Birch and Black Walnut Bathroom Cabinet and Vanity

My clients were renovating their bathroom and wanted cabinetry to complement the work they’d already done. They needed a large storage cabinet along with a smaller sink vanity. Having worked with them previously, they gave me the sizes they wanted for the cabinets and asked me to make whatever I thought would look best.

I paired light birch with dark black walnut in a frame-and-panel construction. I used walnut for the countertops and door panels (the panels are re-sawn, book-matched pieces). For the sides of the cabinet, I thought the walnut would overpower the birch, so I decided to go with boards of birch that featured heartwood down the middle. I re-sawed the boards and placed them so that the heartwood ran up in one continuous strip from the bottom of the storage cabinet to the top.

A few of the boards I wanted to use for panels featured knots and cracks, which I filled with mother-of-pearl.