I’ve been thinking about creating this site for a long time. What has kept me from starting it for over a year? A bathroom remodeling. Well, more technically, I turned unused space in our finished attic into a bathroom. Adding walls is not exactly “Fine Woodworking,” but it was plenty of work that took most of my free time. I couldn’t afford to pay someone to do the work, so I did it all myself with plenty of help from friends and family.
Whole New Bathroom
One thing I did want to do with this project was to build my own custom vanity. I would call it my first real woodworking project. It was quite a bit of fun to really get going. I chose mahogany because I wanted to be able to had just a clear finish, and have it look outstanding right away. It is finished with about 5 coats of wipe-on polyurethane varnish.
New Bathroom Vanity
I don’t own a drill press, and although I own a couple routers, I don’t have a router table yet. So, I was unable to use mortise and tenon joints. Most of the cross-members and legs are all joined with Kreg pocket screws. I only used pocket screws where they wouldn’t be visible. I have to say that glue plus pocket screws made for a plenty stout frame. I assembled the cabinet doors by cutting grooves for the mahogany plywood. Then I cut tenons that slid into the groove. I don’t know the name of this, maybe someone can leave a comment for me?
The design was interesting, as I purchased a single sink, but with a wide top. I considered doing something other than just two doors, but nothing looked right. To help “thin” the look of these two doors, I added an additional vertical stile in the middle of each door. I also did this on the sides of the vanity. I know, I added decoration to the sides of a vanity, I couldn’t help it. I think the end result looks great, the doors don’t look bulky at all. The drawers are just tip-out fronts, not full drawers.
The frame is all solid mahogany, and the panels are all mahogany plywood. The base is made from 3/4″ lauan plywood. I left an eighth-inch gap around each of the drawers and doors. It’s almost a good fit, I guess I still need some work on keeping everything square.
