Space Saving Plumbing Fixtures & Disguising Air Vents — No Plain Jane Powder Room (ORC Week 4)

On today’s One Room Challenge update — the space saving plumbing fixtures for a #freshclassic powder room and an easy how-to on disguising plumbing vents!

 

 

Here on Home Glow’s Saturday Blog (the ORC Thursday edition 🙂 ), I always like to have a fair amount of education interspersed with the inspiration. So, previous weeks’ posts are definitely worth a scan.

 

Week 1: THE JANE AUSTEN INSPIRATION

Week 2: HEATING HARD-TO-REACH SPACES & TILE

Week 2B: 3 IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU INSTALL ZELLIGE TILE

(This is a must-read if you’re thinking of using this timeless, anti-trendy tile.)

Week 3: When White Trim Won’t Do

 

Space Saving, Fresh Classic Plumbing Fixtures

As I’ve noted many times before, our house is really old, 229 years to be exact. However, we’re not able to be restorationist — either by inclination or with funds. (It takes a LOT of $$$$ to RESTORE a house to original condition, often because you have to undo so many things.) 

We’ve taken a “historically-inspired” approach, allowing for layers of time and the tastes of the many, many generations and architectural periods that have influenced the current home (Well, I exclude allowing for the awful ’50s-80s influence. That’s just too bad.)

 

But Federal-cum-farmhouse-cum-Victorian-cum-Edwardian style — yes.

 

I needed to find plumbing fixtures that went with our “updated historical” look — not too accurate, but not too out-there either.

Regarding the sink, I wanted to keep the floor free to allow that gorgeous handmade green tile to shine. I originally wanted a floating vanity with a marble counter and under mount sink, a la:

 

 

I still think this look would have been so beautiful in my No Plain Jane Powder Room, but I also had to look at funds. Truth be told, we started this powder room renovation as a precursor to a very large kitchen/laundry/mudroom reno slated for this summer because we needed a second toilet while the reno was going on.

A similar setup to the above would cost me an extra $1K overall. It just wasn’t where I wanted to spend our money. I wanted to save it for the reno.

 

So I started looking at wall-mounted sinks.

 

I only had 18″ of depth to play with. Both the previous sink and the previous toilet stuck out into the door entry, making an already-small space positively hazardous. I needed a sink with 18″ depth or less and clean, but slightly vintage, lines.

I have no words to describe how many hours I spent looking for the perfect sink, but I at last decided upon this one.

 

 

Through much ingenious Google searching, I tracked it down. Here’s a link to the sink, in all it’s shallow, perfectly updated-vintage-inspired glory.

 

I knew I would need space on the floating sink to have soap and some sort of decorative something, so I wanted a single-hole faucet to create more room. I’ll be mixing my finishes again, as I did in this post from my Ultimate She-Shed ORC. So, for an updated-vintage look, I chose this nickel single-hole faucet.

 

 

 

Here she is, installed!

 

 

 

 

In the rest of the house, we have a lot of Kohler fixtures, including one of my favorite, fresh classic toilets (is it weird to say that?).

 

 

The above is the elongated version and is in our other 2 bathrooms. It has slightly vintage, but at the same time, clean lines.

In our No Plain Jane Powder Room, any elongated toilet would protrude into the doorway. Luckily, this toilet has a round-bowl version!

 

 

Only a decorator gets excited about toilet options, and every inch counts when you only have 18sf!

 

Lastly, remember the hole that had to be poked into our foyer wall to vent the plumbing?

 

 

Rather than using a contemporary vent, I went in search of a Victorian-era inspired one (we have a number of Victorian vents in the floor throughout the house, remnants of a defunct heating system).

 

I found this resin, paint-ready vent cover.

 

 

I spray-painted it a similar ivory to our foyer trim, and then got a roll of screen from the local hardware store and tripled it up.

 

 

 

Voila!

 

 

Next week, I’ll be back with all the pretty, nitty-gritty decorative details that will make this space shine.

And check out all the ORC participants. It’s getting hairy out there!

 

-Amy