If you were worried that this bathroom couldn’t get any weirder, you’ll be happy to know that it will, in fact, feature not only a black urinal, but an adorable (if not disgusting) powder blue toilet from the 1960s (and matching sink!). Yes, old plumbing! I swear I’m not angry at you; I’m really excited to get a non-white toilet in a color that looks good with the stained glass door colors. And once I found it, I screamed with extreme joy (and a little bit of disgust)! If this were for a client or if I was on a deadline, I would have acted like a normal person, but this project, this room, is a chance for me to have fun, learn, and experiment, and I needed to check the “powder blue toilet with ripped up puffy upholstered vinyl seat” box on my life bingo card. Bingo!!!
Now, this toilet was originally found in Portland’s beloved Hippo HardwareWhere the owner himself (established in the 1970s) charmed us with his passion for rescued architectural pieces… and his wife, who recently passed away. It was all very cute, and as a useless thing for a sentimental gentleman and afraid that these would be snatched up like a package of idiots surrounded by a group of 8-year-olds, I panicked and bought them. My The sink and toilet cost $500, which seemed expensive and yet reasonable. Of course, we had no idea how difficult it would be to restore them. That was future Emily’s problem!
So we got the first quote back, which took several weeks because apparently some of the people who are still interested in refurbishing vintage plumbing are retired and don’t like to answer texts or emails (that’s how I would be in my 80s, no shade). So the 14 day return period expired before we even received the quotation. I owned these two broken, broken fixtures without knowing how much it would cost to get them back into use.
Bidding came in at $2,200!!!!!!! That’s two thousand two hundred dollars to fix an old toilet (and sink, which we don’t need).
“It is not firm”. Ok? He said it could be “much less”. He was “just preparing me for the worst.” Listen, I have a lot of respect for makers and merchants, especially those who do something truly historic and unique. But after $500, $2,200 made no sense to me (I’m literally laughing out loud at this point, is common sense still a thing for this project?).
So instead of buying a toilet for a normal person, I found one more Retired and passionate antique plumbing fixture repairman who thinks it would be over $600 for a toilet and isn’t sure about a sink (but I loved talking to him on the phone – so much passion! And he loved my toilet!! Such validation). At this point, I can’t even turn back, and I really want to make this work (obviously I’m invested in all the ways). But at the time of publishing, we still haven’t confirmed the exact price of the restoration.
But I wasn’t buying old plumbing to save money on a toilet. I knew it would be more expensive than a new, plain white toilet. I bought it for the perfect color which you can’t get anymore. Not to mention vintage vibes. the soul. History. Think about all the people who are sitting here and think about all the ideas they had in the 1960s and 1970s. Vietnam War. JFK assassination. Nixon era! Watergate happened here.
Oh, and I also thought that restoring it would be a good learning experience for me and the seven of you who would ever attempt to do so. I can’t be the only rocker who wanted a vintage colored toilet from FBMP and wondered if it was possible? I thought I could give you my experience, and then those of you who are waiting for some internet junkie to do so will have some insight. Today is your day! kinda!
There he is. The closest moment she was waiting for. It’s been a long, hard life!! Caitlin It was like, “So you want me to shoot this professionally…??” I paid her professional photographer rate to take these photos. And then when she didn’t get close enough, I said, “Lady, get over there. Give the people what they really want”. So he agreed.
you are welcome.
Well, let’s clarify some facts here:
- The toilet will be completely cleaned and reinstalled inside the tank. Like a Brazilian wax – shiny and smooth like a baby’s buttocks.
- The outside will look brand new – I promise it’s covered in dirt, not feces. There are no cracks or stains.
- We’ll reupholster the seat with a fun vintage fabric. Thinking about my boro fabric, I have a lot of scraps left over.
- I’m kidding. The seat will either be a new blue seat, a colored seat that doesn’t match but looks fun, or a wooden seat. Everything will be brand new, I swear on my children’s lives, I am not a disgusting toilet hoarder. As yet.
- The sink will also be restored, possibly with a new faucet. Mounted on the wall. Maybe ruffled. Maybe with the feet. Sexy AF.
- We’ll be placing another sink in the main part of the bathroom, so technically we don’t need it, but you can’t separate these two. They have been together for 75 years. Only a monster will separate these lovebirds.
- This is not an April Fool’s joke in the middle of the year.
The toilet and sink will be on the back wall inside the outhouse. Now America’s favorite urinal will be on the right wall, behind the doors, so when the doors are open, you can see a little bit of it, but it won’t be fully visible until you walk inside. The floor will be carpeted with floor tiles which I like. J.K.
