I think the cherry colored vanity sounds nice, even in a very small bathroom. I also have a small bathroom and I'd do it. As far as the rest of the house goes...for me it doesn't matter if it doesn't match something that can't be seen at the same time. I like going into something that looks a little different, nice change of pace.

I think your reluctance to use the cherry vanity is right. In a small space it would look out of place IMO. I would opt for a light wood vanity. The white one you're considering might be too monotonous with all the white in that room, but a light stained vanity would work better, I think.

Why not get the vanity from the place that is doing the kitchen cabinets?

palimpset - the kitchen's not being done until later on this year or early next year.

We're doing the reno in stages as we have the money. We weren't planning on doing anything to the bathroom except replace the flooring but when we tried to remove the vanity things got a little ... hairy and it got broken. So now we're in the market for a new vanity because I don't want people washing their hands in my kitchen sink. I'm almost sorry I suggested redoing the floor.

Which vanity is the better quality materials and workmanship? For instance, if the new white one is of better quality you could always paint it a color of your choice and when you get tired of that color you could change it. By the same token, if the cherry wood is better, you could install it in your bathroom and if you felt it made your bathroom appear too small, it could also be painted a lighter color and changed out as needed.

The cherry cabinet will look fine but only get that if the quality is as good as or better than the white one. Plus the cherry cab has a white top. Either way you will be fine.

Before we put our townhouse up for sale 1.5 years ago. I replaced the 25 year old light painted vanities with dark cherry vanities with prefab Pegasus light colored granite tops with a white sink($199@HD for the tops w/built in undermount sink). We had white/off white floors and white walls as well.. We ended up painting the walls a subtle tan color(SW bauhaus buff)and that really tied in the dark vanity. We also changed out all the hardware/lighting to brushed nickel which looked much better than the chrome. I added a brushed nickel framed mirror and a BN knob and it looked great. The Bathrooms were TINY with no windows.

I wish I had pictures to share... but we didn't take any before we sold the house...

The cherry sounds very nice. If it's well-constructed, I'd do that over the white.

One other thing to consider -- Small spaces with no natural light can be cozy, welcoming and dramatic in deeper colors. Be sure you have enough light to apply makeup, but don't be afraid of dark colors. Too many light colors in a small space can say "Desparately trying to look big and airy."

Hi Officewench.

I see two issues here--the cabinet itself, & the the general level of (as you put it) matchy-matchyness, which is a dismissive term I don't like, even if I don't care for the over-coordinated look, either. It's the same difference between saying that a room that's been decorated gradually over a long period of time--a historic house, say, or maybe my own place--has an undecorated look and saying that it's a jumbled mess. At Malmaison in France, everything has been designed within an inch of its life, and the woods & the gilt-bronze hardwaree and the silk lampas fabrics are all perfectly consistent, but the results are gorgeous, not "matchy-matchy".
Thus endeth the screed.

OK, now that we've finished with semantics, let's get on to your actual question. If the cabinetwork in your entire house--except for this bath--is already done in white shaker cabinets with recessed-panel doors, I hardly think that adding one more cabinet in the same style is going to sink the ship. After all, if you like the all-white look, there can never be too much of it, and if you're already having second thoughts about having so much of it, I hate to say this but it's already too late, anyway, so don't expect a single cabinet to correct the balance. This has nothing to do with that.

So, now that we've established that what goes on in the bathroom stays in the bathroom, you can forget about what's going on in the rest of the house as you choose your bathroom's vanity. It's time to focus on the here-&-now. Here's the thing: cherry's a funny wood. In bright light--and if the wood is in a fairly light-color stain--cherry can be absolutely beautiful, with a wonderful, shimmering, satiny luster that you otherwise only see in things like birds-eye & curly & fiddle-back maple veneers and (sometimes) in sycamore. On the other hand, in its darker colorations & without strong directional light to highlight its occasional chatoyance, cherry can also look dull & lifeless, with nothing but surface shine to add any sort of visual interest. That's why, in a very small room with no natural light, I might hesitate to use cherry: it won't show off to its best advantage, and, added to the fact that it will be the only time the wood shows up in your otherwise all-white decor, your vanity could end up looking like something you picked up merely because it was a good deal--rather than something you bought because you loved it--or worse, that it was a mistake, like the wrong cabinet showed up on the truck & you didn't have time to exchange it for the right one. face it: we live in a complicated world, and stuff like that sometimes happens, but when it does, there's no point advertising the fact, and there's even less reason to make it look like that's the case when it really isn't. You'll know which is the right answer.

Regards,
Magnaverde.

Magnaverde, you do know that Josephine named it so because it meant "sick house." LOL.

Alas, Josephine was stuck with the name, which had been attached to the property for centuries.

"The name Malmaison comes from Medieval Latin mala mansio, meaning "ill-fated domain", "estate of ill luck". In the Early Middle Ages Malmaison was the site of a royal residence which was destroyed by the Vikings in 846, hence the name."