How to replace an ugly vanity kick plate

If you’re dealing with a cheap vinyl kick plate on your bathroom vanity, I’ll show you how I completely transformed mine using simple molding and 2x4s. This easy bathroom vanity toe kick replacement makes your standard builder cabinet look like a custom piece of furniture. No need to replace the entire vanityand the best part is that this DIY costs under $20.

Check out my easy cabinet kick plate makeover below!

Step-by-step project instructions

Here is what the builder’s standard cabinet looked like before the makeover. I really dislike the cheap-looking piece of vinyl the builder glued to the cabinet toe kick.

Let me walk you through what I did to my vanity toe kick.

Step 1: Remove the vinyl kick plate

The first step is prying off that ugly vinyl kick plate. I was able to mostly just rip it off by hand. If that doesn’t work, use a putty knife to get between the vinyl and glue.

When I removed the vinyl toe kick, this is what I was left with. A hardened glue mess. Yuck!

Don’t worry about the dried glue left behind, because we’ll be covering it up completely.

Step 2: Measure and cut the 2×4 filler pieces

When I thought about how I wanted to tackle this little makeover, I noticed that the depth of the toe kick notch-out fit two 2x4s exactly. See the photos below

If you are a professional wood-worker, please don’t cringe, cry, or ram your head against a wall. I know this isn’t what you would do. So you probably should just move on since I’m just some stay-at-home-mommy doing my thing. Ok? No hurt feelings 😉 The end result looks great, though.

Measure the length of your vanity kick plate area and cut your 2x4s to fit. You’ll likely need two 2x4s stacked to fill the depth, depending on your vanity.

Step 3: Attach the 2x4s with Liquid Nails

So I attached them with liquid nails. Sometimes I just prefer using that magical glue. I didn’t want to use too much force attaching them with nails or screws. It worked great!

Can you also see that I cut the little white piece that stuck out on the side with a doorjam undercut saw. I only had to protect the side of the cabinet with a towel.

Step 4: Cut the decorative molding to fit

Then I moved to cutting out the side molding. And yes, I could have (or maybe should have) removed the wall molding and cut that to size instead of doing it the way that I did it, but for me, it was easier this way. And I can’t remove the vanity since the floor was built around it. So if we ever do something different in this powder room, it will have to be a total removal of everything anyway.

I marked the profile onto my molding.

And then I used a coping saw to cut out the shape. This sounds harder than it actually is. I have used the coping saw before for when I put up our crown molding. A coping saw is pretty easy to use and maneuver to cut out a profile on molding.

Here is what the piece looked like after.

I had to do this twice for both sides of the vanity that meet the wall molding.

Step 5: Cut 45-degree angles for corner joints

Then I moved on to cutting the two 45-degree angles that you can see in the photo below that meet on the corner of the cabinet. I used my power miter saw, but you can use a hand saw too, which works pretty easily.

Step 6: Attach Molding and Fill Gaps

To attach the toe kick molding to the vanity, I had to pre-drill holes on the molding for the finishing nails, then hammering the nails in and caulking all the small gaps.

Step 7: Prime and paint the new kick plate

After that, I primed the molding one more time, even though I bought primed base molding.

And two coats of white paint and voila here is the vanity after in white.

Photos of the finished vanity kick plate and bathroom (over the years)

Here is a view of the full powder room with some of my other DIYs when it was a white vanity. Keep scrolling if you are here for the black vanity version.

I also painted the walls with a cheap sharpie wall treatment and my DIY painted handtowel.

After the white and gold look, I painted the vanity black and added a stencil treatment to the wall. I made the stencil, and it is for sale. Check out my black and white stencil makeover of the powder room.

Don’t you think the vanity looks much better without the cabinet kick plate? And it didn’t cost much at all.

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