Several years ago, I bought this dresser at ReStore. It was what I considered to be a pretty amazing deal. I got it for $125.
The dresser came with a beautiful oval mirror but I’ll show you that as the rest of the bathroom makeover comes together.
I bought it with the intent to turn it into a bathroom vanity but the time just hasn’t been right. We really want to tear out a wall in the bathroom and put in a sliding door, and that is what we have been waiting on. BUT, life happens and the funds nor the time are available for that big of a project, so we are going to do bits and pieces of the makeover now, and as funds and time come, more of the project will be completed.
We went back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth again about whether or not to get a vessel sink. I LOVE the look of them but really didn’t think it was practical for our large family and in our primary bathroom. So, we opted against the vessel sink and for the one that sits down in the counter, or in this case, dresser top.
So, the task at hand… to get this sink in this dresser top.
The sink came with a pattern to follow and so we carefully measured for the center of the sink, side to side, and then exactly where we wanted the sink, front to back, and marked it off with painters tape.
Then we centered the cut-out pattern and taped it down.
Using a jig saw, My Better Half cut out the hole. I don’t know why I get so very nervous when he’s doing stuff like this, but I do!
I’m always afraid the hole is going to be too big and the sink is just gonna fall right through! But it didn’t. It was the perfect fit.
Now, I wish I could say that was it…project complete. But I can’t. The top two drawers needed to be rebuilt. I didn’t want them to just be fake, unusable drawers, so major modification had to be done to make them fit around the sink. That’s a post for another day.
Another thing that needed to be done was to take care of this this ugly bleached out spot on the top of the dresser.
So I had to sand down the top and find matching stain. The matching stain was a big pain in the bucket. I had to mix four different stains together to finally get the desired look…urg!
But after much persistence… I got the color right, and now the top matches the bottom…yay!
The sink is just sitting in the dresser/vanity for now. I need to wax the top of it, to seal it thoroughly from all the water that is going to come into contact with it. If you want to see how I stain and wax a piece like this, you can read my post HERE.
I love the new bathroom vanity. It has such character.
Anyway, I’ll be showing you the rest of the bathroom makeover as things progress, but getting this done has been serious motivation!!
** The bathroom vanity and bathroom makeover is now complete. You can see the finished job HERE.
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Wow Carrie, I’m visiting from the Furniture Feature Friday Party. Your bathroom vanity is gorgeous and has inspired me to change ours when we re-tile the bathroom floor. Lovely!
love it and you did a great job thanks for sharing visiting from bacon time have a great weekend .
It looks gorg!!!!!
Love it!! We have a really, really small bathroom. We could have put in a vanity like yours, but at the time, hubs thought a 20 in. was all we could fit. Now we have dead space on each side. Gonna try to show him it could be done, I’m pretty sure, with a dresser we have that was mine, my grandmother’s. Thanks.
Janet
I love this! I agree, a vessel sink wouldn’t be very practical with kids around – especially since the dresser was probably the right height to begin with and a vessel sink would add more height. When you say you are going to wax the top to seal it, what do you wax it with? I also plan to use an antique dresser for my vanity in my new house, but I thought I would varnish the top to protect it. Now, when you say you are going to wax your vanity, I am intrigued! Maybe I should wax mine also??
Hi Vickie,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my vanity.
In regard to the waxing question…
I have chosen wax over varnish or in conjunction with polyurethane on several occasions… my dining room table (https://saving4six.com/2011/08/refinishing-the-dining-room-table.html) and my closet office desk (https://saving4six.com/2013/10/how-to-refinish-a-table-or-desk.html) are a couple of the examples.
I use a Johnson’s paste wax and apply many coats (at least 3 on my dining room table and desk). On my bathroom vanity, I will be applying every other day for several weeks, even though the vanity is already being used. This will build up an excellent water barrier and scratch barrier.
Now, the reason I use wax, or the reason I don’t top coat my pieces with varnish or polyurethane… If a piece that has been top coated with varnish gets scratched, the scratch goes through the varnish and you have to strip or sand, and revarnish and possibly restain or repaint the entire piece to get the varnish to match up. With wax, if you happen to get a water mark or a scratch, the scratch can easily be repaired and the wax can be reapplied to the scratched area only, if you like. Our dining room table gets a TON of wear and tear. It gets scratched and other markings are made on it, but a fresh, (10 minute) coat of wax makes the table look great again…bright, shiny, and new.
I’m not a professional wood worker, although my husband has 25 years experience. This is however, what has worked for us and our preferred way to do it.
I hope this answers your questions and can help you make the right decision for YOU and your bathroom vanity.
I have been wanting to do this project for years, still waiting on that perfect sized vintage dresser, can’t wait to see how you handled those drawers!
I am going to do this very same thing to replace the builder’s grade ugly oak vanity in my bathroom. While putting the sink into the dresser is pretty easy to figure out, I have no idea what I am going to do about the drawers. I can’t wait to see how you restructured them!
Love the new vanity. We have done the same with vintage dresser, however with such high traffic we had to sand down and re stain the top twice now. I am curious to know if the wax is enough to seal the top. Have a wonderful weekend.
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And what about the drawers ..once the sink was installed
Question: Are the drawers still functional?