Designing Your Bathroom Around the Vanity

Petite bases in the powder room. In the powder room and first-floor baths, designers are seldom asked to provide storage capacity, which may explain why pedestal sinks are increasingly edging vanities out altogether, even though there are plenty of smaller furniture-look vanities available, like Signature Hardware's Nantucket Cottage Vanity, which has a cabinet that's just 25" wide.

"I'm doing a lot of trough sinks in the powder room with metal, concrete or glass counters and custom elements like a metal pedestal or something freeform that's different, almost art," says Tucson-based Carroll. "You couldn't use the metal counters in the master bath, they're not as durable as stone, but it's more for show in the powder room, more for looks."

Carroll designs quite a few of her one-of-a-kind vanities, working with metal custom cabinet companies in the area. The powder room design that landed her a Best Bath Design First Place from the NKBA in 2005 includes a bowl sink on a round metal disk atop a free-form metal base that has more in common with fine sculpture than a storage cabinet. Not the most traditional interpretation, but a vanity nonetheless.

Resources

Martha Gargano, designer - A Matter of Style
Cheshire, Ct.

Lori Carroll & Associates
www.loricarroll.com

National Kitchen and Bath Association
www.nkba.com

Habersham Furniture
www.habershamdesigns.com

Marquis Oval Carved Chest Vanity - Cole & Co.
www.vanitybath.com

Luxaris Home and Spa vanities
www.russiansauna.com

Timberlake Cabinet Company
www.timberlake.com

Nantucket Cottage Vanity - Signature Hardware
www.signaturehardware.com