It’s surprising, to me, how uncommon quality bathroom vanities without tops can be on the internet. If you look at all the big name, big box stores like Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Home Depot, et alia, you’ll quickly discover that they offer mostly the same type of vanity cabinet: that is, one with the top firmly set into the architecture of the vanity. It’s also surprising to me that this is typically accomplished with the enthusiastic application of glue, instead of something perhaps a little more sturdy – but that is an issue for another blog post.
No, what surprises me more than these brands’ apparent zeal for cheap but potent adhesive is the fact that tops affixed to the vanity cabinet in such a way are atrociously permanent – if you decide, five years from now, that the stock countertop you received with your faux-vintage French-ish (what makes it French, exactly?) bathroom cabinet is no longer to your liking, you are out of luck. You’re stuck with that top, or you risk doing serious damage to the cabinet in an attempt to remove it with indelicate tools; uprooting a granite countertop requires a crowbar, not a scalpel.
Is this what’s holding your vanity together? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This wouldn’t really be a problem, if it weren’t for two important trends in the bathroom furniture industry: first of all, a permanent top is not a big deal if the cabinet was designed to last forever, but it’s more and more common for manufacturers today to use materials that are strong and look fantastic for a couple of decades, before they begin to wear down. And secondly, more than ever before, homeowners demand choice: why copy your neighbors’ style, or get that vanity that everyone else has, when you can have something totally unique to call your own?
Like this awesome thing
Bathroom vanities without tops are a great solution to this problem. Just because these cabinets are available without tops doesn’t mean that we don’t offer any tops that match them perfectly, of course; it simply means that these cabinets are available with a topless option. We accomplish this because, quite simply, we’ve designed our cabinets to be strong and sturdy enough to fully support a full stone top without requiring any additional adhesive. Gravity keeps the top in place, and the supports are built right into the architecture of the vanity; they’re not plastic additions to the leg posts, but rather crucial and integrated components of the furniture’s skeleton.
This is what most vanities look like on the inside:
A little on the cheap side
Notice that big piece of plastic in the corner? The reason it’s prudent to glue the top down on a vanity like this is because the load-bearing corner isn’t made from a very strong nor securely fastened material.
If you take a look at our vanities without tops, however, you’ll see that the top-supporting platforms are actually part of the cabinet structure. They are very sturdy, strong, and cover considerable surface area on the underside of the vanity top.
This allows you to securely rest your top on the vanity base, without needing to make it permanent. Decide you don’t like that top after a few years? Just lift it off and place a new one down. No fuss, no mess, just strong, sturdy, reliable furniture. It’s so easy, and it allows you so much room to experiment with your bathroom design. What’s not to love?
Written by Mike.
