Apr 12, 2011

A vessel sink and old buffet come together.



I thought I'd give you a peek at my daughters sink. She wanted something different when we built our house. (which is a work in progress - but that is another story in itself.) She loved the look of a vessel sink for her bath.

 We looked high and low in flea markets and yard sales finding nothing to mount the sink in. Then, my husband thought about an old storage building and wondered if it held any forgotten treasure. Sure enough, when they opened the old family shed up here is what they found.


An old buffet that was given to his parents after their house burned in the 50's. It was old then and it looked even older now.

 Really, the pictures don't do it justice -  it looked BAD! The storage building was not watertight and time had not been good to this piece.

I knew if anyone could breathe life back into this piece it would be my dad. He is a very talented man.. but he would never admit it! He took this buffet apart, sanded, buffed, glued and put it back together. 13 coats of poly later it gleamed as never before. He was a bit upset about the worm holes in the top that he could not sand out. I told him "Do you know how much people pay for that!" ;-)

Now the moment you have been waiting for.... can't you just hear the drum roll! :-)




Character the worms left behind! Cleaned and sealed forever.


The vessel sink I bought off  Ebay and the faucet is a kitchen faucet from Lowes. I had to find a faucet high enough to clear the raised vessel. Our daughter wanted a beach feel to her bath and I think it turned out very nice.


A few things to keep in mind if you decide to go this route. 

1. Make sure the piece is a good height to use for a sink base. Dad had to cut a bit off the legs to make this the perfect height. If it is not tall enough look at adding feet to give it extra height.

2. Seal the item very well. When you have wood like this in the bathroom you want to protect the surface as much as possible. Dad used 13 coats - what can I say but he is a perfectionist and not superstitious! ;-)

3. Take into account how high you want the vessel raised when you cut the hole to mount it.

4. Pick a faucet that clears the height of your new sink.

5. If you have woodworking skills, make the drawer in front of the sink shorter.  Doing that will give you an area for vessel and you still have storage.

 One more thing... thank your help... Thanks dad for all the hard work and to my husbands parents for the donation of an old buffet. Now it has even MORE history from both sides of the family.

Until next time,

Debra
DesignHouse Inc - House plans

4 comments:

  1. I've told you before how much I love this piece!
    going to feature (catch) you this week.
    gail

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful! I've done something similar in our Master BR and working on one for our "guest" bath. Many years ago, my Daddy took apart and rebuilt an old wardrobe that my GGGrandfather built. I use it still and love it more all the time.

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  3. Thanks to you both Gail and Kathy! Our daughter wanted something different... I think she succeeded in getting her wish! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi friends,

    A vessel sink is a bowl-like container that mounts on top of a bathroom counter and has a central plumbed drain. The faucets for a vessel sink generally do not touch the sink surface itself, but are usually installed on the counter or closest wall. These sinks are a modern evolution of the bathroom sink concept, a design that borrows from the past, yet is re-interpreted in a contemporary and new way. Thanks a lot....

    ReplyDelete

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