the designer should be able to get you samples of all the available finishes at no cost.

Step back from the edge. It's too early in the game to throw yourself over. :)

I'm having a vanity made through a bathroom designer. I worked with her on my kitchen remodel and I trust her. The only samples she has in her store are the wood species used with all the stain and/or glaze combinations. I picked one and she ordered a sample for me from Canada. I had to pay $12. Along the path to a new bathroom, I've gotten some free samples, had to pay for others. I chalk it up to making an informed choice.

I'm fairly confident I know what my vanity will look like, full overlay with a combination of shaker and slab. It's expensive, but I was expecting it. I could have spent a LOT more but I didn't need to. I did a good amount of research before I decided to do this remodel, figuring out what all the components would cost. I wasn't far off. The labor will cost more than all the materials combined. I had to increase my budget, but I kinda knew I would have to.

My designer doesn't charge me for her services, so I don't expect her to eat the cost of my vanity sample. She takes a cut of what I buy through her. I've compared prices of items like tub and faucet and find my cost through her to be competitive with online distributors. Vanities are harder to quantify, given all the options.

Ha ha, Linelle, thank you.

I'm actually pretty confident I will know what it will look like. I think she did a great job with the actual design and layout. She helped me envision what the space would look like. It is my first time using her (or any designer) and we had to pay a design fee that is applied to the cost of the vanity.

I understand paying for samples (I've paid for for fabric swatches, tile, paint, it all adds up), but this one I was told will be $100 after the first. I don't find that acceptable, considering the amount I am paying for the vanity to begin with.

I don't expect her to eat the cost on my samples either, I just feel that if she is selling something, she should have something to show me that will be closely representative of the finish (so I'm not talking unfinished veneer samples). I've taken leaps of faith in the past (I've order sofas on the phone using swatches, and being able to test similar models in a store) This is just a big purchase to me, and it's the most expensive item in the bathroom, so I'm nervous about not loving the finished product, upset that picking finish was a bigger production than I envisioned, and now it's going to delay progress. If I had known what the process was in picking the finishes, I would have started that sooner.

I wanted to upload my pics for some opinions. Is there a quick way to do this? I'm on a mac and they pics are on dropbox. Thanks

Skinny? (Just guessing from your screen name, LOL, I agree that $100 seems very steep for a wood finish sample. I've had two vanities made, the first one, we picked from a collection of samples...the second was teak veneer and he had to go buy the teak, so I had no exact idea of what it was going to look like until the day he delivered it! LOL It didn't even occur to me to ask for a sample as I have teak furniture, and I know what teak looks like. Are you having your vanity stained? Or is it the time of finish, ie satin, semi-gloss etc. that you are unsure of?

We had a carpenter do some custom made additions to our kitchen cabinets (long long story as to why our kitchen company didn't do it). The hardest part for him was coming up with a finish that matched closely to our cupboards, ... he lived a ways away, and luckily for us, he came to our house each time with the samples, but the process took a long time. He said he would never do that again, he didn't charge us extra for that part of the job, but neither he or we realized how hard it was going to be. Sounds like your designer and or her cabinet maker are not willing to eat that extra cost. If she was clear that each additional sample was going to be $100, I guess that's rough, but there's not much you can do, except let her know you are not happy about it, and pay the cost.

skny, $100 is a lot. My BD just recently set up shop in her new location and the cabinet line I'm buying is new to her. The larger door samples are still in boxes. I went through her color samples and knew the wood and stain I wanted the instant I saw them. I wanted my own sample to go with my other choices, and I thought $12 was reasonable for my own 6x4 chunk of wood.

I'm fairly confident that my vanity will be fine. The one I have now is builder's grade golden oak with a cultured marble top.

skny0104:

Please place the metaphorical shoe on the other foot.

You are a custom cabinetmaker. You want your customer to be happy, but realize that there are millions of stain combinations and you are powerless to pick the right one. This can only be done by the customer, so you want an approved sample. You don't care how long it takes or how much it costs due to their fussiness, you just want her to wet her pants when you deliver, so she'll cut your check immediately.

