Cabinets, Kitchen and Bath Remodeling

Picking The Perfect Bathroom Vanity Tops for Your Remodel

Bathroom vanity tops serve as a significant functional and aesthetic addition to any modern bathroom. The perfect vanity top for your bathroom should be durable, stain-resistant, easy to clean, and gorgeous – complementing the overall ambiance of your bathroom.

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This is not the time to choose porous, fragile surfaces; you want a bathroom vanity top capable of withstanding the morning rush and afternoon wind-down. This article will examine some of the larger and more granular considerations to keep in mind when picking your next bathroom vanity top.

When in doubt, simply contact one of our bathroom remodeling specialists for help finding the right vanity top for your bathroom. The USA Cabinet Store even offers free design quotes for your overall bathroom renovation, if needed.

First, let’s start with some of the basic ancillary considerations:

Budget

Determining your overall bathroom remodeling budget is a necessary first step to picking the right bathroom vanity tops. There is a wide price range available, depending on the material, shape, and size of your bathroom vanity tops. As with most renovation line-items, you’ll likely be able to land on a solution that works for your budget.

Size

The size of your vanity top greatly determines the end result of your bathroom remodels. Vanity tops don’t typically come in one-size-fits-all solutions, so you’ll need to measure the correct dimensions of your underlying bathroom vanity. Most vanity tops are cut to size. Our specialists at the USA Cabinet Store will take your dimensions and provide you with a wide range of vanity tops for you to choose from.

Sink & Faucet

Lastly, your bathroom vanity sink and faucet will affect your final deliverable. Most vanity tops come with pre-drilled faucet holes and an area for your sink basin. If you have a unique sink shape, you’ll need unique cuts in your vanity top to accommodate your sink. Always communicate your faucet shapes to your vanity top provider, as single faucets, widespread faucets, or centerset faucets will each require different cuts.

Finally, determine if you will need additional features with your vanity top, like vanity sides and backsplashes. These will need to be installed after your vanity top is securely fastened.

Design or Functionality? Why Not Both

Fortunately, bathroom vanity tops do not experience the same wear-and-tear that kitchen countertops do. You won’t be applying serrated knives, hot pots, or rolling pins to your bathroom vanity, after all.

This leaves you with quite a range of design options. In fact, we recommend you shop based on the design above all. Your vanity tops serve as a large visual foundation for the rest of your bathroom. Don’t necessarily worry about function, as most vanity tops are created with functionality in mind.

Thankfully, most vanity tops are created on a custom-made basis, leaving you with plenty of opportunities to add additional functionalities like extra wiring holes for seamless appliance integrations. Just be sure to express these ideas to one of our bathroom remodeling specialists at the USA Cabinet Store before making your final decision.

Bathroom Vanity Top Materials

As mentioned earlier, there is quite a range of materials available for bathroom countertops. Finding the right balance of design, price, and customizations is as simple as communicating your limits to one of our remodeling specialists. However, for those seeking to do some preemptive research, we’re going to outline the most popular vanity top materials, below.

The best designs seamlessly meld to the rest of the aesthetics of your bathroom. By combining luxurious elements like a premium countertop, sink, and stone fixtures, you can create an incredibly opulent vanity package.

Granite Vanity Tops

Of course, granite is at the top of the list, here. Most modern bathroom remodels include granite throughout the entirety of the bathroom – but starting with your vanity top is always a great idea.

Granite is a natural stone. In fact, it is an igneous rock capable of showcasing incredible ranges of textures and colors. Due to the variety of minerals included in granite, you can be confident that you’ll be able to find the perfect balance of hues and patterns to fit your bathroom remodel. For example, popular granite colors include red, gray, white, or pink – with darker minerals running throughout the veins of the rock.

Granite is also incredibly durable. This is why it is the number one pick for most natural stone kitchen countertops. For instance, it is very heat resistant and has no issue blocking out harmful humidity. Leaving a hot curling iron on the vanity top or filling the bathroom with steam and condensation will have no effect on this natural stone.

