Often neglected, yet nonetheless an essential part of any home, the bathroom serves as an important litmus test when hosting guests. Even if you have a state-of-the-art kitchen with perfect, premium cabinetry, neglecting your bathroom can speak volumes about the rest of the home. Thankfully, bathroom vanities have seen just as much innovation in material diversity. Here are some of the top contemporary choices when it comes to the base:
Solid Wood: Traditional, rustic, and positively dripping with style, solid wood is the timeless choice that offers top-notch toughness and durability, often growing more refined with age. These can handle bulky countertops and tough loads such as multi-basin layouts. Capable of being refinished, solid wood is a material that can evolve with you well into the future. One of the major downsides is the high cost and vulnerability to humidity. Even its use in kitchens requires good sealing, and that’s doubly true when it comes to bathrooms. Water seeping in can cause bloating, rot, and structural weakness.
MDF: A popular contemporary choice for bathrooms, MDF is a versatile platform whose strength lies in its affordability and aesthetic malleability. Able to play host to a wide range of finish products such as melamine, veneer, laminate, paint, and polyurethane. You can have full black matte vanities, glistening bold laminate vanities, or traditional shaker-style faces – the possibilities are endless. Its waterproofing largely depends on the finish used. Polyurethane, for example, is excellent for resisting moisture, but can also be costly. In contrast, paint can chip, and DIY applications may leave room for gaps. Without proper sealing, MDF can swell and warp.
Frame Vanity: Often composed of a rigid metal or steel structure, these barebones bodies are stronger than they look. While they may resemble the skeleton of vanities past, these bar-based bathroom frames often tout the best price-durability ratio. Their metal construction can handle even the toughest of countertops with strength to spare while also being practically waterproof. Owing to their barebones structure, however, means they often don’t come with many storage compartments. Perhaps the most visible downside is the lack of aesthetic compatibility. Their direct and essential nature appeals best to commercial spaces, but can still work well in homes, so long as the rest of the bathroom doesn’t clash.
Particleboard: Affordable, lightweight, and sporting a diverse finish-set, particleboard is a common budget option for cost-sensitive bathrooms. While structurally weaker and more pliable than MDF, particleboard is just as capable of accessing the broad range of finishes made for engineered wood. If you’re going for particleboard, however, odds are you’re looking at melamine, laminate, or thermofoil rather than polyurethane. A good finish application can provide waterproofing that’s just as good vs an MDF substrate, but where particleboard’s weakness comes in is via its structural hold. You’ll have fewer options when it comes to choosing your benchtop and basin. Those will have to be lightweight so that the board’s vulnerabilities aren’t exploited.
Natural Stone: Often serving as a high-end, all-in-one option that comprises both the base and the countertop, a solid piece of natural stone is the ultimate expression of bathroom luxury. Sometimes, even the basin is carved into the very surface. Commonly seen in premium hotels, malls, and resorts, these absolute units tout no equal when it comes to lavish presentation. Despite their looks, these stone vanities still come with some notable cons. Foremost is their gargantuan price tag, especially if you’ve suddenly developed a taste for Roman mountains. Second, natural stone’s porous nature means they need sealing just like any other moisture-vulnerable material. For stone, penetrating sealers work to fill the pours, while topical sealers form a protective surface film. Natural stone also offers few opportunities to incorporate cabinetry and storage.
When it comes to the vanity’s body, wood or engineered wood often tout the most diversity in aesthetics and storage compatibility. Steel/metal frames give great waterproofing and durability at the cost of appearances and features, while natural stone invests all its points into simply looking stunning.
