design approach

1. BASE CABINET

I saw no reason to discard the decent if generic vanity cabinet. Instead, I updated its looks with light-grey paint and new hardware. Good-enough cabinets can be sanded and stained or painted to give them an entirely new look. The old wood must be thoroughly clean and rid of soap scum, then lightly sanded and primed before painting.

2. SALVAGE ITEMS

The laminate countertop was replaced with a top made of reclaimed vintage wood. I found some pieces that were nice and thick—for both aesthetic and structural reasons, you don’t want a thin countertop. The boards were glued up, sanded and sealed, and then holes were cut for the sinks. It’s important to thoroughly seal wood used near water. The rimmed, drop-in, porcelain-on-cast-iron sinks came from the ReSource Building Material Store in Burlington, Vermont.

In turn, everything we removed from the existing bathroom was donated to a local rebuild center— who sent someone to pick it all up.

3. THE TILE

I found this fabulous, matte-finish, patterned cement tile online, left over from someone else’s project. There was just enough to entirely cover the feature wall behind the sinks vanity. The width of the grout line was chosen to ensure that full (uncut) tiles would be used at top and bottom of the wall installation. New, furniture-like mirrors and updated lighting finish the transformation.