How to create a bathroom vanity sink for under £150

If you have a small bathroom then it can be a struggle to fit storage solutions in, especially if you are a family with children and have a lot of toiletries you’d rather hide and not have taking over the bathroom windowsill!

We had this exact problem in our bathroom that had no cupboards or shelves other than a tiny windowsill. My wife didn’t like everything on show and thought it looked messy and cluttered, so I had to come up with a small bathroom storage solution that was affordable and looked great too.

Luckily we had a piece of our new oak kitchen worktop left over which inspired me to create a brand new sink area to replace the old freestanding sink that the old owners had with something more ‘us’, modern and with storage underneath instead of wasting all that space under the sink. Not only did we get to update our family bathroom with a more contemporary looking sink, but my wife can now hide all those bathroom bits and pieces out of sight to keep everything looking neat and tidy.

How to DIY your own bathroom vanity sink

Fitting your own solid oak wood bathroom sink unit isn’t all that difficult. You’ll need some basic (very basic) plumbing skills, some basic tools and a bit of patience. This little project took a few days to complete but completely transformed our bathroom, taking it from a somewhat awkward, ugly basic sink to a modern, warm pleasant looking sink and storage unit.

Want to try something like this yourself? Try following these steps:

Without going into too much detail I learned some new basic skills, purchased a few new tools and learnt a couple of important lessons when completing this project.

Basic skills for this which can all be learnt from YouTube:

Basic plumbing skills including cutting and cleaning copper pipe, fitting isolating valves and connecting taps and waste pipes.
Tiling
Fitting and treating solid oak tops.
Gloss painting

I would say the most difficult part of this job was actually the painting. I used a gloss white spray paint for this and even though I took every care to avoid running paint, it still happened! I needed to slow down and take my time.

Having never tried any kind of plumbing before I was a little unsure I was skilled enough, but actually it was very easy. Most important thing to note – ensure the mains water is off and each isolating valve is switched to the off position!

If you are not competent with working with the plumbing in any form, then you may wish to enlist the help of a plumber to help out. Simply search online for a plumber Southend-on-Sea or wherever you are located, instead of taking a risk and causing water damage to your property. Alternatively you may be able to find a local handyman to help you out, or ask a friend who might know. We have a friend who used to be a plumber, so we could ask his advice and tips before we started.

When working with the wood top ensure you have treated it with a good few coats of Danish oil to protect it from water damage. You will likely need to apply further coats throughout the life of the wood to maintain and preserve it.

I cheated a little with the doors on this unit by buying a cheap unit off eBay and using the doors. They were affordable and saved me some time. Plus they were exactly what we had in mind. The waterfall style tap came from Screwfix and the sink from Ikea. The wooden oak top was an off-cut leftover from our kitchen work surface.

This DIY project managed to improve the look of our bathroom, bring natural wood into the room which makes it warmer and almost cosier, it’s totally custom and unique, and most importantly we now have some of that much needed storage in our small bathroom.