Mahogany Vanity Construction

In preparation for the renovation of our second bathroom, Melissa and I did some research and determined all the available bathroom vanities out there are butt-ugly and most are poorly made. So naturally, I decided to make one myself. After careful consideration we decided it was worth buying a vanity top, however, rather than put up with all the maintenance that would come if I built a wooden sink top. After lots and lots of searching we found a timeless white porcelain top that was within our budget. I took it’s measurements and designed a four-legged vanity cabinet, with adequate storage and support.

Next, I researched types of wood and decided on African Mahogany for its water durability, color, availability, and price. After much agony and decisiveness, I picked up a piece of 1.5” and a longer piece of ¾” Mahogany and here is what I came up with…

I routed out tongues around the edges of panels…

…and grooves on the edges of frame pieces…

…I abandoned my usually pocket hole joinery technique and bumped it up a notch in join strength and cosmetics by using the BeadLock System to create mortise and floating tenon joints. I was heavily influenced by test results in a Fine Woodworking book that indicated mortise and floating tenon joints were the best mixture of strength and ease of construction.

In the end I decided I didn’t like the system because it depended on too much eyeballing pencil lines and it was nearly impossible to clamp the jig tight enough to keep it from moving while drilling. However, it did allow me to adapt it to many different wood widths…