My Curbside Trash to Treasure Vessel Sink

Megan
by Megan
3 Materials
$120
5 Days
Medium
Driving down the road one day, I saw a beautiful ceramic bowl that appeared to be attached to a busted up little cabinet. I made my husband pull over and pick it up. He thought I was crazy. It sat in our garage for over 2 years. Then we started the kitchen remodel and ended up having to pull up the floor in the attached bathroom as well. So I knew immediately now was the time to see what we could do with this beauty...
The ceramic bowl was beautiful and in perfect shape. The cabinet: not so much. First, I realized that whoever this sink belonged to must have been near 7ft tall. It was 8" taller than the standard pedestal sink in my bathroom. So step one was cut the feet off and level it. It is still about 2" taller than a normal sink, so I told the kids they have to eat their vegetables so they can grow big enough to use it!


Second, I realized that at some point, some part of the set-up must have leaked. The cabinet is just box store substandard particle board wood, and it leaked and it destroyed the top part of the cabinet "finish" so next I took some heavy duty wood repair putty and filled in the holes and made sure the top was sound. I knew I was going to be covering it, so I wasn't concerned how it looked.
I decided to do a beach theme in the bathroom. There is already neutral walls and floor, so I painted the cabinet a glossy white finish. I wanted to bring in the blues and greens of the ceramic bowl. I found these 1" square tiles in iridecent beach colors at Hobby Lobby. And then sitting right next to it were the round pebbles in the same colors, but with a finish that looks like sea glass. I went home and figured out a pattern I liked and glued them down with glass tile mastic. I went with circles that looked like ripples in water.
Next step was grout. I used white sanded grout because some of the gaps were large. My daughter pointed out that it ended up looking like the sand on a white sand beach. Perfect.


Note: Yep, I see the one wonky tile. I might fix it someday. But I am one of those quirky people who embrace the little imperfections that give these projects character.
At this point I called in Super Hubby to install a vessel faucet, which was the most expensive part of this redo. (I forgot to mention that he drilled the hole for this before I started tiling it.). Hooking it up to the plumbing in our 100+ year old farm house took a little creativity, but Super Hubby made it happen. We enclosed the plumbing workings with patterned sheet metal and trimmed it out. We left the back open to access plumbing if necessary, and you can't even tell now that it is installed.
Here is the Before and After of the completed project. I put the door back on with hinges that matched the metal grating, and added an adorable little knob. (You can't tell in this picture but it is a glass starfish knob!)


For a tiny spare bath off of the kitchen, she has the prettiest sink in the whole house!
Suggested materials:
  • Vessel Sink   (Trash Heap)
  • Glass Tiles and Pebbles   (Hobby Lobby)
  • Faucet   (Lowes)
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2 of 11 comments
  • Sue c. Sue c. on May 30, 2016
    I like it. Just shows those roadside finds must be sheltered and stored until the perfect opportunity arrives!
  • Kba11677094 Kba11677094 on Sep 12, 2016
    Cute and clever. I love that you called your little bathroom "she". