It's certainly unique.

If the big one bothers you and you don't have counters picked out yet (because it'll be deeper), your carpenter can probably rejigger it for overlay doors without starting over. But it doesn't look bad and nobody will think it's a mistake.

If you have anything else in progress, it might be a good idea to check the drawings you signed off on and be sure they align with with what you want. :)

I like the smaller vanity better than the inspiration. But the larger one doesn't look right with the interruption of the stiles. I wonder if they could be notched to have continuous groove across the stiles that matched the drawers.

I picked one like that on purpose, so probably not so helpful in that regard…but I think if you do keep them as is, they both look great and no one but you will know that wasn’t the original plan for the larger one. Fixing it could be rather involved since you need all the drawers to be the same length. I’d also look at your original agreement to see what was specified to understand who would pay for the changes. Also bear in mind that changing them to full overlay will add a little depth to the vanities, which will affect your tops.

This is a rough drawing of what I mean. The stile could be routed to have a recess in it the size of the recessed drawer pull area

@Fori @artemis78 I picked the slab for the countertop already, but it can be done if we need to extend 3/4" more. The carpenter is a little far from me. He prefers to deduct some amount from the balance instead of fixing it. If I insist to fix it, he will do that also.

@palimpsest Thanks a lot for the drawing you changed for me! That is a lot easier to have an idea of how it will look like if we go this route. I did consider this option but was not quite sure. Looking at the drawing you made, I feel that is not bad.

Palimpsest's fix is good, but you're gonna need a good paint touch-up job if it's done on site.

On the bright side, if it had been made as intended, it wouldn't look nearly as custom!

Can you have the drawer fronts on the larger vanity remade so that each section mimics the smaller vanity? I think the groove for the finger pull would just be shorter and centered on each drawer section. I hope this makes sense

The small vanity looks intentional. For the large vanity I would insist on new drawer fronts that cover the frame. It sucks for the cabinet guy but it’s not that much work to remove the face frame and rework it.

Yep, my fix is not all that easy either, it just prevents the waste of a bunch of material. It will have to be done well and would require some lacquer work onsite.

I really like Honu3421 's idea of just redoing the drawer fronts on the large vanity.

To convert that to full overlay is not just a matter of putting on new drawer fronts. Not unless you are OK with them being installed on top of the existing drawer fronts, that are installed over the existing drawer box. A double layer of drawer fronts. Because inset drawer boxes are shallower than full overlay.

I understand that you are disappointed based on not getting the finish detail you expected. However, unless the cabinetmaker is willing to redo this for free, I'm afraid you are going to be be spending a lot of money on what seems to be a small modification. If it looked bad as is, that would be one thing, but it looks nice. This may be a situation where the concept of "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" applies. Consider letting it go....

I’m quite sure the cabinet you got is worth more than the cabinet you wanted. I think it looks great.
If you can’t live with it change it but in the scheme of things it’s a waste of time and money

If it’s not what you approved and they’re willing to redo, you should redo the large one. I think it looks like a mistake. The small one looks okay so if you’re just trying to be nice to the cab maker, and it’s in a different room, I’d leave that one as is. Those inset grooves for handles are really beautiful!

I don’t think it looks “wrong”. It’s not exactly what you want but it will be a pain to change for the error he made.

It’s still a smooth, ultra-modern vanity. And it does look very nice.

It totally doesn’t bother me and I love the finished look. But you will live it so my opinion really doesn’t matter.

@kudzu9 My carpenter offered to deduct $1000 from the balance if I let it go. Therefore, the cost to fix it is basically $1000. I am a perfectionist, so it did bother me a little. But with little kids at home, I probably don't have much time to worry about it in the future.

@Suzanne More time and effort to change it is my major concern. It has been too much going on for the remodeling. I really hope it can be done ASAP.

@quicklock cabinets If we want to change to full overlay, the drawer slides need to be moved forward a little.

@susan L @REDRYDER I am so glad you like the vanity!

Oh shoot I didn’t notice before that that ‘handle’ doesn’t go all the way across then outer drawers. No one would ever intentionally design what you have there, even with palimpsest’s hack. That would make me sad every time I saw it.

