Bathroom Remodel at The Edge

My design emphasizes the existing structure by making lines and forms more evident. Paint, some plaster and a custom sink that reflects those lines.

I was challenged by my instigator friend, Robin Brailsford - “Oh sure, we can all remodel.  Now let's see you use only the things you already have”.
That comment made me decide to cast my own sink out of concrete.  An inverted sculpture.

I decided that two sinks were just in the way, so I made one big one instead. I purchased one faucet because that was just sensible (although in another bathroom design, they were all handmade and had rocks as the handles).


My friend Anna Cabo made the amazing fused glass tile.  They are luminous jelly bean beauties and all different.


Seems we are all clearing our studios in the lull of the virus and perhaps considering the fast paces we used to have.
Personally, I now drink coffee in bed while doom-scrolling the news.  Never, never have I done that sort of decadent laziness!   This remodel took longer than usual.

Some things I designed are ruff, deliberately. The Ikea dresser that my friend's kids ditched got a new cover skin that was made from an old desk I made 19 years ago. I liked the contrast of brown shiny melamine and thin tan skin on 2 sides, held in place with copper washer/screws.

The floor is the same from the time that flooring contractors owned this house and sampled all manor of oddities here.  I could have installed some something snappy, but this floor has cracks and stains.  Fine enough.  I don’t have to change my body movements to accommodate anything ‘good’ and can just use what I have in that country sort of way.

The light for reading while on the can (toilet):  I did not want to put in new electrical lines, no, that would have stopped my creative forward-moving flow.  Jerry-rigged discards and a puck light.  Little chains support the hinge connection.  Yes, you have to push it.  Yes it wiggles when you do, but it has a nice mellow, directed light and cost nothing - I already had it in the barn.

There had been an electrical outlet from the past, now only a hole in the drywall from the former outlet.  It's bugged me for a long time, it was so different and yet so close to the other one, but not a "just right" match.  A few years back, I changed it’s location, leaving the hole.  I have never been a symmetrical designer, but there you go, the plug was somehow unacceptable to me.  I made a little sculpted box and painted the interior the same color that dashes around the bathroom - a flamboyant electric turquoise.  I still believe I gave the elderly paint mixer guy at the store a different color on the poetic-named paint strip.  That mis-color and that he used a too big hammer to place the lid, thus smashing the can 1/3 down, well,  I almost just left the store. Of course everyone loves that color and now it has grown on me.  It ignited the mood of buoyancy and its insistence has kept me engaged - it's interior now matching the ceiling of the shower.  The window trim sports the same color.  All the other paint was from the storage.

The little bling-thing was a big mess of a necklace that was my mothers, something I "yard sale" bought for her years back because she likes blue.  I rewired it and hung it to an old plant hook.  The plant died years ago, and yet the hook remained.

The washing machine was purchased used and remained in that used category because this Maytag doesn’t drain well and molds up.  At least the machine keeps on going.  There is a dance of getting it to dry after every load.  I can’t get rid of something that is still working.

I use no dryer.  I have a clothesline in this chaparral (high desert) climate, it very much so "does dry for a living".  I just love a stiff, exfoliating towel!

I'm stuck with a white particle board dresser that I would never have purchased.  It came when my parents, moved in with me. I won’t give such a non-desired item to a landfill until it collapses.

The toilet makes a weird dripping sound.  Two plumbers couldn’t find the issue.  I had dreamed of getting rid of it in this remodel.  It is mineral stained.  Me, with my multiple pee per flush policy, - its just ugly.  Maybe someday I will get a new, low flush one, but not this time - that wasn't part of the original challenge by Robin.

The cabinets; original, made of dark wood that had an oily something on it.  I tried lightening them by sanding, tried new crazy handles, I tried painting them.  These were all failures that I even sent photos to friends.  I finally pulled off the covers and painted the gnarly particle board shelves white.  Then used a gauzy white cloth that I had just sorted in the studio (and thus able to find).  Not wanting to buy a curtain rod, I used PVC water pipe with the print turned to the ceiling and made some wall hangers of scrap wood.  There is silver chain, sewn to the cloth and a bamboo rod to slide the fabric and reveal things.  All that white feels clean.  I’m certain it's not clean, but I can live with that illusion.

The plastic baloney sandwich on the toilet tank always reminds me why I’m a vegetarian.