I’ve been building tons of cabinets for the jack and jill bathroom . The bathroom vanity is five cabinets joined together into one giant beast. Hoisting that up onto the base by myself was a chore. Especially since I’m still not back to 100% good health. My respiratory virus has somehow developed into asthma. At least it wasn’t pneumonia!
Building a Bathroom vanity
Anyway… My baseboards are 5 1/4″ tall so I’m building my cabinet bases out of 2×6’s. I built around the toe-kick vent.
I’m installing the floors later so they’ll end up covering 3/4″ of the toekick so I added 3/4″ scrap wood on top of my 2×6 base so I could lift the vent up enough to not have the floor cover part of the vent grille. Sometimes I catch things and plan ahead. Sometimes I don’t and then have to figure out how to make it work — later when I find that I didn’t plan well. We’ll see it all turns out after the floors are in. I think it will.
I designed my sink cabinets and built one of them to test out with the sink before I built the second one.
Installing bathroom vanity
I want my farmhouse sink to sit above the countertop which is not what you typically see. Normally, you see farmhouse sinks sitting flush or below the countertop. Being able to try things out and change my mind at any point is what I love about being 100% in control of my projects. I sometimes visualize something in my head but don’t like it when I see the actual reality. In this case, I like it as much in reality as I did in my head so I’m going for it.
I built the second sink cabinet and set them in place to determine their exact placement. I went back and forth here. Getting the dimensions just right is super important. If I moved the sinks too far apart or too close together, even by 1″, it changed the look and feel of the whole configuration. (The rest of the configuration was just in my head at this point but these two cabinets were enough for me to get the visual realization I needed to progress.) 
The bathroom vanity side cabinets are only 12″ wide and are attached with pocket hole screws to the side of the sink cabinets. (I didn’t originally use that approach but ended up taking apart the first ones I built and going this route. Watch the video updates if you want further explanation on that. Explaining my poor planning mistakes makes me tired and upset so I’ve already moved on and forgot the reasoning. Kinda.)
I cut the holes for the pipes and drains. I actually did this before I decided I needed to raise the base with the 3/4″ scrap wood so I had to cut the holes bigger in the end and it ended up looking very sloppy and poorly planned. So I don’t want to talk about that any more. 😀
The center section is simply a bottom, two back cleats and one top cleat, attached to the two sink cabinets with pocket hole screws.
Attaching the center section created one large vanity cabinet which filled the entire width of the room. I had to climb over the vanity about 12 times to complete the task. I needed clamps to pull everything together. Then I needed flush trim pliers to cut a rogue nail… It was fun.
I put the top, front cleat on last (because I forgot about it until the whole vanity was in place). It’s all good in the hood.
Seriously not my favorite method for building a honking piece of cabinetry but sometimes you have to roll with the circumstances and make it work.
See you soon!
OrangeBlossom says
I love it!!! What type of countertops will you do with the farmhouse sink sitting above?
I actually thought your holes were impressive in the first picture, didn’t think they were oops at all. 🙂
Sandra says
I suppose the holes in the back of a cabinet, behind doors, don’t really matter but I like things to be as good as they can be. Definitely not a big enough deal to cut new backs and redo the holes though. I’m either doing wood or concrete countertops. (Because those are both options that I can DIY).
Mrs Mike says
I’m really impressed you’re building the vanity! We’ve done two bathroom renovations. The first one we didn’t do cabinets, although we did make a built-in laundry hamper. The second time, we ended up buying two Hemnes vanities because we were out of time for incoming family arriving to build out. I do like them, and they function well, so it wasn’t a bad decision, but I still love the idea of a custom build with more counter space. I can’t wait to see your finished results, I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic. Love your blog and I hope you kick that respiratory infection soon!
Sandra says
Thanks. I feel pretty good most days. Just use the inhaler now when I need it.
I’m running out of time for incoming family visitors too! I’m not freaking out yet but this bathroom is already 3 months over schedule. I have about 2 more weeks before the first batch of visitor (my sister) and she’ll survive if it’s not done. But I HAVE to be done before June! At this rate though, who knows what will happen. LOL
Frani says
Your work is fabulous. Can’t wait for you to finish so we can all see.
