I got confused with talk about you and your wife using this and her applying makeup there. If this is a half bath, I'd rather have a 36" you can stand in front of than something smooshed over to the side with the low ceiling. You are not particularly tall and I suspect you have family, friends or other guests who may be taller. If not, future owners are likely to. Alternately, get two ready made or RTA cabinets and put the sink in the one in the taller area, repurpose another piece of furnitire, or bet a 54-55: vanity and install the sink on one side and use the second side as storage only. That might require getting a new top if the vanity has dual sinks installed. . Here is a link that might be useful: 55 inch double vanity This post was edited by lascatx on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 19:16

Yes, I wish I had a little alcove space in my half-bath like Bob's to cradle a sink like that. I also wish the arrangement of my room was like all the powder rooms pictured above, walking in FACING the fixtures. Instead, you walk in facing a window, and the sink is to the immediate right, and the toilet is on the same wall to the left of the sink. You lose a lot of the beauty of the fixtures that way. I love looking straight into the room to see the sink right there. As we've seen from all the pics posted here, a sink and faucet are not merely utilitarian fixtures. They can serve as striking sculpture! (Ditto the toilet actually! There are some beautiful ones out there now!). I'll try to make the best of the configuration I have. (If someone will get their caboose over here to help me with my project!)

Totally agree with the above posters: That's a super cool floor, and it needs to be allowed to shine. I'd go with a simple off-white or the above-mentioned pale yellow. You need a cool piece of artwork -- moderately large? -- to tie into the floor. This floor makes me think of Beauty and the Beast.

Since the vanity is between two walls, I'd purchase a cabinet with appropriate filler to fill the entire space, then have a counter templated. I wouldn't want the vanity floating in the hole between walls. Build it in, like the current one is. You can still have open shelving or legs on the bottom if that's what you like.