How to Choose Freestanding Bathroom Cabinetry
Choosing cabinetry is one of the most exciting aspects of designing a luxury bathroom, because it’s where the personality of your space really starts to assert itself. This article explores the different types of freestanding bathroom cabinets and vanity units available, which can bring a sense of liveliness and flexibility to your washroom, in contrast to the relative permanence of wall-mounted or built-in furniture.
Contents
Combi Steel-Base Freestanding MDF Vanity Cabinet - 1 Drawer
Choose maximum portability
Vanities and cabinets that are light, durable and freestanding give you the option of easily removing or relocating them. This is one of the main benefits of choosing freestanding bathroom furniture because it enables you to recycle it or take it from home to home—extending its product lifecycle and making it a sustainable bathroom option.
To that end, you will find many stunning modern examples of vanity units that come set inside steel frames that are simply placed wherever you wish to plumb them in, without having to be fitted.
Whether it’s a Combi Freestanding MDF Vanity or an EOS Solid Oak Vanity with Corian® Basin, you should try to find stunning, luxurious, freestanding cabinetry that can be easily replaced if you decide to refresh your bathroom or taken with you, if you can’t live without it when you move house.
Gaia Wood Freestanding Solid Oak Bathroom Cabinet - 6 Drawers
Choose the best materials
Freestanding cabinets come in all kinds of materials—and you really get what you pay for. If your interior design style dictates that you want a luxurious finish, you really have to invest in the best materials—wood, solid surface (including Corian®) and marble.
Standalone vanities, such as the Riga Freestanding Carrara Marble Vanity, give you all the convenience and longevity of a portable unit, but with all the luxuriousness of the world’s most outstanding materials.
And it’s not just detached vanity units that come in top-of-the-line materials, either. Freestanding bathroom storage units like the Gaia Solid Oak Cabinet are made from the finest wood, built to stand the test of time (a promise that’s reinforced by the lengthy two-year guarantee of that particular product).
Choose build quality
There’s an innate logic that tells us, if a piece of furniture is recessed or caulked, it is probably sturdier than a piece of freestanding bathroom furniture. But that’s a false logic. Well-built freestanding bathroom furniture will be every bit as long-lasting as a good piece of built-in furniture—and it’ll certainly be sturdier than cheap built-in furniture.
You have to look for certain markers of build quality that help to denote craftsmanship. Soft-close drawers, for instance, will help to maintain the lifespan of a bathroom cabinet because they won’t get damaged by people (let’s be honest—children) slamming them. Or, in a piece of wooden furniture, you might look for aspects such as dovetail joints, which are incredibly strong and tell you that a cabinet will stand the test of time.
What you don’t want is a freestanding cabinet that wobbles when you rest on it. (It hardly denotes the height of luxury to have to wedge a piece of card under one of the feet!) If in any doubt as to the build quality of freestanding cabinetry—especially if you’re buying your luxury bathroom online—take the time to pick up the phone and call the company to get some reassurances. Here at Riluxa, for instance, you would learn that we work closely with a small factory provider on the vast majority of our cabinetry and conduct regular, in-person quality checks to ensure they meet our exacting standards.
It’s also worth taking time to look into the length of guarantees offered on freestanding cabinetry. The longer the guarantee, the better you can expect the build quality to be. Take the Sagitta Corian® and Solid Oak Vanity Unit, for instance, which comes with a whopping 10-year guarantee—that’s some seriously built-in peace of mind—which, after all, is the single most rational reason for choosing to buy high-end bathroom products.
Looking for something else to read? Check out our article on 7 Styles of Freestanding Bathtub for Your Luxury Remodel.