When you find a granite you love, you will want to purchase as much of the slab as needed to complete your entire remodel. Due to the unique colors and patterns of each slab, it is always easier to install granite from the same slab than it is to match it with pre-existing granite

The only downside to granite is its cost. Granite slabs can run anywhere from $70 to $210 per linear foot – including installation. Utilizing a professional installation service is an absolute must, here – as granite is capable of easily snapping if the proper pressure points aren’t distributed correctly. Breaking a granite slab during installation would be a costly mistake that no one wants to incur!

Lastly, granite tiles are always a cheaper alternative to slabs.

Engineered Quartz Vanity Tops

Engineered quartz is different from natural quartzite. Quartzite is an expensive, entirely natural mineral. Engineered quartz, on the other hand, is a much cheaper, reinforced material man-made in manufacturing centers.

Quartzite – the mineral – is created over millions of years by pressurized sandstone fusing together within the earth’s crust. It is one of the most abundant naturally occurring minerals on earth.

Pure quartzite slabs are more expensive than engineered quartz due to the delicacy and transportation required to keep an entire slab intact. Conversely, engineered quartz is made from a variety of quartz particles encased in resin. That material is then poured into a mold, heated, cooled, and finally polished.

Engineered quartz is far more non-porous than natural quartzite due to the resin binding everything together. This makes it the perfect material for bathroom vanity tops, as it is capable of withstanding spills, stains, and heat quite well. 

Additionally, the manufacturing process allows for plenty of opportunities to add colors to the final material. It also creates nearly limitless customization options – as the quartz can be engineered to fit any custom-made molds.

Most engineered quartz contains approximately 80-95% natural quartzite. Unlike granite, engineered quartz does not require sealing as it is inherently waterproof. It is also naturally resistant to bacteria – perfect for the mess that bathroom vanities inevitably experience.

The cost of engineered quartz can actually be similar to granite – and can even exceed those costs in some cases. Costs range anywhere between $100 to $250 per linear foot, including installation.

The allure of quartz certainly lies in its visual appeal. Quartz can appear similar to marble or limestone, creating an absolutely gorgeous end result for any bathroom vanity top.

Solid-Surface Vanity Tops

For the budget-conscientious renovator, solid-surface vanity tops are the perfect alternative to expensive granite and quartz slabs. Solid-surface countertops are man-made synthetic composites created to provide luxurious finishes at a competitive price. This makes it a perfect alternative to cheaper laminate vanity tops.

In fact, solid-surface vanity tops can even mimic the appearance of natural stone. You may be familiar with brand names like Corian, Gibraltar, Staron, or Avonite. These are simply distinct solid-surface brands – but each is still definitively solid-surface.

Since solid-surface vanity tops are synthetically made, you can pretty much find a countertop to match any and every design parameter you can come up with. Additionally, this material is highly hypoallergenic – meaning that it is very resistant to bacteria and mold.

Solid-surface vanity tops range anywhere from $70 to $150 per linear foot – including installation. Contact one of our bathroom remodeling specialists at the USA Cabinet Store today to learn more about this vanity top material and how it can be utilized in your next renovation.

Tile Vanity Tops

Tile is a very popular vanity top material due to its low costs and unique design capabilities. Tiles come in so many different sizes, shapes, and colors that you can customize to your heart’s content.

Unfortunately, homeowners sometimes complain about the need to clean the interlaying grout between the tiles. Fortunately, there are many sealing options available to mitigate that concern. Additionally, we recommend utilizing a colored grout to avoid the yellowing that white grout sometimes experiences. 

You can essentially obtain tiles of any material – including more expensive materials like granite or quartz. In fact, tiled granite/quartz comes in at nearly a third of the price of pure slabs. You can also find tiles in glass materials, composites, and even metals.

Tiles range from anywhere between $3 to $75 per tile – depending on the material, finish, and manufacturing.

Use Our Experts to Pick The Perfect Bathroom Vanity Top

Choosing the right bathroom vanity tops for your remodel is no simple task! You must be careful to find the right design that matches your budget and overall bathroom renovations. Utilize the USA Cabinet Store’s free design quote today to speak with a specialist who will be better equipped to help you make that final decision.

Get in touch with us today to ask for a free quote and design for your next remodeling. You could also check us on Yelp anytime.