Yes, I bought a urinal. And it is beautiful.
Now I seriously considered not having a urinal because I don’t like it when people aren’t excited about my ideas – it kind of takes the fun out of it, especially as a content creator. I love it when you guys connect with my work, care about it, and get ideas from my design process. But as much as the anti-urine brigade was coming at me, in my house, the “urine enthusiasm” club was strong. Brian and all his friends (who are also my friends) and Charlie and all his friends were very excited (I didn’t ask his friends directly, I’m not that much of a horror freak. Charlie told me). And while I’m not a traditional people pleaser (at all), I get extremely inspired by other people having fun and enjoying the rooms I create. And the men in my family are so excited that no amount of Internet pushback could stop this urinal train. But now it’s less visible, so you guys won’t have to see it, and only the women in my life will have to suffer personally. I promise 🙂
So here you can see what it might look like. There will be about 10″ of framing on each side of the door (thus obscuring the urinal). Stained glass is dark in color, mostly opaque. I haven’t decided yet what the inside walls will be like. Maybe painted beadboard and wallpaper. Maybe carpet. Who knows!
vanity sink
But we’re not done salvaging and reusing old plumbing fixtures yet, so we removed this sink above, and it’s awesome. We almost used it in the kitchen, but I really wanted to find out the color of the powder coating, and I knew washing dishes in it would greatly reduce its longevity. Powder coating cast iron with porcelain glaze is not a permanent finish; There is a risk of its paint cracking after years of use. So it’s not recommended, but people say that if it’s in a bathroom that doesn’t get a lot of use, it can last for years and years, so I’m willing to take the risk for the learning experience (and to get a fun color).
This will be centered on the wall between the wall and the shower. We’ll install it on a table or vintage dresser/credenza. We can do the same thing we did in the powder bath, which is to find an old table and cut down the back legs of it so we can set it to the depth we want and then skirt it. Or we find the perfect vintage case—preferably something we can put it in. I am open.
The tap had already been removed for re-plating the polished nickel. But I didn’t get the quote back. I told the repairman that if it’s under $1k, I’ll do it, but if it’s more than that, I’ll buy a new pull faucet (at a much lower price). As you see, a few things:
- The floor will be of dark red brick in a herringbone pattern.
- A vanity is a placeholder for something old. This could be an ideal dresser or, again, a skirted vanity that would allow me to bring in more color and pattern.
- The tile inside the shower is TBD (we’re deciding to match it with the sink color).
- Mirrors and lights, TBD (location of lights to be determined).
- All walls will be covered with our reclaimed cedar, which is the same as we have today.
But it’s worth it to me to see if we can get this old lady back to work in her new dress, rather than slap a new face on her neck. But the color of powder coating is still up in the air. We’re not 100% set on shower tile yet, so it may make a difference what color we ultimately choose, but here are some of the colors we’re getting samples for, which Grech prepared for us:
Now my first choice was to powder coat it toilet color, but there is none that comes close to this (we have more samples coming). And while I love that blue color (and would look very well on a wood wall), there’s a lot of blue going on here already (the shower and water closet are both in blue structures). Green is a safe, great choice, as it is one of our key colors and will pop off the wood but work seamlessly into the design. Mustard can be that awkward moment we need, or a huge regret. We haven’t chosen tile for the shower yet and may incorporate some of these tones there (or in the fabric we skirt the vanity with). Now the dark red color would be wonderful, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t pop off the wood wall well enough. But maybe that’s okay? Perhaps it would catch the light and have a really deep, moody and cool tone that would be a little more harmonious with the walls?
What do you think? I know you don’t have all the details yet, but if you have any strong reactions, let me know. vote down!
I’m still fleshing out all the ideas. I’m tired of going back and forth to the urinal. But I’m back in flow state and sinking into the reality that we will have a finished bathroom by September. 🙂
I’d like to thank longtime dear reader, Kirsten Bell, for reaching out again about the urinal conversation. Kirsten is an anthropologist who has written an upcoming book called the stuff we carryAbout the hidden anthropology of everyday life. There’s an entire chapter about the history of urinals and, not surprisingly, there are a lot of feelings about it. He referenced our conversation here in the book, which made me feel very happy. Turns out I was not wrong in thinking that the protests were not just about perceived sanitation issues. His book comes out in November and is linked Here. I thought it was very funny and smart. This was not at all what I was expecting, and boy, would I have loved to be in her anthropology class. Thank you, Kirsten. xx
*by photos Caitlin Green
