Unless you are having every cabinet in your house painted at the same time, the small job set up minimum fee is way bigger than the cost of a new vanity.

Thanks Mackdolan. I am also considering having the powder room vanity and master bathroom cabinetry painted at the same time but neither of those rooms get the abuse nor humidity that the kids' bathroom does.

Thanks Trish. My husband will not let me touch the cabinets myself though. I painted our living room trim once and thought I did a good job but he has really high standards and won't let me near a paint brush again. ;)

Go to a decent kitchen and bath store, replace the vanity and select from a myriad of painted finishes. : ) Before that, consider how far you want updates to go, in ANY bath. A 5 x8 bath implies a small vanity 36 "to 42" max. Far more efficient to start over, get a great remnant top, under mounted sink.......etc.

Post a photo of the victim bath........: )

I have had great luck with having bathroom cabinets done with automotive paint where I live now there is a guy that does all the fancy painting of murals on trucks and cars and he charges me 250.00 to paint a vanity since it is built in I have to do the frame itself with the same paint but there is a down side and that is the paint needs to cure and that takes a few days/ In Calgary I just used an auto paint shop for stuff I wanted done in auto paint.

I'm going to try to post pics but I haven't had much luck.

Hey it worked! I tried to get a closer up pic of the vanity but it photographed much better than it looks in person.

Edit - it is a 36 inch vanity.

OK well than I vote buying a new one instead of hiring someone to paint.

As a young man and in that bath?! I'd tear the shower curtain down with my bare hands:) Toss the towels out a window too!

Agree with Jan's post above.

high school?? lol.

mom, get a new vanity. for what it would cost to get that professionally painted (and that's what you need to get it to last. sanding, primer, sanding, good paint) you could get a brand new vanity, with a top and a sink. you can find that combo for $500 ? maybe a bit more? look on Craigslist. I'm getting one for our rental. 36", nice white vanity, marble top, sink. $550.

(my craigslist has cheaper options, but if you don't, you can try here or Home Depot)

42" Modern Style Beatrice Vessel Sink Bathroom Vanity - TB-9942DK-42QT · More Info

you can get one w/quartz. even comes w/the backsplash piece. Seriously, 21 years is long enough.

oh, and a new shower curtain, towels, and a newer fan with higher fan rating. wouldn't hurt t to change out the baby blue walls either

Could be girls playing sports. I have older teens and did laugh out loud at the cuteness of your shower curtain. My girls would ironically love it, just like they love print onesies. SMH.

I have white painted vanities that our contractor repainted gloss white during a remodel just to freshen them. I don't know the separate price because they did two double vanities, laundry room cabinets plus all the trim for the house in the same gloss paint. It has been fine. If you can get a price that works, I would do that until you are ready to replace for design.

You're right I stand corrected.. She didn't mention gender. I'd still rip it down if I were 13 and kicking a soccer ball , or swinging a hockey stick : ) lol

I am concerned about the paint holding up with the humidity from the showers. Yes, we have a fan but the room still gets a fair amount of steam from the shower that clears up quickly once the door is opened.

Check to see if the fan is venting to the outside. (People have been known to install them without actually hooking them up to any ducting, or worse—hooking them up to ductwork that terminates in the attic or between the ceiling joists!) If it is, then you need to find out why it isn’t doing it’s job. Things to do (this is not an exhaustive list): Check connections to make sure they are secure and air-tight; check duct for proper diameter, slope, obstructions, kinks, etc. and make sure the run is on the short and straight side. That’s a small bathroom so I doubt the unit is undersized. If the ducting is unusually long or circuitous, though, you might need an in-line booster fan.

For those of you that have painted vanities in your bath, have they held up well? Or should I not even consider it and bite the bullet for a new vanity?

My painted vanities have held up extremely well for an embarrassingly long time. :)

We recently painted the vanity in a small guest bathroom with Ben Moore's Cabinet Coat paint. It came out great, and was very easy to do. For under $3,000 we replaced the counter top, faucet, wall lighting, painted the walls and cabinet, and got new towels and shower curtain. It was a quick and easy fix and looks great. Can't speak to how long the finish will last, but for now it was worth it!

I'm bummed to read that no one likes the Tsum Tsum shower curtain. ;) My daughter (oldest child) picked it out a few years ago along with the SW Something Blue paint. My son couldn't care less about what the bathroom looks like. Having a working toilet is the only thing he needs ;)

Sammy - the fan does vent to the outside but the ductwork does not go straight up, it curves out. We had our HVAC contractor come out a few years ago to install the new fan and they tried fixing the duct but because of the joists in the attic they were unable to completely straighten it. My house is not the only one in the subdivision with this problem; apparently the builder did it to most of the homes. My kids like to take extra long, hot showers, so that's the main problem.

Thanks for the thoughts. I was leaning toward a new vanity but thought if I could save some $$$ hubby would be happy.

Do not be bummed about the shower curtain comments.....most pros on here tell people to get something with color, and something that they LOVE, to add color to their boring white and gray bathrooms. If you/your children like it that is all that matters.

Of course it can be painted.

We have rentals. I've used SW Pro Classic, BenM Advance and PPG's Break Through (not the low VOC version) in bathrooms.

Never had the first problem - keep in mind prep is the key. Strategically touched up many doors.

ProClassic and Advance dry to a gorgeous final finish but they have long dry times between coats. Could easily get that cabinet prepped and painted in a weekend with Break Through.

Lori - I didn't think about the fact that the paint recommended for painting cabinets is likely not low VOC. We usually use low VOC paint because my husband and daughter both have asthma. Is the smell bad? We've had good luck with SW Harmony line for our walls and it doesn't have much smell at all but I'm guessing the others aren't as low odor.

Kim - it was tongue in cheek that no one liked the curtain. My daughter is a huge Disney fan, thus the curtain. She may be a temperamental teenager but is a kid at heart :)

Haha, chocolate bunny, I totally understand letting kids select decor items even though you would not have chosen them for yourself! My kids' bathroom had red, white and black Coca-Cola wallpaper--the images were of vintage Coke ads from the 40s and 50s. Not my choice, but they loved it. They are both married and out of the house now, and I recently redecorated the bath. Both were sad to see that paper go!

We usually use low VOC paint because my husband and daughter both have asthma. Is the smell bad?

Odor and VOCs are actually two separate issues.

It's possible for a low VOC product to stink up a room and linger.

Out of the 3 I posted, Break Through smells the strongest. ProClassic and Advance are about the same IMO.

But, yeah, anything that's going to be durable enough for a bathroom vanity is going be serious stuff.

Chalk paint might be an option. I know absolutely nothing about it but might be worth Googling.

We have an upstairs bathroom that is used most exclusively. There is no fan in the shower/tub area, because the builder figured the tiny window above the shower should suffice!

I've painted the vanity/cabinets in that bathroom, myself, TWICE in the last five years. Not because it didn't hold up, but because I changed my mind about the paint color two years in.

The bathroom cabinets get a LOT of daily abuse, and I have yet to see a chip in them.

Hope this helps! :)

BTW: Like to add that had we not installed quartz countertops in that bathroom a few years back, if I could reverse time, I'd just replace the vanity as opposed to the hassle of painting them TWICE! :). Plenty of gorgeous vanities out there for minimal price!

Thank you again everyone.

I do realize low VOC is not the same as low odor, and should have clarified because of my family's health issues, we try to limit the amount of chemicals in the house.

I did some looking last night and there's quite a few new vanity + countertop combos that aren't too expensive (to me anyway). So if we're going to update this space, we may as well go all out and get a new vanity.