Wood Bathroom Vanity Top – Bad Idea?
Monkfish
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I’m in the process now making a vanity cabinet out of cherry for our master bathroom and was thinking about making a wood countertop/backsplash for it (out of either 6/4 cherry or lacewood.)
Wife wife however thinks it’s a bad idea and will be prone to some serious damage. I had been planning on sealing the whole thing with a few coats of a semi-gloss marine spar varnish.
What do you guys think? Thanks in advance
Replies
Seal it well, and seal the sink-wood joint to prevent water from geting to the cutout area. In fact, seal the cut edges well before dropping in the sink. Seall all six sides to prevent absorbing humidity from the shower.
Since it's for the master bath, assuming you act like adults it should stay fairly dry.
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Works fine for me.
Just seal all cut ends with epoxy, then use at least three coats of good oil based polyuretheyne or varnish on both sides of the wood
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It's doable. A friend who repairs antiques finished this little top I built (it's maple), and my eyes glazed over when he explained the 93 steps involved, none of which involved any poly.
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Mine is cherry and six years now with five coats urethane and no problems. However I'm the only user and I wipe it dry after each use. I can forsee problems with kids etc without strict maintenance. I think the extra care is worth it because the sink and faucett also look like they were installed yesterday.
About fifteen years ago I built a double sink vanity for my daughter from pine. She wanted a pine top too.I also thought it was a bad idea,I went to a expert, the owner of a local paint store for advice. He suggested varathane, 3 coats ,light sanding between coats.The varathane goes on too thick, I thinned it and brushed on 4 coats instead. Suprisingly the vanity top still looks new.I am not sure but I think the varathane is some type of epoxy.Varathane makes several clear finishes,varnish etc.
mike
Just make sure your top doesn't have a laquer finish on it now. It will react with the poly. Don't ask me how I know.
Have you seen those $8000 soaking tubs that are made out of wood? I don't see a problem if you do as the other posters said to seal all sides well.
Here's one with an unfinished baltic birch top. To be fair this is only a template though, eventually it will be replaced by a glass top.
Thanks very much guys for the feedback...I'm printing this all out and taking back to SWMBO.
I've seen one somewhere here of curved plywood with a glass front - pretty wild!
Forrest