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Crazy BR Vanity Prices!

last year

I was in Lowes yesterday and saw two 48" vanities (base only I think) for right at a grand each. Looking at online prices, I see quite a few for less than that at Lowes but they are still in the $800 range. The fitment of the wood fronts and drawers is far from furniture-grade but some of the drawers are plywood so that's a plus.

It's frustrating to have to fork over so much for so little. I have made my own cabinets in the past for the same reason but would prefer to put my time into other parts of my remodel project.

Any alternatives or justification anyone wants to contribute before I tool up for cabinets again??

Comments (10)

  • PRO
    last year

    Spend the 4K to have a custom maker do it for you, and it will happen before Christmas.

  • last year

    Ewww, no way I would spend 4K on one base cabinet....even if it does take 'til Christmas for me to build mine.


    I'm just blown away at the low quality for such high prices. I guess a grand seems cheap if 4K is the alternative but I can buy some nice wood for a lot less than a grand for a 48" cabinet. I'm griping because I don't see the justification.


    I prefer not to but I can build cabinets.

    Kitchen from previous home....Brazillian teak (Cumaru) faces/doors. Super dense wood and took a big router but the cabinets popped and were a huge selling point for the house.


  • last year

    Thanks eld. I didn't get a result for "Kitchen Showrooms"


    I'm checking local antique stores for pieces that may look nice. Have a lead on one piece with no surface for $350 but not sure I'm in love with the style. I have a nice black granite top on order.

  • last year

    Real furniture may be an option. Just be wary of veneer delaminating in a damp environment. Make sure you have good ventilation fans. Keep looking for old furniture pieces. You will eventually find something you like. Yes, a lot of vanities are garbage. I am happy at my wood vanity from Wayfair that we got in 2018 for around $700, until I look closely and see that the solid wood frames on the doors are made with several of those machine-made jagged joins. On a painted piece, they are smooth enough to be invisible, but my vanity is stained. If you look closely, you can see the joins. It is like my vanity’s solid wood parts are made of scrap wood! They remain invisible at a distance and to the touch, and the vanity performs very well, but I know that somewhere in China there is a lumber manufacturer laughing at the stupid Americans paying him to make scrap wood look good.

    John 9a thanked Nancy in Mich
  • last year

    4K would be barely mid grade quality. High quality would easily be double that.

  • last year

    Nancy, right, that join is also common in cheaper wood trim and it will unjoin if it ever gets wet. Wood moves with humidity changes and unlike grain pattern will move differently so those joins are definitely a weakness.

    My current color choices are greys, blacks, and whites so I may use a coarse-grain hardwood for the face and drawer faces. I saw a treatment I like where the wood is stained black and then wiped with white to fill the grains. Not enough white to quite qualify as a pickle wash but it should look very nice with my colors. I still have some time to poke around for a furniture piece.


    Zumi, I have a high-grade plywood source within a three-hour drive. It's a woodworker and contractor supplier so they also have dimensional exotics. I'll use them if I can't come up with another option I like better. I'll try to post my end result and cost.

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Just an update on the vanity concept....

    I haven't found furniture within an easy drive that I liked. I built the box and I'm sharing the very basics of the shell as an example of why I think commercial builds are so over-priced.

    I'm not ignoring the fact that the part I just finished is the easiest and cheapest part. The rest of the materials will include high-quality wood for the doors and drawer faces (the most expensive part of the cabinet), probably a good grade, 6-ply 1/2", plywood (or solid wood) for the drawers (probably 3 on each side), ball-bearing drawer rails, and some miscl. stick wood to hang/support the drawer rails. This material is going to be well under the $800 to many thousand I'm seeing prices on new stuff. The tools for building the face and drawers will include a 3-hp router and I'll dovetail the drawers if I feel I have the time. They are a piece of cake to do but takes a while to set up the jig.

    Here is the basic box.....a back, two sides, bottom, extra support underneath since I don't want my granite surface to sag and crack, and two partitions to keep junk from falling into the drawer areas. Cost so far....under $20 since I got a killer deal on the plywood but we can say $80 since the plywood would normally go for $40/sheet. I'm using a piece of 3/4" plywood for the deck which I have had for years and a scrap 1"X4" for the top face support. Perhaps we will add some $$ to the cost thus far since a cabinet manufacturer would have to pay for those.....but, I would have had to install my own deck piece anyway......perhaps not needed but I think it's good insurance with the granite.







  • PRO
    last year

    That isn’t how any of that is measured and planned, much less installed. Good luck with installing drawer glides into that. Or with filling that gap for proper clearance at the big out of square walls. You just made the whole thing about 10x harder than it needed to be.

  • last year

    HU, I don't know how you are concluding the walls are out of square (camera lens errors?) but the walls are square.

    There is a gap on the left between the cabinet and the wall. That gap allows me to have even right and left side pieces for the cabinet face. It's better to have the overage on the outside of the cabinet so it doesn't take away space from the drawer side. There is a big gap in the tile at the back right of the cabinet. There is a short wall coming to separate the vanity from the toilet which will be installed on the right. In any event, the cabinet is loosely installed now, awaiting the sheet vinyl flooring.

    This isn't my first rodeo with cabinet installs. Drawer guides are screwed into vertical plywood strips (4 total for each drawer set) and then screwed into the cabinet box. You mark off guide locations like laying out studs on a floor plate. The face of the cabinet is attached to the cabinet from the inside with pocket screws. Piece of cake. Different, perhaps, but not 10X harder.