Most bathrooms still have a vanity built to a standard set after the war, when the same basin served small children and adults. If you are of average adult height you have been stooping at it every morning without particularly noticing.
The old standard is thirty to thirty two inches, and it exists for a historical reason rather than an ergonomic one: post-war houses had few bathrooms, so the basin had to work for children as well as adults. Comfort height is thirty four to thirty six and is now what most new vanities are built to.
The difference is whether an adult stands upright to wash their face and shave, or leans forward. Four inches sounds trivial and is not, because it is repeated twice a day for as long as you own the house. Anyone around six feet is noticeably better served at thirty six.
It cuts both ways. A user around five foot four is comfortable at thirty two to thirty four, and a family bathroom with small children has a genuine case for the lower standard. That is why we ask who uses the room before drawing anything. See the rooms hub, custom cabinets and laundry rooms.
Recent work
How it works
How a Vanity Is Planned
Ask who uses it
One tall adult, two adults of different heights, or a family bathroom with children. That answer sets the height before anything else is discussed, and it is not a style question.
Find the waste and supplies
The trap position decides the interior layout. Drawers can be cut around it in a U, but only if the position is known before the boxes are made rather than after.
Specify for moisture
Moisture-resistant board, sealed edges at the front and around any cutout, and a finish that copes with daily steam. This is where a bathroom spec diverges from a kitchen one.
Top, basin, then fit
The worktop is templated on the set cabinet like any other stone, with the basin cutout and tap holes agreed at the same visit. Then fitted, sealed and levelled.
A wet room
A Bathroom Cabinet Lives a Harder Life
A kitchen base cabinet dries out between splashes. A vanity sits in a room that gets steamed twice a day and takes standing water along its front edge from wet hands and dripping arms. Put a standard kitchen carcass in there and it will swell at the toe kick within a few years.
So the build changes even though the joinery does not. Moisture-resistant board, sealed edges where water sits, and a finish that tolerates humidity rather than one chosen purely for looks. The extra cost is small and the difference in lifespan is not.
The other constraint is plumbing. A waste trap runs straight through the middle of the cabinet, so the interior has to be planned around it rather than fitted with a standard shelf. That is where U-shaped drawers earn their place. See quartz tops and door styles.
Built for it
Other rooms
Cabinetry in the Other Rooms
Same joinery, different dimensions. These are the rooms beside the bathroom.
Heights, moisture, plumbing and what makes a bathroom cabinet different.
Comfort height, 34 to 36 inches, suits most adults and is now standard in new builds. Anyone around six feet is noticeably better at 36. Shorter users and family bathrooms often still suit 32 to 34.
History rather than ergonomics. Post-war houses had few bathrooms, so one basin served children and adults and the height split the difference. Most homes now have more bathrooms and no reason to compromise.
You can, and it will not last as long. A bathroom is steamed twice a day and takes standing water at the front edge, so moisture-resistant board and sealed edges are worth the small extra.
It runs through the middle of the cabinet, which is why vanity drawers are often U-shaped to pass around it. That has to be designed in, so we locate the trap before the boxes are built.
Drawers, almost always. A vanity cupboard is a deep dark box with a pipe through it, and everything migrates to the back. Drawers cut around the trap give you all of the space usably.
Wall-hung makes a small bathroom read larger and makes the floor easy to clean, but it needs sound fixing into something structural. We check the wall before offering it.
Yes, if you want it to. Same door profile, finish and hardware, built by the same shop. In an open plan house where both are visible, that consistency is usually worth having.
We ask who uses the room, find the waste trap, and build for a space that gets wet twice a day. Quoted by the linear foot alongside any other cabinetry.
