An Alameda primary bath

Inset fronts in walnut across three separate pieces, stain-matched, standing on legs rather than a toe kick.

Close view of a dark walnut double vanity with inset doors and drawers, cup pulls and knobs in dark bronze, under a marble top with a shaped backsplash and two oval brass mirrors. — The reveals are the thing to look at — the gap around every front, top to bottom.

Wide view of the bathroom showing the walnut double vanity against a pale wall, brick herringbone floor, and a second vanity piece at the left edge.

View across the bathroom showing two separate walnut vanity pieces facing each other, both with the same shaped apron and dark bronze hardware. — Two of the three pieces, in the same room, in the same light.

A walnut makeup desk with knee space and drawer banks either side, a marble top, a stone vessel basin and a scalloped black mirror above. — The third piece: a seated desk, built to match.

The fronts are inset, not laid over the frame

What to look at: Look at the gap around any door or drawer in the close-up. It runs the full height and width, and it is the same width all the way round.

An overlay front hides its opening — it can be out by an eighth and nobody sees it. An inset front sits inside the opening and shows every error at four edges at once. Our own shop standard prices inset at two hours a box against one for frameless, and that hour is the fitting.

Three separate pieces, one stain

What to look at: The double vanity, the single vanity opposite it and the seated desk are three different carcases. Compare the colour across the photographs — they were shot in the same room on the same day.

Walnut varies board to board, and separate pieces are built and finished separately. Matching them across a room is where a stained job usually falls apart, and it is why a lot of shops will only do this in paint.

They stand on legs, not a toe kick

What to look at: Follow the bottom edge: a shaped apron, and feet. No recessed plinth, and no gap packed out with filler.

A toe kick is faster and forgiving — it hides the floor. Legs mean the floor is visible under the piece and the apron has to be cut to it. This is furniture construction rather than a box with a door on it.

Cut to the room, not to a size chart

What to look at: The pieces run wall to wall with no filler strips at the ends, and the desk's knee space lines up with the window.

Modular cabinetry comes in three-inch steps and the difference is made up in filler. Everything here was cut to the room, which is the whole reason for building it rather than buying it.

Not our work

The marble tops, the backsplashes and the basins — we do not make or quote countertops and sinks at all.
The mirrors, the sconces and the ceiling light.
The brick floor, the plumbing fittings and the paintwork.
The styling in the photographs, which is the photographer's.

What this does not show

This is one bathroom. It was chosen because the work in it is visible in a photograph, not because it is typical of every job.
No dates are shown, and that is deliberate: this job is not in our project system, so there are no documents to cite. Everything we claim here is in the pictures and nowhere else.
The photographs are the client's room as it was styled and shot. We have not retouched them and we have not staged anything in them.

Customer name and address withheld. ← More vanities