We are in the process of doing this right now -18" depth too! However, my kids are 14 and 16 and not short people. That said, it really feels tall and I love it. I would do it with little kids - get a stepstool.

The bottom drawer of our vanity pulls out to be a stool. Works perfectly. Even if you can't do that, they are small for a fairly short length of time - get a step stool until they grow.

No, planning things around children who will grow quickly tends to be short-sighted and an expensive issue to correct in the future. Let them use a step stool.

Build for adulthood. Your kids will enjoy using the "adult sink", etc.

Be very careful using pull-out drawers as step stools, unless there is a way to secure them when extended.

Your kids are young, but I do encourage you when they are a little older to let them paint their own spaces. Even if it's just one wall, or even one part of a wall, in their room. My kids have had free rein in their bathroom and bedrooms. They are older now and the style has evolved. From dinosaurs and trains drawn on the walls when they were toddlers, their current "teenage rooms" have graced the pages of homebuilding magazines. My son just redid his room again this past winter, it's a boy's teen cave for sure.

Let them have fun, and you'll have fun watching them have fun. And all their friends that have totally anal parents will be soooo jealous.

Boy, did I ever get off topic. Anyhow, my kids had no problems growing up in an adult-sized bathroom. We had a step tool for them to reach the sink and a small kid's potty for when that time came.

of course not! don't forget: they grow.

Ok I will be the dissenter here. My dd is 7 and still needs a stool to reach the kitchen sink. I wouldnÂt put a kitchen sink height vanity into her bathroom. If she is going to be using it for some time before you finish the upstairs, I would put in a shorter one, but go pretty cheap, figuring you will replace it, when the child moves upstairs.

They grow. Anyone here have their very own special height sink when they were a kid, that kept getting pulled out and remodeled as they grew taller? Yeah, me neither. My Mom still has (and uses daily) the step stool my Dad made for me so I could wash dishes. I loved *MY* stool.

If this were for downstairs, I'd suggest considering a wheelchair accessible sink. It never hurts to plan ahead, especially with grandparents using it.

I still have my stool too :), and I agree on the universal access sink height, which is in between low vanity (31 ish) and tall vanity (36) height.

Its hard to say without knowing the layout of the bathroom whether the wheelchair accessible sink is feasible (say if the bathroom itself, isnt.) If you are in the framing stage you may want to consider both the layout and such things as blocking for handrails and such.

It may seem premature, but my parents moved into a new house when I was in first grade and still live there. Now at 81 and 85 there are some real accessibility issues with the baths (and stairs) in a house that my parents refuse to leave. Watching my mother navigate some parts of the house is like watching someone climbing a rock wall...its not fun.

I think you are really taking a lot of consideration if you are considering making modifications for your young children, so, look into making some accomodations for your parents (and yourself!) as you age, while you are in the process.

Children stay the same height for about 1 year from 2 - 18. then from 18-rest of life you are pretty much the same height (well you do get shorter much later but not to a child's height).

So build for the majority use. Use a step stool or the pull out for the short (pun intended) phase in life.

I must be a REALLY bad parent. My son (eventually kids) won't have their own bathroom. I hope no one reports me. :D

I have so enjoyed all your comments/perspectives! Lots of fond memories triggered -- not only of one sink height for all family members, but one bath for a family of four; ah, the good ol' days, huh? :) I'm going to check on the ADA height vanity and see if its available through my cabinet company. Thanks everyone! As always, this forum is invaluable when making decisions like this.

Here's one to ponder...hasn't it only been fairly recently that people started using the extra tall cabinets in bathrooms. Yes they are nice for master bathrooms, etc, but are they really necessary for the family bathrooms? Why not just put in a standard height vanity? Those used to be OK for everyone of every age.

One more thought: My aunt built a house and used a decorator. The decorator suggested using a taller (36 inch) vanity in the downstairs guest bathroom that was connected to my grandmother's bedroom. Well when it was built it was so tall my grandmother had trouble using it. The mirror had to be hung so high that she couldn't even see much of herself in it. I think she was about 5 foot 2 when stretched out, but at 90 years old was fairly stooped over.

I have four children under 10 and would love to have a lower or more narrow vanity in their bathroom. Every time they wash their hands it is a production. I remember pre-children days reading an article about child sized fixtures and saying, WOW this must be excess at its worst! But now that I've been in the "trenches" for 10 years I wish the bathrooms were more child friendly.

So I vote to go with an easier sized vanity to help your child gain her independence. Yes kids grow, and yes one day she will be an adult, but she will be a little girl reaching for the sink for another six or seven years! Giving her a vanity she can use will help her with that "I CAN" we so want to instill in our kids!

Good luck!

I am disenting, along with Cori25 and Semi. I am currently remodeling my kids' (ages 3 and 1) bath and purposely went with a older 29 inch tall vanity we salvaged from someone.

We have a 36 inch high vanity in our powder room and the eldest *can't* reach the sink handles with a stool. Getting him to wash his hands in this bath is a pain, so getting a lower vanity for his bath was a no brainer.