How To Update a Bathroom Vanity With Flex Glue

“How To Make a Bathroom Vanity” was written by a paid contributor. All photos taken by Kate Hollingsworth.

My job is to design and create custom spaces. Often my work involves transforming a run-down room into something new and beautiful again, but what if it was a newly built home with nothing “wrong” with it? What if your new home is perfectly fine, but it just doesn’t suit your style? Let me introduce my client’s builder-grade bathroom:

While there wasn’t anything “wrong” with this bathroom, it didn’t exactly spark joy for my client. I want people to LOVE their home and to THRIVE in their home, not to walk in and be utterly uninspired. My client’s two main issues with this bathroom were that she didn’t like the orange-brown color of the laminate doors and she felt that the mirror was boring. While she could have replaced both the doors and mirror for ones that better suited her style, that felt unnecessarily wasteful (they weren’t broken or in disrepair) and that I could work my magic with her existing bathroom.

For the cupboard doors, I decided to glue thin strips of wood to the fronts of the existing doors for a contemporary, wood-slat look. For the mirror, I planned to glue similar slats of wood straight on to the existing mirror to make it appear framed. Sticking anything to a glossy surface such as laminate or mirror glass requires a special glue, and I knew Flex Glue would be perfect for the task.

I removed the cupboard doors and gave them a quick sanding with a sanding sponge and a thorough cleaning. Then I set about gluing slats of wood cut from old cedar blinds on to the door fronts. Cedar has a variety in color from blonde to almost red but the look I wanted was a light oak color. To tone down any reddish hues I gave the slats a coat of Liming White varnish.

The Flex Glue locks in straight away with insta-grab, but I still held each slat firmly in place with my hands for about 30 seconds before moving on to the next one. I used popsicle sticks as temporary spacers between each slat to keep the spacing uniform.

After leaving the slats to dry overnight, it was time to rehang the doors. Then I went about the business of the mirror – gluing the side panels and mirror frame pieces on. I cleaned and dried the mirror before gluing the frame. I also used some painters tape to hold the frame in place as the glue dried, but I honestly don’t think it was even necessary - the Flex Glue holds tight straight away!

I let the glue dry overnight again and then I peeled the tape off, added modern, black door handles and gave the surfaces a wipe over. When I brought my client in to show her the transformation, she was thrilled with the result! It’s the perfect update she was hoping for - contemporary design with modern wood tones (and I didn’t need to replace any of the existing fixtures!). Her builder-grade bathroom got a beautiful makeover simply with wood slats and Flex Glue.

By Kate Hollingsworth

I’ve been a serial DIYer for 25 years and have recently turned my love of houses into a thriving design business where I design and execute room makeovers in client’s homes. I’m also a content creator on Instagram (@house_of_hollingsworth) where I showcase innovative ways to use DIY products.