If you had asked me a few years ago if I would ever love having a double- vanity, I would have laughed in your face. Silly me. Obviously I didn’t anticipate how much I would love it.
Here’s the thing though – I didn’t expect it to be complicated. “It’s just two sinks,” I naively thought. “Should be easy peasy.” Oh boy howdy was I wrong. First off, spacing. I mean, I measured the heck out of our en-suite.
Created spreadsheets, drew it out on paper, printed off metric shittons of scale cut- outs from Pinterest. But somehow I neglected to factor in that Danny flails his arms around like a windmill when washing his face.
We needed at least 30 inches between sink centres according to Steve (the awesome bathroom fitter who worked on our neighbours’ house) and then we actually watched each other brush our teeth and get ready to confirm that we really needed to try and fit 36 inches if humanly possible.
Best. Advice. Ever.
Never would have thought it, but trust me, you do. You need that space. Especially if, like me, you spend an embarrassing amount of time vigorously scrubbing your face and generally wildly gesturing with your skincare products.
Next conundrum: vanity heights. I am 5’4” and Danny is just over 6 foot. Standard vanity height is 32 inches.
Great for neither of us. We compromised on 34 inches. Works for now, although I have to toe-touch when really getting into my skincare routine.
Steve did mention we could go for adjustable heights…but seemed like a pain and I’ve seen those go wrong in people’s houses before (always junked up with toothpaste and hair product buildup and then not working right). Our next battle was over storage space. Separate sinks would be meaningless if we didn’t have completely separate storage for all of our products.
The drawers on my side are absurdly deep to accommodate my ridiculous collection of serums and creams and potions I’ve talked myself into needing. Also my hair tools live here (straighteners, curling wand, that weird boar bristle rotating brush contraption that I bought off Instagram and used exactly twice) along with one of those pull down drawer organizers from IKEA that allows you to see all of your goodies. LIFE CHANGING.
I can finally FIND things. Danny keeps it simple with just his toothbrush, razor, maybe some moisturizer if I remind him to use it, and he’s out. Super shallow drawers work great for his needs.
We left the centre console as shared countertop for towels and “stock” soaps, shampoos, extras of things for the toilets, etc. Tip: when planning your double vanity, make sure you have adequate counter space next to each sink. We likely have 18 inches of counter space per sink.
Sounds like a lot right? Try and fit a soap dispenser, toothbrush holder, and several bottles of skincare products that you swear you used last night…except for when you can’t find them this morning. Yeah, not enough.
I wish I gave myself more leeway there. Next vanity? 24 inches of counter space per person, minimum.
Full stop. Almost our very first argument about the whole renovation was about the mirror. I was hell bent on getting one big mirror that spanned across both sinks.
It LOOKED expensive. Modern. Large.
Danny didn’t see the need for that much mirror space and didn’t want to install one huge mirror. “What if the other person is in the shower and you fog up their mirror? !” he constantly harped. Sigh. We compromised with two mirrors attached to the same mounting piece, so it LOOKS like one long mirror but operates as two separate mirrors.
And boy oh boy was Danny right. You don’t mess with physics. I hate being wrong, but he was definitely right about this one.
Speaking of wrong, lighting was another thing I didn’t expect. Steve recommended we have individual light switches for both sides of the vanity. I thought HE WAS JUST YANKING MY CHAIN.
Ha! He wasn’t. Trust me when I say that when one person is getting ready and the other is still sleeping, you WILL want to be able to turn your side of the lights on/off without disturbing your sleep-loving partner.
You Might Also Like
Mind blown. We opted for LED light strips on the back of each of our mirrors. Maybe $15 each from IKEA and boy are they ever cool!
We also got two small pendant lights and hung those on either side of each sink. I found these at an awesome lighting warehouse in Derby for deeply discounted prices. The plumbing aspect almost drove me insane.
Double sinks=double the drains, double the water supply lines, oh and since we wanted full power from the hot water, we also had to upgrade our main hot water supply line too. Suddenly, our plumber informed us that we would need to cut open drywall we hadn’t planned on touching. More money.
More headache. More opening up our house we hadn’t planned on. That’s the joy of remodeling.
Budgets are meaningless. Murphy will find a way to throw you curveballs. We did manage to be clever about how we placed everything in the room though.
Rather than centring everything exactly, we shifted the entire vanity over toward my side by the window. Natural light is GAME CHANGING when applying makeup. Totally worth the vanity being slightly off-centre.
And hey, we also had room to put in a stool that tucks up underneath the counter. WONDERFUL for when I’m tweezing brows or if my back is being extra sore and I need to sit down. We learned a lot when using it for the first week.
Like, we needed TWO OF EVERYTHING that we assumed we’d share (hand soap, moisturizer, etc) because we’re both idiots who couldn’t be bothered to reach to the other side of the counter for whatever we needed. Individual small containers of all the essentials ended up on each side of the sink to remedy that problem. Oh, and having individual hand towel hooks was KEY.
Last thing you want to do is reach for your partner’s soggy hand towel when you’re trying to find a dry one. One thing I did right? Electrical outlets.
Placing proper GFCI outlets on each side of the vanity was amazing. And while I was at it, I put USB charging ports built into the vanity cabinet. Having accessible outlets around the house to plug in my electric toothbrush and husband’s phone?
Small difference that adds up to making your morning routine easier. I also surprisingly loved that I picked quality materials. Sure, I could have went with a cheaper countertop like laminate but I went with quartz because A)they cannot stain (no matter how much you slop toothpaste across your countertop or water) and B) they’re freaking tough.
Harder to scratch/damage than any other countertop surface. Yes they’re more money, but so worth it. The undermount sinks were also more expensive than traditional drop in sinks, but look a million times better AND they make your life easier when cleaning.
No little crumbs/debris getting stuck in the sink’s rim! We splurged slightly on the vanity itself by getting soft-close drawer runners. Let’s face it, we are NOT graceful in the mornings.
Neither of us are around to witness the other calmly getting ready, so why not soften the blows of slamming drawers at 6AM? We got the ENTIRE vanity from a kitchen store (they sell bathroom stuff too!) and it was WAY cheaper than buying from a “bathroom specialty” store. A year and some change later, I seriously think our double vanity has changed our lives.
Queues for the mirror are eliminated. Knocking each other’s soap/aftershave/make-up into the sink?
Not anymore.
We actually converse now while getting ready, rather than just making grunting noises while trying to avoid elbows. YES. Was it worth the spend?
You betcha. Would I do it all again, knowing the dust and headaches that came with Steve traipsing through our house for three weeks? Heck yes.
If I could go back and give myself advice on our double vanity journey, I would say buy yourself more room than you THINK you’ll need. Plan the space for how YOU live, not how you think it should look on Pinterest. And always budget at least double for the plumbing work.
Trust me, it will take more money. Always.
