The bathroom is the smallest room in most homes. It’s also the room that needs to store the most categories of object.
Skincare. Haircare. Medication. Cleaning products. Spare towels. Spare toilet rolls. The things you use every day and the things you use once a month. All of them need somewhere to go.
Most bathrooms don’t have enough storage because they were designed without it. A vanity unit is how you add it back.
The Storage Problem Is a Design Problem
The standard bathroom layout — toilet, basin, bath or shower — doesn’t include storage. The basin sits on a pedestal or is wall-mounted. The toilet has a cistern. The bath has a panel. None of these fixtures store anything.
The result is surfaces. The windowsill becomes a shelf. The edge of the bath becomes a shelf. The top of the cistern becomes a shelf. Products accumulate. The room looks cluttered. The clutter is impossible to clean around.
This isn’t a tidiness problem. It’s a design problem. The room was built without storage, and the objects that need to be stored have nowhere to go except the nearest flat surface.
A vanity unit solves this at the source. It replaces the basin pedestal — which stores nothing — with a cabinet that stores everything, while keeping the basin exactly where it was.
What a Vanity Unit Actually Stores
The question most people don’t ask before buying a vanity unit is: what, specifically, do I need to store?
The answer varies by household, but the categories are consistent:
Daily use items — the products used every morning and evening. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, face wash, moisturiser, shaving products. These need to be accessible without searching. They should be at the front of the cabinet, at eye level or just below.
Weekly use items — products used several times a week but not daily. Hair treatments, exfoliants, face masks. These can be stored behind the daily items or on a secondary shelf.
Monthly use items — products used occasionally. Spare razors, cotton wool, nail care products. These can be stored at the back of the cabinet or on the highest shelf.
Bulk storage — spare toilet rolls, spare soap, cleaning products. These need volume rather than accessibility. A tall vanity unit or a unit with a deep lower cabinet handles this category.
Hidden infrastructure — the plumbing. A vanity unit conceals the waste pipe and the supply pipes beneath the basin. This is not storage in the conventional sense, but it removes visual clutter that a pedestal basin leaves exposed.
Understanding which categories you need to store — and how much of each — determines the size and configuration of the vanity unit you need.
The Depth Problem
The most common vanity unit mistake is choosing a unit that’s too shallow.
A standard vanity unit is 450mm–500mm deep. This is sufficient for most daily use items and many weekly use items. But bulk storage — spare toilet rolls, cleaning products, large bottles — requires more depth.
A 600mm deep vanity unit stores significantly more than a 450mm unit, but it projects further into the room. In a small bathroom, this can be the difference between a door that opens freely and a door that catches on the cabinet.
The solution is to measure the available depth before choosing a unit — not the width, which most people measure, but the depth from the wall to the point where the door or shower enclosure begins to interfere.
In very small bathrooms, a wall-hung vanity unit can help. By mounting the unit above the floor, you create visual space beneath it that makes the room feel larger, and you can sometimes accommodate a slightly deeper unit than a floor-standing one would allow.
The Width Problem
Width is the dimension most people get right — they measure the wall and choose a unit that fits. But width affects storage capacity more than any other dimension, and most people underestimate how much width they need.
A 400mm vanity unit has one small cabinet. It stores daily use items for one person, with limited space for anything else. It’s the minimum viable storage solution.
A 600mm vanity unit has a larger cabinet or two smaller ones. It stores daily use items for two people, with space for weekly use items.
An 800mm–1000mm vanity unit has substantial cabinet space. It stores daily and weekly use items for two people, with space for bulk storage.
A 1200mm+ vanity unit — often a double basin unit — has the storage capacity of a small chest of drawers. It handles all categories for two people, including bulk storage.
The practical rule: choose the widest unit your wall can accommodate, up to the point where it begins to interfere with other fixtures. Storage capacity scales with width, and you will always use more storage than you think you need.
The Configuration Problem
A vanity unit is not just a cabinet. It’s a configuration of shelves, drawers, and doors — and the configuration determines what you can actually store.
Doors with shelves are the most common configuration. They provide flexible storage that can accommodate items of different heights. The limitation is that items at the back of the cabinet are harder to access than items at the front.
Drawers are more accessible than shelves. Everything in a drawer is visible when the drawer is open. Drawers suit daily use items — the things you reach for every morning without thinking. The limitation is that drawers can’t accommodate tall items.
A combination of doors and drawers is the most practical configuration for most households. Drawers for daily use items at the top; a cabinet with shelves for larger items below.
Open shelving — a vanity unit with no doors — provides maximum accessibility but no concealment. It suits bathrooms where the products stored are aesthetically consistent (matching bottles, neutral colours) and where the occupants are disciplined about keeping the shelves tidy. It doesn’t suit bathrooms where the products are varied and the occupants are not.
The Colour and Finish Question
Vanity unit colour affects the perception of storage capacity as much as the actual dimensions.
A white vanity unit in a white bathroom disappears into the room. The storage it provides is invisible — the cabinet reads as part of the wall rather than as a piece of furniture. This is the most space-efficient visual effect.
A dark vanity unit — charcoal, navy, matt black — reads as a piece of furniture. It anchors the room and creates a focal point. The storage it provides is visible, which can make the room feel more considered and more designed. The trade-off is that a dark unit in a small bathroom can make the room feel smaller.
A wood-effect vanity unit introduces warmth and texture. It suits bathrooms with natural materials — stone tiles, linen towels, plants — and creates a spa-like aesthetic. The trade-off is that wood-effect finishes can look dated more quickly than solid colours.
The practical rule: in a small bathroom, choose a colour that matches or closely coordinates with the wall. In a larger bathroom, choose a colour that creates a focal point.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if a vanity unit will fit my bathroom?
Measure the width of the wall where the unit will go, the depth from the wall to the nearest obstruction (door, shower enclosure, toilet), and the height from the floor to the underside of any window or obstruction above. Compare these measurements to the unit’s dimensions, allowing at least 50mm clearance on each side for installation and ventilation.
Can I install a vanity unit myself?
The cabinet installation is straightforward for most DIY competence levels. The plumbing connection — connecting the basin waste and supply pipes to the existing plumbing — requires more skill. If you’re not confident with plumbing, use a plumber for the connection and install the cabinet yourself.
What’s the difference between a floor-standing and wall-hung vanity unit?
A floor-standing unit rests on the floor and is easier to install — it doesn’t require wall fixings rated for the unit’s weight. A wall-hung unit is fixed to the wall and suspended above the floor. Wall-hung units are easier to clean beneath, create a more contemporary aesthetic, and can make a small bathroom feel larger. They require a solid wall (not a stud partition) and fixings rated for the unit’s weight plus the weight of the basin and contents.
How much storage does a vanity unit actually provide?
A 600mm floor-standing vanity unit with a single door and two internal shelves provides approximately 60–80 litres of usable storage. A 1000mm unit with two doors and three shelves provides approximately 120–150 litres. For reference, a standard bathroom cabinet (the type mounted above the basin) provides approximately 15–25 litres.
The Permanent Solution
Bathroom clutter is a symptom of insufficient storage. Adding more products to a bathroom without storage doesn’t create clutter — the lack of storage does.
A vanity unit is the permanent solution. It replaces the basin pedestal with a cabinet, conceals the plumbing, and provides the storage that the bathroom was designed without. The surfaces clear. The room becomes easier to clean. The bathroom looks like it was designed, not assembled.
Browse the full Modern Splash vanity unit range — floor-standing and wall-hung, in white, grey, and matt black, from 400mm to 1200mm.