Evening all
I'm having the bathroom refurbished in two weeks. I left the wife in charge of buying all of the furniture. She's done a good job, but there is one problem. She has her heart set on a great big countertop basin. We've got quite a modest bathroom (2.5m x 1.8m) so I'm not too pleased because it means a massive vanity unit.... and that's the problem.
She cannot find one she likes. I cannot find one that is suitable. So, I'm thinking of building one. We are having the kitchen done at the same time and have ordered a lot of solid wood walnut worktops. There is already a lot of wastage in the order for the kitchen, and by changing some existing 3m pieces for 4m pieces, I can get enough material to build an 800mm vanity from worktop offcuts very cheaply, in a simple "n" shape. I'd have to take a lot of depth out of the 620mm worktops to make it shallower and so suitable for a bathroom, and I could use those offcuts to create a simple shelf underneath for towels etc.
Visually, it would be ideal and fit perfectly, as well as being very economical. However, having wooden worktops in the kitchen is bad enough; having them in a bathroom will be 10 times worse. So my questions are:
1) Is it a really bad idea?
2) Is there any finish I can apply to the wood to protect it?
I'm really hoping it is feasible, if only because I'm really starting to enjoy working with wood and this would be a really, really cool project! However, I don't want to do something that is just going to cause problems for us in the future. In particular, I don't want to spend hours and hours a month rubbing the thing down with Danish oil.
EDIT: I've just realised that I could do this for about £40 if I simply use an existing offcut for the "worktop", and cut down some upstands to create legs and a simple frame. It would look different, but could kitchen upstands work as legs for a simple table? For reasons I cannot really explain, I actually prefer this idea from a moisture perspective... and to be honest, for £40 it has to be worth giving it a go anyway. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
I'm having the bathroom refurbished in two weeks. I left the wife in charge of buying all of the furniture. She's done a good job, but there is one problem. She has her heart set on a great big countertop basin. We've got quite a modest bathroom (2.5m x 1.8m) so I'm not too pleased because it means a massive vanity unit.... and that's the problem.
She cannot find one she likes. I cannot find one that is suitable. So, I'm thinking of building one. We are having the kitchen done at the same time and have ordered a lot of solid wood walnut worktops. There is already a lot of wastage in the order for the kitchen, and by changing some existing 3m pieces for 4m pieces, I can get enough material to build an 800mm vanity from worktop offcuts very cheaply, in a simple "n" shape. I'd have to take a lot of depth out of the 620mm worktops to make it shallower and so suitable for a bathroom, and I could use those offcuts to create a simple shelf underneath for towels etc.
Visually, it would be ideal and fit perfectly, as well as being very economical. However, having wooden worktops in the kitchen is bad enough; having them in a bathroom will be 10 times worse. So my questions are:
1) Is it a really bad idea?
2) Is there any finish I can apply to the wood to protect it?
I'm really hoping it is feasible, if only because I'm really starting to enjoy working with wood and this would be a really, really cool project! However, I don't want to do something that is just going to cause problems for us in the future. In particular, I don't want to spend hours and hours a month rubbing the thing down with Danish oil.
EDIT: I've just realised that I could do this for about £40 if I simply use an existing offcut for the "worktop", and cut down some upstands to create legs and a simple frame. It would look different, but could kitchen upstands work as legs for a simple table? For reasons I cannot really explain, I actually prefer this idea from a moisture perspective... and to be honest, for £40 it has to be worth giving it a go anyway. Any thoughts would be appreciated!