Bathroom Table Vanities

Character, texture and a unique shape are reasons to repurpose an old table in the bathroom

As vessel sinks have grown in popularity for bathrooms the notion of an enclosed vanity or cabinet has given way. A vintage or antique table has far more character and style. A table also takes up less visual space than a cabinet, which helps a bathroom look larger than it may be. I call these “collected” bathroom table vanities. A shopper with a good eye often can snag a bargain table but the hefty beauty with scalloped legs and a heavily embellished apron [top] isn’t likely to fall in that category. It’s difficult to decipher the style – it could be Hispanic or rustic Asian. It marries well with the chunky Baroque-style mirror and points up the delicacy of the green Chinoiserie bowl sink. And the wall-mounted faucet simply blends in.

Italian design icon Paola Navone (whose blue-and-white tableware collection debuted at Crate & Barrel last year) designed a predominately black bathroom for a loft in Umbria. Her pie-form sink for Flaminia has an amusing resemblance to one of my French porcelain quiche dishes. Slapping that on a funky black table, and letting the plumbing hang out, is part of the wabi sabi aesthetic. (The shower in this bath was included in our Modern Black Bathrooms post.)

This console table has two drawers and cup-pull handles that make it look like a fixture from a country dry goods store. Spanish designer Isabel López-Quesada has an amazing eye for taking something completely rustic and mixing it with unlikely elements. Consider that the table is topped with plain white vessel sinks, then mixed with blocky 1940s-style faucets, plus Venetian glass mirrors and modern picture lights mounted right on top as if they were fine paintings.

Masculine and slightly industrial, this master bath utilized a potting-shed trestle table with a zinc top and slat shelf for a handsome double vanity. Oval drop-in sinks are self-rimming and the table is deep enough to install a pair of gooseneck kitchen bridge faucets behind them.  The oil-rubbed bronze finish mingles well with the edginess of the leather trim on the Adnet-style mirror and frosted glass and steel shower door. Wrought-iron bars keep hand towels at the ready. All of these bathroom table vanities have a unique quality that makes them worth the work to repurpose.

(Source: sandraespinet, dwell, Isabel López-Quesada, Brandon Barre)

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