Bathroom Vanity Cabinets

Homeowners with damaged bathroom vanity cabinets know first hand the lackluster impression their vanity makes on house guests. While you can always opt to replace your vanity, there are some alternative routes you can take to minimize the appearance of your vanity’s damaged areas. Below we walk you through assessing your bathroom vanity cabinet’s damage and devising a solution to improve its appearance. Please be aware that this guide is valid for both laminated and solid wood vanities.

Before we even take a glance at the damage which our vanity has incurred, we need to determine what material our bathroom vanity was manufactured of. The simplest way to do this is to locate an area on the vanity where bare “wood” is exposed. Once you find an exposed portion of wood, you need to examine it. If you notice that the wood is reminiscent of many small woodchips flattened together, chances are good that your bathroom vanity is laminated – or manufactured of particle board and topped with some sort of faux veneer. If the wood does not resemble what we have mentioned above, it is likely real wood. For this guide, the type of wood we are dealing with does not concern us.

Now that we’ve determined what our vanity is made of, we need to focus our attention to its damaged region. The first thing we want to take note of is the magnitude of the damage (both width and depth wise). Once we have a general idea of the damage that’s involved, we need to think back to what caused it. Was it the kids who accidentally damaged the vanity, or was it some running water that caused the vanity to warp? When we have finished compiling these two pieces of information, we should be ready to determine how we can fix the problem. If the vanity suffered some sort of impact (from say the kids), we have the option of gluing back the piece which fell off (if one exists), masking the damage, or outright replacing the panel which bears the damage. If we’re dealing with a warped portion of the vanity, our only option is to replace the entire panel which has suffered the warping.

We have finally arrived at the fun part – carrying out our bathroom vanity cabinet’s repair. Depending on what findings you came across earlier, you have to make a decision on what type of repair you want to execute. To keep things simple, let’s say we wanted to replace one of our vanity’s damaged panels. All we would need to do is purchase a replacement panel (typically available through the bathroom vanity cabinet’s manufacturer) and swap it out with the old one.  If the manufacturer no longer fabricates replacement panels for the vanity, you can head to your local home improvement store to purchase a piece of particle board. While your there, ask if the store carries any faux wood veneers. Once you’re done shopping, all you need to do is head home, cut the particle board as needed, drill the appropriate holes, mount the panel in place, and apply the faux veneer to it. While this latter route is a bit more laborious, it sure can save you a few hundred dollars (considering the cost of new bathroom vanity cabinets).

It is our hope that the above has opened your eyes to cost-effective repair solutions which exist for bathroom vanity cabinets. We encourage those with damaged bathroom vanity cabinets to pursue a repair project – it will without a doubt pay off in the end. As always, we wish you luck in carrying out your vanity repair!