Sandra says
Thanks Frani. I can’t wait to be done too!
Tammara says
Looks fantastic, you make everything look easy! Looking forward to the end result.
Sandra says
Oh I hope that isn’t true. Everything is so NOT easy and I try to paint a very realistic picture of the reality of it all. Things usually turn out in the end because I keep messing with it until it’s perfect (as best as I can do). But it’s not generally easy getting there. 😀
ashley says
Your site has been such an inspiration and a help to me while I work on my own house, especially when I decided to build and install a new kitchen last year, all by myself. Sometimes I get frustrated when things don’t go as planned, or when I don’t plan well. Occasionally I have moments when I wonder why I’m trying to do this kind of stuff at all. I always manage to figure it out and then I’m onto the next project, but it is heartening to see that even with all your amazing work and experience, that you still have moments when things aren’t perfect either! Probably little consolation to you, but I’m glad you include those details in your posts.
Sandra says
Thank you so much. It’s realllllly nice to get positive feedback when I share posts and videos. (Because it takes so much time to record and edit and write… Which is why I’m not very consistent with it. But I enjoy the process and interaction and being a part of others’ remodeling/cabinet building journey. So it’s nice to get that “keep doing it” feedback to keep me going!)
Misery likes company…not that any of us are miserable but we’ve all been there. Knowing that the hurdles, hick-ups, bumps and complete mess ups –are par for the course can be somewhat comforting for us all, I think. I get frustrated when things don’t go as planned (or when I don’t plan things well) too. But not because I don’t expect those problems to arise. I know they will. They always will. There will never be a day when any of us are so wise and experienced that we will never have any more problems with our projects. Because this is real life and that’s just how it goes. It’s just plain frustrating when things are harder than they seem they should be and you’re messing with it longer than you think you should need to. LOL Keep plugging away!
Beth Blikstad says
Hi Sandra,
I love reading your posts and seeing what you do. I so want to do what you do, but have never tried. You make me think that maybe I could do something, someday.
I am responding to you regarding your respiratory issue. We discovered a cough syrup that is natural that works like nothing we ever heard of before. My mom actually found it while in Bulgaria for my brother’s wedding like 15 years ago. She had chronic bronchitis and also developed asthma in her 50s. Every 2 years the pulmonary specialist would do a brochoscopy to get the gunk out of her lungs. After getting sick again following my brother’s wedding she was introduced to an ivy leaf extract cough syrup. Initially she did not think it would help. But she took it and was amazed that it did help a lot. In over 15 years she has never had another brochoscopy. Her pulmonary specialist said, after 2 years, that her lungs looked the best he had ever seen them. We tell all our friends about how this helped us. I give it to my children as soon as they have any respiratory symptoms. You can order it online to save money (I use Swansonsvitamins.com) but the health food stores should carry it. I use Enzymatic Therapy’s brand (which is all that I see that is sold in the US that is an ivy leaf extract) Bronchial Soothe. Get several bottles because you have to keep taking it for a while. If you have any questions email me. BTW, we don’t sell this or make any profit from it. I just wanted to let you know about something that has helped our family.
Sandra says
I will definitely try it. I just ordered some other herbs and supplements that someone else recommended too. I much prefer natural remedies to more and more medicines that cause other issues…
joe pardo says
I really like the idea of the vent opening. The Jack and Jill bath is looking good. The cabinets look good and sturdy. Keep up the good work . My wife and I are anxious to see the finished product. Hope your feeling better soon. REMEMBER chicken soup heals every ailment.
Sandra says
Thanks Joe. I’m really looking forward to see the finished product too. 😀 Hopefully really soon.
aYISHA says
Oh Sandra, How I envy you. I miss building. I had my first baby a year ago and I have not any time to do real building. Only repairs around the house and baby gates. My sink broke in my master bathroom and this post has encouraged me to rip out the Kraftmaid vanity and build a new custom one in it’s place. I’ll email you photos whenever I finish cause lord knows there is no time for me to blog about it.