We are just finishing our remodel. Counter top goes in this week. Our vanity is taller than the last too. Then we recessed the medicine chest. Even at 5’6” it hurts my back/neck to get close enough to the mirror to do makeup, (due to old eyes.) I’m not sure if we hadn’t recessed if 4” would have made a difference or not, but I get what you are saying.

People have found that they prefer the height of kitchen cabinets over the (traditionally) lower ones in bathrooms. No particular reason why comfortable working height should be different in different rooms -- cutting veggies and finding a lost contact both require visual care. Obviously if you are shorter, you should feel free to get a height that feels comfortable to you! As long as it's in a standard ballpark it won't affect later sale.

We had the high sink vanities in our masterbath at a prior house. I kept platform flip-flops there.

2018 average height for an American male is 5'9' going on 5'10". So as men do most of the commercial designing it makes sense to raise the height of vanities. The designers are

responding to a market direction. Big Box stores have lower prices as they stock items that will be purchased by the largest segment of consumers. Ditto higher toilet height.

We remodeled our downstairs bathroom and found most of the vanities were elevated. It is a trend that started about 15 years ago. The men love it. The women hate it!! You will need to look around, but you can find the shorter ones. We did.

We ordered ours from a kitchen and bath store. I don't remember the price exactly. I think it was around $500 or less. I think is by Bertch.

We ordered full doors with no dead space at the top and no drawers. It also has a base because I did not want to have to clean under it!!! My husband put in shelf inserts and we installed 2 shelves up high for toilet paper and kleenex and installed 2 pull outs for shampoo, pads, etc. It is amazing!!

I just finished a remodel and had my bathroom counters raised because I hated having to lean forward so much to wash my face. FWIW, I consider myself on the short side at about 5'4" - the OP is 4'11" which is exceptionally short for an adult woman. At least in my opinion such extreme shortness is equivalent to extreme height in terms of not finding standard height counters functional.

In terms of looking at the mirror, either have a pull out mirror mounted to the side - preferably with magnification - and you no longer have to lean over a counter for close work when doing makeup. I always used a small mirror for close work and the larger mirror only to get a sense of the whole.

In my current remodel, I opted for a low vanity space in lieu of a second sink where I can sit and perform my grooming rituals in complete comfort. It works far better for me than a second useless sink sink since the amount of time I spend needing water is minimal compared to the amount of time I spend doing other stuff which doesn't need water. I used to actually have an old fashioned vanity table in my bedroom which I used to style my hair and put on makeup.

If time is of the essence the simplest thing would be to find one of the vanities with legs instead of a toekick, and have your contractor trim the legs by 2".

As I get older, I find the higher cabinets uncomfortable to use because I am not bending at the waist and it hurts my back to bend at such an awkward angle. I also have trouble getting my feet into the sink when I need/want to wash my feet. And those vessel sinks are, IMHO, useless. Beautiful, but useless.

This is a very interesting topic.

We usually have cabinets made by a local craftsman rather than buying the relatively flimsy cabinets at (fill in your favorite store). The craftsman usually asks what height we want, and we always go with taller. I'm 6' and my wife is 5'9", so higher seems to work better for us ergonomically. So far the craftsmen have beat the prices for any prebuilt cabinets, so we will always do that. We're redoing a condo now and having the cabinets custom made.

When you are considering cabinet height, also consider sink depth. If a sink is too deep that can hurt your back to bend over and pick things up. This is more of a kitchen sink issue.

Husband is 6'2 and i'm 5.6 so we always get higher counters in bathrooms when building, along with higher toilets. Just a matter of comfort. If someone 4' buys our home, they will find them a bit uncomfortable.

I notice the granite tops are a couple of inches deeper than standard and make it harder to get close to the mirror for up-close jobs like tweezing eyebrows and such. Funny story: When I moved into my very first apartment, the newly-remodeled bathroom contained a medicine cabinet that was so high, I could only see the upper half of my face (I'm 5'6"). I commented to my landlady that the contractor must have been a very tall man. She was startled--I think she thought I was psychic before I explained the medicine cabinet dilemma.

I'm another "shorty," husband is almost a foot taller. I too, much prefer the taller vanity height for comfort!

I absolutely HATE those tall vanities. I'm 5'4" and I like to wet my hair in the morning. I cannot do it when the vanities are so tall i can't bend over them. I can't even splash water on my face because my elbows can't get high enuf to collect water under the faucet. Unless you're 6'5" they are just AWFUL. I think its just a shortcut builders are using so they don't have to buy different height cabinets for baths. Just throw in a kitchen cabinet and no one will know the difference, until they have to use a kid's step stool to use the sink.

And how do you hike up your legs if you want to wash your feet??

And on top of the tall vanities they put one of those bowl sinks!! The sink level is up to my mid chest.

To each their own.

But, there is a reason some people like shorter vanities.