two different locations was too much, ha. We were feeling burnt out that our house was a construction zone (even though it was less than a week) and moving tools back and forth was tricky.
Oh well, lesson learned.
SO! Instead of using the Ikea Sektion feet (which are around 4-1/2″ tall) – I built a base using some scrap 2×2 pressure treated wood in our garage. I think they were garden stakes? I don’t know, they were 4′ long and had an angled end. The width of the space was 57″, so I did the front that long and kept the back as a solid piece.
The reason I built a base is because I wanted to keep the vanity height low. The old vanity was around 30″ tall, and kitchen cabinets are usually 36″ tall. No big deal for adults, but tricky for little kids washing their hands.
Our new vanity/counter comes up to almost the same height that the old vanity sidesplash counters did. Which works out great since my beautiful rainbow stripes don’t get cut off! There is less toe kick room at the bottom, but as long as you don’t lift your big toes up too high, you should be good, ha.
Using Ikea Sektion kitchen cabinets as a bathroom vanity also makes the whole area deeper. We have an additional few inches, but the wider and extra drawers are definitely much better for storage! Before, the vanity was all open (aka mess could be anywhere), but now with the three separate cabinets, it’s more contained.
Oh, and I even managed to sneak in an extra “drawer in drawer” on the one side. I show it better in the video, if you want to see what I mean.
New Bathroom Vanity Details
- Ikea Sektion cabinet bases (18″ x 3)
- Enköping brown drawers and cabinet fronts
- Stainless steel handles
- Black faucet
- Square drop in sink
- Related: vanity light, similar mirror, similar towel hook
Oh, and here’s a photo of Zachary (our oldest/tallest) next to the vanity. He came in when I was taking these, but figured I’d share it anyways since it’s good as a reference.
And here’s another side by side comparison showing the new vanity compared to the original one. We were going to use the same faucet, but we are now bringing that over to the camp and got a new one for here. I even reused the same handles and was happy I had two extras – which did influence my drawer layout, ha.
I still need to add a finish toe-kick (even though you can’t see it) and cut/install the missing baseboard pieces. But our miter saw is still in use at the camp and that’s not something I can easily move willy nilly.
Other than that, our custom Ikea Sektion cabinet bathroom vanity is complete! Up next in our bathroom will be the arduous task of removing all the peeling paint in the bathtub. I did buy the proper remover, so fingers crossed I get the time/inclination to get to that eventually, ha.
The plan is to leave all the painted wall tiles, but I may repaint them a different colour to get rid of all the yellowed sections. TBD!
No Comments