Vanities

The vanity sets the width of everything else in the bathroom, so it is usually the first thing to settle. This range covers wall hung and floor standing units from around 500mm for an ensuite up to 1500mm for a double basin, plus the stone tops to go on them.

Wall hung units — Bella, Vivo, Milan, Nutro, Stella — fix to the wall with the floor left clear underneath. That makes a small bathroom read as larger, and it makes mopping under it straightforward. They do need noggins in the wall to carry the weight, which is a decision to make before the plasterboard goes on. Floor standing units such as the Bondi sit on the floor and hide the plumbing behind a kickboard, and they do not care what is behind the wall sheet. Piccolo 50 and Tiny 50 can go either way.

Sizing a bathroom vanity

The common widths are 600mm, 750mm, 900mm, 1200mm and 1500mm. A 750mm unit like the Keno suits most single bathrooms. The Fino at 900mm gives noticeably more bench space either side of the basin, which is where things actually get put down. Anything from 1200mm up — the Roxio at 1500mm, for instance — can take two basins, but check the plumbing rough-in allows for two wastes before committing.

Leave at least 100mm clear either side of the vanity and check the door swing. The other measurement worth taking is depth: a 460mm deep unit in a narrow bathroom can make the space feel tight in a way the width never does.

Tops are sold to match. The stone tops on this page come in 1200mm and 1500mm with no tap hole, one hole or three, so the drilling can be matched to whether you are running a basin mixer or a three-piece tap set.

Choose the basin to sit on it from Bathroom Basins, the mixer from Bathroom Tapware, and the mirror to go above it from Bathroom Mirrors. Ordered through Builders Warehouse Online and delivered Australia-wide.