Choosing bathroom furniture that survives a damp room

Why ordinary furniture doesn't last in a bathroom

Standard chipboard and MDF furniture is made for dry rooms. The board itself is not waterproof, only the surface laminate is, and any gap, joint, or drilled hole lets moisture into the core. Once that happens the board swells, and swelling is permanent — it does not shrink back when the room dries out.

Bathrooms also see repeated cycles of steam and condensation, which is worse than a single soaking. A cabinet under a basin gets splashed directly, and one standing on a cold tiled floor picks up moisture from below even if nothing is ever spilled on it.

The failure is usually slow: doors that stick, then a soft patch at the bottom edge, then visible swelling along the plinth. By the time it's obvious, the board is already damaged and no amount of drying reverses it.

Moisture-rated chipboard versus solid wood and PVC facing

Moisture-resistant chipboard, usually marked green through the board or sold as 'wet area' rated, has a resin content that slows water absorption. It is not waterproof, but it copes with the humidity and occasional splash a bathroom produces. Cheaper white or plain chipboard has none of this and is the wrong choice regardless of how the surface is finished.

Solid wood looks appealing but moves with humidity — it swells and shrinks across seasons and needs a sealed finish on every face, including ones you don't see. It also costs more and needs more upkeep than most people expect from a bathroom cabinet.

PVC-faced or fully lacquered MDF units, where every edge and surface is sealed rather than just the front, are the practical middle ground. What matters is that the sealing is continuous — a cabinet with laminate on the visible faces but raw board at the back or inside a drilled hole will still fail there first.

What to check when choosing a cabinet

Manufacturer specification sheets sometimes state the board's moisture class directly; if a shop cannot tell you what board a unit is made from, treat that as a sign to look elsewhere rather than assume the worst.

Check the underside and the back panel, not just the front — these are usually where corners get cut. Run a finger along a cut edge if you can; a properly sealed edge feels smooth and continuous, not like exposed board with a thin strip glued over it.

Hardware matters too. Hinges, handles, and drawer runners in plain steel will rust in a bathroom; stainless steel or a proper coated finish holds up.

• Board marked as moisture-resistant, not standard chipboard
• All faces sealed, including back panel and underside
• Edges finished smoothly, not just laminate glued over a cut edge
• Hardware in stainless steel or a coated, rust-resistant finish
• A basin cut-out or tap hole that is also sealed, not left raw

Leg height and keeping the cabinet off a wet floor

A cabinet that sits flush on the floor is in the worst possible position — it sits in whatever water pools near the basin or shower, and the bottom edge has no chance to dry between uses. Adjustable plastic legs that lift the unit at least 100–150 mm off the floor make a real difference.

Wall-hung units avoid the problem entirely and also make the floor easier to mop, which matters in smaller Tallinn bathrooms where floor space is already tight. If you're renovating anyway, it's worth considering a wall-hung unit over a floor-standing one for this reason alone.

If the cabinet does stand on the floor, check that the plinth or legs are not chipboard themselves — some budget ranges use the same unsealed board for the leg mounts as for the carcass, which defeats the point of lifting it.

Fitting is not just turning screws

A vanity unit has to be fixed level, sealed where it meets the wall and floor, and have its plumbing connections lined up before anything is screwed down — get any of that wrong and water finds its way behind or underneath the cabinet regardless of how good the board is.

The basin tap and waste connections usually need adjusting to fit the cabinet's cut-outs, and if the cabinet includes any built-in lighting or a shaver socket, that's electrical work that has to be done by a qualified electrician, not wired in as an afterthought.

We fit bathroom furniture as part of furniture assembly work, from 39 €/h, and it's also something we handle as part of a full bathroom renovation, from 3 500 € per job, where the cabinet is one part of a larger fit-out.

When to fit it yourself and when not to

A simple wall-hung cabinet with no plumbing to move and a masonry wall to fix into is a reasonable weekend job if you're comfortable with a drill and a spirit level. The main risks are getting the height wrong relative to the basin and not sealing the wall fixing points properly.

It gets harder once the unit needs adjusting to fit an existing waste pipe, when the wall is a stud partition that needs the right fixings to take the weight, or when several elements — mirror cabinet, lighting, extractor — need to line up together.

If you'd rather not spend a Saturday levelling a cabinet and resealing tap connections, that's ordinary odd-jobs work for us, from 39 €/h with a 25 € call-out in Tallinn that comes off the bill if the job goes ahead.