What is the Best Material for Bathroom Cabinets?

If you’re planning the custom cabinetry for your luxury bathroom remodel, you’re probably wondering what kind of material is best suited for the space. After all, you want your vanity unit and other bathroom cabinets to look beautiful and to last a long time. So let’s take a look at some of the most popular materials for vanities, columns and other types of cabinet in the bathroom.

Solid wood

Having solid wood in the bathroom will give it a seriously high-end feel. There’s been something of an artisan’s revival in 21^st Century interior design and it’s the very simplicity of beautifully carved wood that makes it so desirable for bathroom cabinets. Not that it ever went out of fashion. Wood transcends trends, which makes it a great long-term choice if you’re not the kind of person who’s going to put in a new bathroom suite every five years.

Also, wooden cabinetry is incredibly durable. Why do you think so many shabby chic and boho interiors are filled with second-hand wooden pieces, often decades (or even centuries) old? Just be prepared to pay for the craftsmanship of a solid wood bathroom cabinet, if you’re buying a bespoke, hand-carved piece.

Bathroom with plywood from Australian designer Dan Gayfer. Photo: Martina Gemmola

Plywood

One of the main issues of having solid wood in the bathroom is that it swells and recedes over time, due to the humidity and temperature in the space. This can crack any paint that might be on there or, worse, cause the units to warp over time, if you don’t regularly air out the moisture after you shower (which you should). Plywood cabinets and vanities provide a great answer to that.

The layers in plywood (literally called “plies”) are wood veneers that have been glued together with the wood grain rotated from one plie to the next. So, when exposed to moisture, they move different directions – pulling each other back into shape – which enables them to retain their rigidity far more effectively.

Close-grained, solid hardwood plywood is best for bathroom cabinets, so you’re looking for something like a birch, cherry, poplar, oak, teak or walnut plywood. You can also find plywoods that have been specially treated to be water-resistant, so look out for those.

Gaia Classic Wall-Mounted MDF Bathroom Cabinet - 3 drawers

Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF)

Nowadays, you’ll find that some of the most beautiful vanity bases and other bathroom cabinets – especially those with minimalist styling – are made from lacquered MDF.

Hardwood and/or softwood residuals are broken down into wood fibres and then mixed with wax and resin to bind the mixture and formed into sheets, which can then be styled into all kinds of furniture designs. Hydrofuge MDF is used in some of the most high-end bathroom cabinets as it’s been treated to be water resistant, so this is a really excellent choice.

The lacquer on MDF is generally made from a polyurethane and polyester paint, which can be given matt, glossy, metallic or even open pore, concrete-like finishes, giving you all kinds of potential design options. Luxury MDF cabinets are light, versatile, easy to transport and – as a result – incredibly popular with discerning remodelers.

Sagitta Corian® Colour Basin + Athena Wood Solid Oak Vanity Unit - 2 drawers

Corian® and Solid Surface

DuPont™ Corian® and other types of Solid Surface bathroom cabinets are probably the rarest of all the types of cabinetry detailed here. That’s simply because there are so relatively few manufacturers of these highly prized materials. However, their reputation for performance and style in the bathroom is well-known.

Being completely solid (hence the name) and non-porous, these materials are perfect for high-moisture environments like bathrooms, wet-rooms and shower rooms. What makes them interesting as materials for vanity cabinets, however, is that they have a ceramic, stone-like quality, making them serious statement pieces, especially in some of the more daring colours available on today’s market.

What’s more, because many bathroom vanity tops, i.e. the sinks/washbasins, are also made from Corian® or Solid Surface, you’ll be able to match your vanity units perfectly to the vanity tops or even install single piece vanities where the basin and the cabinet flow into one another aesthetically. That’s a seriously bold 21^st Century design development.

Looking for something else to read? Check out our article asking: Do you need a custom vanity?