The vanity unit is the hardest-working piece of furniture in any bathroom. It houses the basin, hides the plumbing, provides storage for everything from spare toilet rolls to skincare products, and sets the tone for the whole room. Get it right and the rest of the bathroom falls into place. Get it wrong and no amount of nice tiles will save you.
This guide walks you through everything you need to know before you buy, from sizing and fitting styles to materials and what to look for at different price points.
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Start With Your Space
Before you look at a single product, measure your bathroom properly. This sounds obvious but it's the step most people skip, and it's the one that causes the most problems.
You need to know the width of wall you have available, the depth you can afford to lose (vanity units typically project 45 to 55cm from the wall), and the height that works for the people using the bathroom. Standard vanity height sits around 80 to 85cm including the basin, but this varies between products, so always check the full installed height before ordering.
Also consider where your soil pipe and water supply come in. If they're in the wall, a wall-hung unit will conceal them neatly. If they come up through the floor, a floor-standing unit is usually the more straightforward fit.
Wall Hung or Floor Standing?
This is the first real decision to make, and it matters more than most people realise.
Wall hung vanity units are fixed directly to the wall with no legs touching the floor. The gap beneath them makes the bathroom feel larger and, importantly, makes cleaning the floor much easier. They suit modern and contemporary bathrooms particularly well and work beautifully with concealed plumbing. The trade-off is that your wall needs to be solid enough to take the weight, so if you have a stud partition wall you may need additional reinforcement before fitting.
Floor standing vanity units sit directly on the floor and tend to be more forgiving when it comes to installation. They're a better fit for traditional bathroom styles and are generally the safer option in older properties where wall construction can be unpredictable. They also tend to offer more storage by volume, which matters in family bathrooms where space is being shared.
If you're not sure which suits your bathroom, the simplest test is this: look at the overall style of the room. Contemporary and minimal leans wall hung. Traditional and classic leans floor standing.
How Many Drawers Do You Actually Need?
A vanity unit with two drawers sounds like plenty until you're sharing the bathroom with two other people. Think honestly about what needs to live in the unit before you decide on configuration.
Single drawer units are fine for a cloakroom or a personal en-suite used by one person. Double drawer units are the most popular choice for main bathrooms, giving you enough room to separate toiletries sensibly. If you're fitting out a family bathroom, it's worth looking at wider units with three drawers or more, or pairing your vanity with a matching WC unit to maximise storage across the whole room.
Bathroom worktops fitted alongside or above units are another way to add useful surface area without changing the footprint of the room.
Choosing the Right Basin
Most vanity units are sold with or without a basin, so you'll often be choosing both at the same time.
Inset basins drop into a hole in the worktop and are the most common configuration. They look clean and are straightforward to install.
Countertop basins sit on top of the unit rather than being recessed into it. They've become very popular in recent years because they look striking and give the vanity a more furniture-like quality. Bear in mind they reduce the usable worktop space around them and can make the taps trickier to position.
Under-counter basins are mounted beneath the worktop surface for a seamless finish. They're easier to wipe around than inset basins but require a solid worktop material like stone or solid surface to look their best. Browse our under counter basins if this style appeals to you.
Integrated basins are moulded as part of the unit itself. Very easy to keep clean with no joint between basin and worktop to collect grime. A great choice for a practical family bathroom.
For smaller spaces, our cloakroom basins are designed specifically to make the most of limited room without compromising on style.
Getting the Taps Right
The basin taps you pair with your vanity unit have a bigger impact on the finished look than most people expect. A beautiful unit with the wrong taps can look oddly disconnected.
For contemporary vanity units, a single lever monobloc tap tends to look the cleanest. For more traditional units, pillar taps or a three-hole mixer can look far more appropriate. Browse our full range of basin taps to see what works with the style you're going for.
Also check the number of tap holes your basin has before ordering. Some basins come with one tap hole, some with three, and some with none at all (for wall-mounted taps). Getting this wrong means having to return either the basin or the taps, which is an expensive and avoidable mistake.
Materials and Finishes
Most bathroom vanity units are made from moisture-resistant MDF with a foil or lacquer finish, which handles the humid conditions of a bathroom well when maintained properly. Higher-end units use solid wood or furniture-grade components with more robust finishes.
When it comes to colour and finish, the current direction in UK bathrooms is away from gloss white and towards warmer, more characterful tones. Matt finishes in sage green, slate grey, navy, and warm oak are all seeing strong demand right now, and they tend to age better than high-gloss surfaces which show every water mark.
Whatever finish you choose, make sure the unit has a decent guarantee. Reputable brands will offer at least five years on the carcass.
Hardware matters too. The handles on your vanity unit are a small detail that gets touched dozens of times a day. If the unit you like doesn't come with handles you love, most are compatible with replacements. Browse our furniture handles to see the options.
Don't Forget the Mirror
A vanity unit without a mirror above it feels unfinished, both practically and visually. The mirror should ideally be proportionate to the width of the unit, though it doesn't need to match exactly.
An illuminated mirror makes a genuine difference to a bathroom, particularly in rooms without a window above the basin. Good task lighting is essential for anything from applying make-up to shaving, and a well-chosen mirror can also bounce light around a darker room. Our illuminated bathroom mirrors and cabinets are some of our most popular products for exactly this reason.
If storage is tight, a mirrored cabinet above the vanity kills two birds with one stone, giving you a mirror and extra storage in the same footprint.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Ordering without measuring the depth. Many buyers focus on width and forget that a 55cm deep unit in a narrow bathroom can make the space feel cramped or block the door swing.
Choosing a unit that's too small for the number of people using it. In a shared bathroom, storage fills up fast. Be realistic about how much you actually need.
Ignoring the plumbing position. If your pipework doesn't line up with the unit's waste outlet, you'll need additional work to make it fit. Always check this before ordering.
Buying a basin and unit from different suppliers without checking compatibility. Basin sizes and fixing arrangements vary, and what looks like it should work on paper doesn't always.
Ready to Choose?
Browse our full range of bathroom furniture online, or come and see our display in our Finchley showroom where you can get a proper sense of the sizes and finishes in person. Our team are always happy to talk through the options for your specific bathroom and help you avoid the kind of mistakes that are expensive to unpick once installation has started.
Visit us at 135-139 Long Lane, Finchley Central, London N3 2HY or call 020 8346 6669.
