Have seen many vanities butted up against walls on all 3 sides and 2 sides as well as the usual wall below a mirror. No idea of operation of drawer/etc. until one was seen in the flesh. Depends on hinges, etc., what its being installed near, etc. Basin top taps are probably easiest to install. They also generally use a stop cock to turn water on or off (for maintenance & the like) underneath the vanity with the basin top taps. More aesthetics than anything else really.

you can go online to Bunnings or Kaboodle to make your own 2D & 3D plans or if you find that too difficult just go into Bunnings and ask them to do it for you, they have vanities similar to what you are considering. I would still choose the Oak it will give the bathroom a contemporary look with you black accessories to boot. As someone has already mention the darker will look like you have tried to match the floor and failed,good luck

Thanks for all the comments - appreciated. To answer some of your questions; 1. I am also wondering if it is possible the verandah is not original? Can you tell? Not sure, looks original. If the red bricks weren't there, then it's probably more Edwardian? 2. There any internal paneling to lower section of walls? No 3. The bay window is a decorative feature, but are any of the other windows double-hung? No 4. You might look to the neighbouring houses to get a clearer indication of style of your house as often they will share common design features. Do you have any original documentation or plans for the house? No. The street is mainly Cal Bung(double front with heavy posts) and Edwardians. From the comments, it sounds there are overlaps in style. The overall style looks Edwardian but the porch with the red brick posts looks like a smaller version of the typical Cal Bung heavy posts. The question is what does a single front or 1.5 front Californian Bungalow look like?(Do they even exist?) I've only seen double front Cal Bungs with heavy posts.

Hi Paul, I hear your collective frustration! my comment about light bouncing into your eyes was in response to your question about bouncing light onto your faces from a light placed behind the vanity (from memory). Have you seen Dr Renos comment here - still the most logical response to me. https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/5148857/where-to-place-power-points-and-lights#n=5 So I'm going to go for side lights next to the vanity cabinet. Trouble is, my vanity is off-centre to the cabinet mirror, so I still have to sort that one out. Time spent really considering this is well worth it. I think LED downlights may very well cast shadows, sorry to say :-) and the next consideration is what colour temperature - warm white or daylight? For relaxing ambience (75% bathroom function) it will def be 3000 warm white for me, however for the vanity functions it will be 4000K (daylight) so I will probably get the vanity lights switched separately to the main room light, maybe put that on a dimmer... I know there are some LED bulbs available that enable the colour temp to be changed within the same bulb...