I had some doors remade for my build when they messed up something much less egregious than this. They prioritized the fix at the cab shop and it didn’t take long at all. You guy is going to want to do it fast too. Because you won’t pay him until it’s done.

@Missy Bee I really like to hear other people's option since we might move in several years. If I leave it now and finish the countertop, I will not be able to change it to full overlay and can only keep it as inset.

@Susan L Sadly this mistake was found after the vanity was installed. This makes it harder to fix because it has to be done on site now. I am glad I didn't pay him in full. Initially he told me there was nothing he could do.

I feel for you! And for your cab guy too. I'm sure everyone was acting with the best intentions. In this case, I think it's not strictly about "did they build exactly what you asked for" but more like "does it generally satisfy the design intent." Which... um... I think you know my answer, but you need to answer for yourself. I wouldn't let the fear of delay get in the way, was really my main point. A year from now you won't hardly remember that.

@Susan L I know my cab guy tried his best and was very patient with me. He is just not that skilled and made some critical mistakes including some other ones. I tried to let it go if it was minor thing.

Thank you very much for all the advice from kindest of your heart! I didn't make any decision yet. If I do decide to fix it, I have four options, I think. One is to change to full overlay, so I can have the same design as the small one with continuous across groove in the center. One is to keep inset drawers by remaking 6 drawer fronts. I could remake 6 slab drawer fronts with handles or 6 drawer fronts with groove handle in the center on each set which are 3 separate small ones. Another option is to cut two stiles out and make the center drawer fronts slightly wider to cover the space the two stiles take previously. This is the riskiest option because it is not that easy to cut the stiles out. Which options do you think is the best?

I may be misunderstanding your descriptions of your options, but option 2/3 does not sound like it would be viable--if you have boxes designed for inset drawers and you don't want to rebuild the boxes, your primary option is #1, rebuilding the drawer fronts to be full overlay. You may be able to do option 2/3 depending on the cabinet box construction, but I think it will look odd (and not sure it would work at all depending on how they're built--I know it wouldn't work on our flush inset cabinets, for instance, without recessing the drawers and building an extra layer of drawer front to hide that you've recessed them--and at that point you might as well just do option 1).

Has the cabinetmaker told you that these are the four options he's willing to do? If not, I'd start with what he sees as the possible solutions and decide from there. If it were me--and especially given that you might sell in a few years--I would just take the discount and call it a day. I think there's a strong possibility that any of these solutions will leave you with a vanity you're still not happy with, just with different issues.

I don't personally like groove handles, but I do see them done like this (where the handle doesn't run the full length of the drawer) with some frequency, so I don't think it's super crazy that they're built that way. Just not something I would choose...but I like handles, and you might not. Another option might be to keep the inset design and just redo the drawers to match the single vanity so that each has the groove pull in the center of the drawer and there are three that look distinct, rather than seeming like it was meant to be one continuous pull with the stiles breaking it up. That probably works better if the sinks are centered over the two outside drawers, though.

ETA: Realized I can see the cabinet structure in that first photo. If you just cut off the stiles, you're going to end up having mismatched sizes of drawer fronts based on what's visible in that photo. That would make me a lot more nuts than the stiles. I think your simplest solution, if you want to fix this, would be to just have new full overlay drawer fronts built and screw them to the existing drawer fronts. (We have original partial overlay built-ins that are constructed that way and it works fine.) That will add depth to the vanity overall but will get you the look you're going for. That would be my second choice after having the drawer fronts redone to match the single vanity and keeping the stiles and inset design.

@artemis78 Thank you for all the appreciated info! I think we can move the drawer slides slightly forward to fit the full overlay drawer fronts. We don't have to keep the current drawer fronts and add another layer of drawer fronts. But I do have concern to add extra depth to the vanity if changing to full overlay because we have a narrow bathroom. My cabinet maker suggested the option #4 to remove the stiles. The middle two drawers are shorter than the drawers on the ends. So, removing the stiles and enlarging the middle drawer fronts is not a problem.