Bathroom cabinets that survive damp air
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A bathroom cabinet lives in a climate no kitchen cabinet ever meets. The air is soaked twice a day and dried out between times, the temperature swings twenty degrees in ten minutes, and water stands on the worktop and at the foot of the carcase. Everything about how a vanity is built follows from that.
The carcase material is the first defence. A good quality plywood carcase with a properly sealed edge tolerates damp far better than an unsealed particle core, particularly at the bottom of the sink cabinet where the first drip always lands. Backs and bottoms are worth sealing on both faces, not only the face that shows, because moisture moves through the side nobody looks at.
The second defence is airflow and clearance. A vanity that meets the floor on a continuous plinth traps whatever water reaches it. A recessed toe space, a raised leg detail, or simply a plinth that can be removed lets the floor dry and lets a leak be seen before it becomes rot. Around the basin, cutting the drawer box to clear the trap keeps usable storage in the most awkward cabinet in the room.
Layout in a bathroom is mostly a question of what needs a door and what needs a drawer. Bottles, brushes and cosmetics disappear into a deep cupboard and reappear only when it is emptied; in a drawer they stay visible. A tall hamper pull-out keeps laundry off the floor without adding a piece of furniture. A shallow mirrored wall cabinet, set where it does not collide with a shoulder at the basin, holds the small things that otherwise colonise the worktop.
Finishes take the same care. A catalysed finish or a well-cured paint film resists the daily wetting far better than an oiled surface, and a hard edge treatment where a door is gripped wet, night after night, is what keeps the cabinet looking new after the first few years.
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