Bathroom Vanity Buying Guide: Construction, Materials & Sizing

Measure the room before you shop for style

Clearance is the constraint that eliminates options before finish or configuration ever enters the conversation — a vanity has to physically fit the room with enough space around it to use comfortably. This Old House sets a practical baseline: at least 30 inches of clear floor space in front of the vanity, and at least 15 inches from the center of any sink to an adjacent wall or fixture.

Those two numbers rule out a surprising number of vanities that look right in a catalog photo but would crowd an actual bathroom — a common mismatch in the smaller original baths found in some of Camas and Vancouver's older housing stock. Measure the real space before ordering; adjusting a plan on paper is far cheaper than returning a vanity that doesn't fit.

What the cabinet box is actually made of

The part of a vanity nobody photographs is the part that decides whether it survives daily use in a damp room. This Old House points to three common cabinet-box materials — solid wood, plywood, and MDF (medium-density fiberboard) — and each comes with a real trade-off rather than a clear winner.

Solid wood costs the most and lasts the longest. Plywood sits in the middle: strong and moisture-tolerant, but its exposed edges need banding or trim, and cutting it generates more scrap in fabrication. MDF is the value pick, and its reputation undersells it — This Old House notes it is genuinely moisture-resistant and, because it is nondirectional, a sheet gets used more efficiently than plywood, with treated edges that skip the extra banding step entirely.

Fixr's buyer-focused guidance backs this up from a different angle, naming solid wood and high-grade plywood as the most durable materials once properly sealed. The honest takeaway: MDF isn't automatically the compromise pick people assume it is. A well-built MDF cabinet with a solid moisture-resistant finish will often outlast a plywood cabinet that was sealed poorly or not resealed over time.

Why moisture resistance matters more here than in a dry climate

A vanity cabinet in a Vancouver or Camas bathroom deals with more sustained humidity over the course of a year than the same cabinet would in a drier inland climate, and that changes which construction details actually matter. Look for a cabinet finish that seals the edges and back panel completely, not just the visible face frame — unsealed particleboard or MDF edges are the first place swelling shows up when humidity lingers after a shower.

Ventilation does real work here too: a bathroom exhaust fan sized to the Home Ventilating Institute's guidance (roughly 1 CFM per square foot of floor area, with an 80–110 CFM fan common in a full bath with a tub or shower) clears humid air before it has time to settle into cabinetry, tile grout, or drywall. The EPA notes mold and mildew can begin establishing within 24 to 48 hours of sustained dampness, and a vanity cabinet tucked against an exterior wall is exactly the kind of spot that stays damp longest if the fan is undersized or vents into an attic instead of outside.

Single sink or double — and what it actually costs

A single-sink vanity is the default for most bathrooms: simpler to plumb, more usable counter and storage per person than a cramped double, and available in the widest range of sizes. A double vanity needs real additional wall width — each sink needs its own usable counter on the outside edge — plus two complete sets of supply and drain lines, which is a bigger factor in an older home's existing plumbing than in new construction.

On price, Fixr's figures are a useful anchor: a basic 60-inch vanity runs roughly $1,100 in materials, with installation adding about $100 for a floor-mounted vanity or $210–$280 for a wall-mounted (floating) vanity, since a floating install needs solid blocking in the wall to carry the weight without a cabinet base underneath. In Clark County, Washington sales tax (roughly 8.6–8.7%, per the Washington State Department of Revenue) applies on top of both materials and installation labor, so factor it into the total before comparing quotes.

The cabinet and the countertop are two separate decisions

It's easy to treat the vanity as one purchase, but the cabinet box and the countertop sitting on it are chosen independently, with their own durability and sealing requirements. Quartz, granite, marble, and solid-surface tops each behave differently under daily moisture — that comparison lives in our bathroom vanity countertops guide so this guide can stay focused on the box itself.