Bathroom vanity and storage in Southeast Michigan

The vanity is the piece of furniture your bathroom is built around, and its storage is what decides whether the counter stays clear or fills up by Tuesday. Wright’s Renovations designs and installs bathroom vanity and storage across Southeast Michigan, on its own or as part of a full bathroom remodel. A good vanity holds everything you use, fits the room without crowding it, and looks like it belongs, and getting all three takes a little planning before you buy a box off a shelf.

Storage is the part most builders shortchanged. A cabinet with two doors and a big empty box behind them wastes half its volume on air, while drawers, dividers and a tall cabinet put every inch to work. We plan the vanity around what you actually keep in the room, then pair it with the right bathroom countertop so the surface and the storage are one decision.

Freestanding, floating and custom

Vanities come in a few broad types, and the choice sets the look and the price. A freestanding vanity sits on the floor like a piece of furniture and is the familiar default. A floating, or wall-mounted, vanity hangs off the wall with open floor beneath it, which makes a small room feel larger and is easier to clean under. Custom cabinetry is built to your exact wall and needs, while stock and ready-to-assemble units cost less and come in standard sizes.

Freestanding: the classic floor-standing vanity, widest selection
Floating: wall-hung, opens up the floor, reads modern
Custom: built to your wall, your height and your storage needs
Stock or ready-to-assemble: budget-friendly, standard sizes
Furniture-style: a repurposed or custom piece for a powder room

Drawers beat doors almost every time

The single biggest storage upgrade is trading doors for drawers. Behind a door, things get stacked and lost, and you end up on your knees reaching to the back. Drawers bring everything to you, and soft-close full-extension slides mean the whole drawer comes out so nothing hides at the rear. A bank of drawers beside the sink holds far more usable stuff than a cabinet twice its size.

Where the sink and its plumbing sit, a U-shaped drawer wraps around the pipes so even that space is not wasted. Add drawer dividers for brushes and bottles, a pull-out for the hair dryer, and a hidden outlet inside a drawer so the toothbrush charger lives out of sight. These are the touches that separate a considered bathroom design from a cabinet bought by the linear foot.

Doors still have their place. A door is right below a farmhouse-style sink where a drawer cannot go, or on a linen cabinet holding tall items and folded towels. The best vanities mix the two: drawers where you reach for small daily things, a door where the item is large or the plumbing is in the way. We plan that mix around what you own rather than defaulting to the layout that is cheapest to build.

One sink or two

In a primary bath, the double vanity is the peace treaty: two sinks and two sets of drawers so two people get ready at once. It needs wall length, generally at least 60 inches for two sinks to feel like two, and more if you want storage between them. If the wall is shorter, a single sink with a long run of counter and a tall cabinet often works better than cramming in a second bowl you will fight over the space around.

A double vanity is one of the defining moves of a master bathroom remodel, while a single well-planned vanity is usually right for a guest bathroom. We size it to the room and the household rather than the biggest unit that fits.

Storage beyond the vanity

The vanity is not the only place to put things, and a room that leans on it alone runs out of room fast. A tall linen cabinet swallows towels and supplies in a narrow footprint. A recessed medicine cabinet or a mirror with storage behind it hides the daily clutter at eye level. Open shelving in a niche holds rolled towels and a plant, and a recessed shower niche keeps the bottles off the floor.

Building storage into the wall cavity is close to free space, because it uses the depth between the studs that is otherwise sealed up. We look for those spots during design, and we tie the storage to the mirror and lighting so a bathroom mirror with a hidden cabinet is planned alongside the vanity rather than added as an afterthought.

Sizing, height and the standards worth breaking

Old vanities were built low, around 30 inches, because that was the standard decades ago. Comfort-height cabinets at 34 to 36 inches save your back and match how tall people are now, and they are the default we recommend for adults. In a kids’ bath the lower height still makes sense. The point is that vanity height is a choice, not a fixed rule, and we set it to the people who use the room.

Depth matters too. A standard vanity runs about 21 inches deep, but a shallow-depth cabinet can rescue a tight bath where a full-depth unit would block the door or the walkway. In a compact space, the right vanity is one of the moves that makes a small bathroom remodel feel workable instead of cramped.

Materials that survive a bathroom

A bathroom is a wet, humid room, and a cabinet built for a dry bedroom does not last in it. Plywood boxes hold up to moisture far better than particleboard, which swells and crumbles once water gets into a cut edge. Solid wood or quality plywood doors, a moisture-tolerant finish, and good hardware are what keep a vanity looking right after years of steam. We steer you toward materials that earn their place rather than the cheapest box that looks fine in the store.

Door style carries the room’s character. A shaker door reads clean and fits nearly any home, a slab door leans modern, and a raised-panel door suits a traditional space. The finish, whether painted, stained or a wood grain, ties the vanity to the floor and the wall color, and it is worth choosing alongside the rest of the bathroom upgrade so nothing clashes.

The sink and faucet that finish it

The sink you choose changes how the vanity works and how much counter you keep. An undermount sink hangs below the top for a clean wipe-down and the most usable counter, and it is the common pairing with a stone surface. A vessel sink sits on top as a design statement but eats counter height and can splash. An integrated sink is molded into the top as one piece, easy to clean and a good match for a busy family bath where nothing should trap water.

