Skinny? (Just guessing from your screen name, LOL, I agree that $100 seems very steep for a wood finish sample. I've had two vanities made, the first one, we picked from a collection of samples...the second was teak veneer and he had to go buy the teak, so I had no exact idea of what it was going to look like until the day he delivered it! LOL It didn't even occur to me to ask for a sample as I have teak furniture, and I know what teak looks like. Are you having your vanity stained? Or is it the time of finish, ie satin, semi-gloss etc. that you are unsure of? We had a carpenter do some custom made additions to our kitchen cabinets (long long story as to why our kitchen company didn't do it). The hardest part for him was coming up with a finish that matched closely to our cupboards, ... he lived a ways away, and luckily for us, he came to our house each time with the samples, but the process took a long time. He said he would never do that again, he didn't charge us extra for that part of the job, but neither he or we realized how hard it was going to be. Sounds like your designer and or her cabinet maker are not willing to eat that extra cost. If she was clear that each additional sample was going to be $100, I guess that's rough, but there's not much you can do, except let her know you are not happy about it, and pay the cost.

Qualitybath.com has some good Ronbow vanity options and have a sale ongoing last I checked. Never bought a vanity from them but ordered my kitchen faucet there-- good experience. I don't know if they stock their inventory or not though. If you like Restoration Hardware you might try the outlet in the SF design district. Sometimes they have good deals.

It would work fine. That's what is in our master bath right now (we didn't do it).

Enzaenza, I did an exhaustive search of vanities recently, mainly because I needed it to be 18" deep and most stock vanities sold online or anywhere for that matter are 21". You will pay more for a custom piece. But if you shop around, you can find deals. The vanity I purchased at one retailer was $700 more at another retailer. Like you, I was looking for furniture style (with feet) and didn't want it to look like a box with feet attached as an afterthought. Something else that complicated my search was decorative side panels. Because the side of my vanity is the first thing you see when entering the bathroom, the side had to look good, IOW not a flat panel. One company, Wellborn I think, was going to charge me $425 a side to swap out the slab side panel for a decorative one. Crazy. I ended up ordering a 48 X 18 Shiloh vanity from their Furniture Style Vanity line and am very pleased with it. Inset style, soft close, full extension, custom glazed finish etc. I can post a picture of my new vanity, if you like. Here's a link to the Shiloh vanities: Shiloh furniture style vanities