Vanities & Cabinetry

The vanity is the hardest-working piece of furniture in your bathroom. It holds the basin, hides the plumbing, carries your daily clutter and sets the tone of the whole room. Get it right and the bathroom feels calm and organised; get it wrong and you are living with wasted space and water-swollen doors within a couple of years.

We plan and install both custom-made and quality brand-name vanities and cabinetry for Auckland bathrooms, always chosen for how a bathroom is actually used. This page covers the decisions worth getting right — materials, mounting, storage and the small details like soft-close that you feel every day. When you are ready, Get a Free Quote.

Custom vs brand-name vanities

There is no single right answer here — it comes down to your space, budget and how particular your layout is. We are happy to fit either, and we will give you an honest steer.

• Brand-name / pre-made — excellent value, quick to order, and in standard sizes they look great. Ideal when your layout suits an off-the-shelf width and you want a known product with a warranty.
• Custom cabinetry — built to your exact dimensions, which earns its keep in older Auckland villas and bungalows where nothing is a standard size, or where you want a run of joinery to wrap a wall, work around a window, or match a specific finish.

A custom vanity also lets us solve awkward spots — a narrow powder room, a sloping ceiling, or a basin that needs to dodge a waste pipe — in a way a boxed product never will.

Wall-hung or floor-mounted

How the vanity meets the floor changes the feel of the room and how easy it is to clean.

• Wall-hung — floats off the floor on a concealed bracket, which makes a small bathroom feel larger, lets light and floor tile run underneath, and makes mopping effortless. It needs solid fixing behind the wall, which we plan for at framing stage.
• Floor-standing — sits on the floor with a kickboard, offers maximum storage for the money, and is very robust. It is the practical choice for a busy family bathroom.

Wall-hung suits a modern, uncluttered look and small spaces; floor-standing wins on sheer storage. We plan the mounting early because wall-hung units need noggins or a backing panel installed before the walls are lined and tiled.

Moisture-resistant materials that last

A bathroom is the most hostile room in the house for joinery — constant humidity, splashes and temperature swings. The number one vanity failure we see is swollen, peeling doors and bases made from the wrong material. Choosing moisture-resistant construction is what separates a vanity that still looks new in ten years from one that looks tired in two.

• Moisture-resistant substrates — we specify cabinetry built for wet areas, with sealed edges so humidity cannot creep into the board.
• Durable finishes — hard-wearing laminates, polyurethane and genuine timber veneers chosen to handle steam and the occasional splash.
• Quality hardware — corrosion-resistant hinges and runners, because cheap metal rusts in a bathroom.
• Raised or sealed bases — keeping the carcase off a wet floor, which is another reason wall-hung units last well.

Storage planning — making every centimetre work

Most bathrooms do not lack storage; they lack well-planned storage. A single deep cupboard swallows everything into a black hole, while a mix of drawers, shelves and tall units keeps daily items to hand and clutter off the bench. We start by asking what actually needs to live in the room.

• Drawers over doors — deep drawers with internal dividers beat a cupboard for everything except tall bottles, because you can see and reach the whole contents.
• U-shaped drawers — cut around the plumbing so you keep the drawer space most pre-made units waste.
• Tall and mirror storage — a slim tall cabinet or a mirror cabinet adds a lot of capacity without eating floor space.
• Power inside — a discreet internal power point for toothbrushes and shavers keeps the bench clear, coordinated with our bathroom design stage.

Basins, benchtops and mirror cabinets

The top of the vanity is where practicality meets the look of the room. The right basin and benchtop combination balances how it washes, how it cleans and how it feels.

• Basin options — under-mount for a seamless, easy-to-wipe bench; semi-recessed to save depth in a narrow room; or an above-counter vessel basin for a statement.
• Benchtop materials — engineered stone for durability and a premium feel, solid surface for seamless integrated basins, or laminate as a smart, budget-friendly choice.
• Mirror cabinets — a mirror with hidden storage behind it, often with integrated lighting and demisting, so the first thing you reach for in the morning is also storage you cannot see.
• Tapware height — matched to the basin so it fills cleanly without splashing, a small detail that annoys daily if it is wrong.

Soft-close and the details you feel daily

The difference between a merely functional vanity and one that feels genuinely nice is in the hardware and the fit. These are the details you interact with every single day, usually without thinking about them.

• Soft-close hinges and runners — doors and drawers that glide shut silently, with no slamming and far less wear on the cabinetry.
• Push-to-open or slim handles — a clean, handleless look or hardware chosen to match your tapware.
• Flush, consistent gaps — doors and drawers aligned with even reveals, the hallmark of careful installation.
• Sealed to the wall — the join between benchtop and wall siliconed neatly so water never gets behind.

Vanities and cabinetry are usually quoted as part of your overall renovation rather than in isolation, and the choice between brand-name and custom is one of the bigger levers on budget. Within a full bathroom renovation (a guide of $20,000–$35,000 depending on size, layout and fixtures) we select the vanity as part of the overall bathroom design, and set it out clearly in a fixed written quote. You can follow the whole project on our process page, or start with the team at Bathroom Renovation Auckland.

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