The Look

Furniture-style vanities are fashionably "in." To achieve the look in your powder room, try modifying an antique dresser to house a sink. Choose a dresser or desk that is sized to suit your room, the right height for hand washing, and large enough inside to accommodate the sink and plumbing.

Ash flooring stained in a harlequin pattern creates a pretty setting for this vanity, as does the beaded-board wainscoting covered in high-gloss white paint on the lower half of the walls. The walls above the wainscoting are upholstered with French toile fabric.

For this simple yet sophisticated treatment, staple batting to the wall and then stretch and staple fabric over the batting. To hide the staples, hot-glue cording along the seams. Decorative objects, such as frames and the mirror, wear lipstick red.

 

The hand-painted motifs on the sink and faucet were inspired by the toile fabric stapled to the walls. If the top of your furniture piece is in poor condition, add a granite or solid-surfacing vanity top.

 

To accommodate plumbing, the dresser's interior shelves were relocated and the upper drawers were reinstalled with only a center support bar.

 

Simple frames in eye-popping color showcase a quartet of watercolors. Triple mats look luxe -- ideal for a feminine powder room.