Building The Vanity Top For The Country House

I love doing things differently, and sometimes that can be tough for my dad to wrap his head around. I’m a carpenter by trade, so for every project we work on, I try to create a personalized piece for it.

Read about my black walnut table from Holmes and Holmes season 1.

For the country house on Holmes and Holmes I knew that I wanted to do a wooden vanity top for the bathroom, but to win my dad over, I thought he would need to see the finished product.

 

First Things First

---

Like any wood working project I do, my first step is to find a piece of wood that speaks to me. When I was at Exotic Woods and I saw this piece of mappa burl, I knew that was the piece of wood I would use for the countertop.

Mappa burl is the burl of a European poplar tree and burl is what happens when the grain of the wood grows in a deformed way, and looks like a growth on the tree. Because of the burl, the poplar has a much more unique grain and pattern to it than it normally would.

 

 

Taking It Step by Step

---

This was a pretty simple project that I split up into a few different steps.

 

1. Measure the vanity size and determine the size of the overhang. For this project, I want a minimum of a 1” overhang around the vanity with the live edge at the front.
2. Cut the material to size by using my track saw.
3. Pour epoxy on any knots or holes in the material to  ensure that it wouldn’t leak any water onto the vanity.
4. Once the epoxy has set, we sand the vanity down and sealed the piece with a natural oil product.

 

I was extremely happy with the finished product! Then I brought it to site to the country house and we scribed the casing on the door to the vanity top so we could get a perfect fit. It was my first vanity top that I created and it definitely won’t be the last! Even the big guy loved it! You can check out the full bathroom on Holmes and Holmes on HGTV.CA.

 

 

Watch The Making Of The Vanity Top Below

---

 

Related Articles