The faucet follows the sink. A single-hole faucet suits a compact vanity, a widespread set fits a larger top, and a wall-mounted faucet frees the deck entirely but has to be planned into the rough-in early. We coordinate the sink, the faucet and the drawers so the plumbing behind the cabinet leaves room for the storage in front of it, rather than a trap that eats the top drawer.

Vanity lighting and the outlets you forget

A vanity is only as good as the light and power around it. Sconces beside the mirror light your face evenly, a light bar above works when a sconce will not fit, and under-cabinet lighting on a floating vanity throws a soft glow that doubles as a night light. Planning the bathroom lighting and ventilation with the vanity keeps the switches, the fixtures and the mirror all in agreement.

Outlets are the thing everyone forgets until they are drying their hair over the toilet tank. A pair of outlets at the counter, or better, one hidden inside a drawer for the toothbrush and razor chargers, keeps the cords off the top. We place them during the rough-in so the counter stays clear and nothing dangles down the cabinet side.

The plumbing under the sink

A new vanity almost always means touching the plumbing, because the drain and supply lines rarely line up perfectly with a new cabinet and sink. Swapping to a floating vanity or moving the sink a foot is real plumbing and fixture work, and it is far easier to do while the old vanity is out. It is also the moment to replace tired shutoff valves and supply lines, which are cheap now and a headache later.

If the job is smaller, we scale to it. A vanity swap onto existing plumbing is a straightforward project, and we will tell you honestly when the layout allows the simple version rather than selling a bigger one.

What a vanity and storage project costs here

A stock single vanity with a top is the least expensive path, a semi-custom unit with drawer upgrades sits in the middle, and full custom cabinetry with a stone top is the high end. A double vanity roughly doubles the cabinet and adds a second sink hookup. Most of the spread comes from custom versus stock and from how much of the storage is built into the walls.

Custom, semi-custom or stock cabinetry
Single or double sink
Drawer upgrades, dividers and pull-outs
Built-in linen towers or recessed cabinets
Any plumbing that has to move for the new layout

To set a budget against your own room, the 2026 bathroom remodel costs page and the bathroom cost calculator both help. A vanity is often the anchor a whole room is planned around, so it pairs naturally with a design pass when the bathroom is due for more than a swap.

Matching the vanity to your home

A vanity looks right when it answers to the house around it. A 1920s bungalow can carry a furniture-style piece with legs and a stained finish, while a newer colonial suits a clean painted shaker. The metals tie it together: the drawer pulls should agree with the faucet and the towel bars, not sit a shade off. We look at the floor, the wall color and the trim before choosing a finish, because a vanity that fights the room reads as an add-on no matter how nice the cabinet is.

Consistency across the house helps too. If the kitchen remodel down the hall used a particular door style and finish, echoing it in the bathroom cabinetry makes the whole home feel of a piece rather than remodeled one room at a time. It is a small coordination that pays off every time someone walks through.

Storage that ages with you

Storage is also part of a bathroom that stays usable over the years. Drawers you pull rather than doors you crouch to reach, a base you can roll a stool under, and hardware that opens with a push instead of a pinch all make the room easier at every age. Those choices belong in an accessible bathroom upgrade, and they cost little when they are built in from the start rather than retrofitted later.

A knee space left open under part of the counter lets someone sit to get ready, and it doubles as a spot for a stool that a child stands on to reach the sink. The same vanity serves a young family and an aging parent when it is planned with a little room to grow, which is the kind of quiet future-proofing that costs nothing extra to draw in now.

Questions homeowners ask about vanities and storage

Can I get more storage without a bigger vanity

Almost always. Trading doors for drawers, adding a tall linen cabinet, and recessing storage into the wall between studs all add usable room without a wider footprint. In a tight bath, going up the wall and into it beats going wider, and it keeps the floor open.

Is a floating vanity a good idea

In the right room, yes. It opens the floor, cleans easily, and looks modern, and it lets you set the exact height you want. It needs solid wall blocking to carry the weight, which we build in, and the plumbing has to be planned to sit within the cabinet rather than below it.

Custom or store-bought

If a stock size fits your wall and your storage needs, it is money well spent. Custom earns its cost when the wall is an odd width, when you want a specific height, or when built-in storage matters. We give you both paths with real numbers so the choice is yours, whether it is a simple powder room or a full primary bath.

Vanity projects across our six counties

Wright’s builds and installs vanities throughout Washtenaw County and Oakland County, including homes in Ann Arbor and Birmingham, along with Wayne, Livingston, Macomb and Monroe. Whether it is a single stock unit or a wall of custom cabinetry, the storage is planned around how you actually use the room.

Start your vanity and storage project

Tell us the width of your wall and what never seems to have a home, and we can talk cabinet style, storage and rough numbers in a first call. View our Portfolio for the vanities we have built, then Contact us now for a free quote or book a consultation and we will plan storage that keeps your counter clear. You can also call (734) 540-0347.