I had a lady SIGN THE APPROVED SAMPLE and then refuse payment because it was "too dark". Never, ever, again.

Raehelen, lol wish I was skinny, haha. A couple of years ago, maybe. I am doing a veneered finish, so at the showroom, I am mainly looking at unfinished veneer swatches. She had 1 or 2 finished samples that I could see.

I now might go with one of the two samples that I do have finished and forego paying the $100 and dealing with sample cost/delay. I've been dragging my samples around begging anyone who will listen to my sad story weigh in about my dilemma. So far, most people like the cool gray finish.

There is one more route that I might be able to use; I'm thinking of contacting the veneer supplier directly and seeing if they may have a finished sample of the one other veneer that is a contender. Perhaps they will have something (even if I have to pay something, not $100).

Good news - I contacted veneer supplier directly and was told they have a finished sample and can send me. No charge. Happy day!

I finally figured out how to post pics. I put them into tinypic from dropbox. Which was pretty easy, but wondering if there is a direct way. I've put the veneer samples against other materials. The floors are a calacutta caldia and the countertop will be Pental quartz lattice (on the right). The countertop will come down the side in a waterfall edge (looks so cool) and the cabs are frameless.

So here we go
Gray oak sample 1: This is the one I originally chose in the showroom but when I got my sample, I wasn't crazy about the graining (it seemed plain), but I did like the color)

Grey oak sample 2 (diff veneer). IRL, I think it looks a littler greyer and bluer. This one is growing on me and this has been the winner so far to people who have seen it.

Ebony - unfinished sample.

I was told to apply water to the veneer sample in order to mimic the final finish color. So although this is light all over, the final finish should be closer to the "wet" version in the corner. I was able to contact the supplier and hoping they could send me an actual finished sample. I liked the rich warm color, which I thought could be a good contrast to all the cool tones in the room.

Which cabinet/veneer manufacturer are you using? Your samples look very similar to the veneer options I had with a company called Merit here in B.C. Canada. Their veneers were actually tiny strips of wood glued together so that all of the woods had a narrow stripey appearance like those samples do. We ended up going with a custom cabinet maker who bought teak veneered plywood sheets for us, ie. the wood grain was on a 4 X 8 sheet and was the actual wood grain, not a series of tiny strips. I hope it's clear what I'm trying to say, I went to the Merit web site, and they don't show pics of the wood samples.

I did find a site that carries a product called EchoWood, which is similar in looks in what I was trying to describe.
I just want to ensure that you know what veneer product you are dealing with and whether you want a product that doesn't have the natural lines of 'normal' veneer.

I did a Google search for ebony and it seems like natural ebony can have dark and light together, which can be beautiful, but I just want you to be clear on what the whole piece of wood is going to look like. Do they have any pictures of the wood veneer on cabinets?

Here is a link that might be useful: Echo Wood Veneers

Hi raehelen

Thanks for the feedback. The veneer company is called Brookside. On their website, they discuss a "reconstituted wood" process" which does sound a bit scary, but the company has been in business since the early 1900's (one would think if it wasn't a good product, they wouldnt be able to remain in business) I was advised by designer that some of their products have a texture (maybe that is the tiny strips you are referring to?) The veneer samples that I have a smooth and don't feel like sticks.

Although I know I am being picky about the whole selection process (and now I know I should have talked to the designers sooner), I have confidence that the finished product will be high quality. The designer is not selling another "brand" - the vanity will come from her millshop. In that sense, her name and reputation are part of the product. She is not likely to associate it with something that does not meet her standards (she has been in business almost 20 years)

On another note, how do you do the link to Echo Wood Veneers? Did you just paste in the "Optional link URL" and give it a name?

Brookside veneer cabinetry on houzz (unfortunately no grey oak)

Here is a link that might be useful: Brookside veneer cabinetry on houzz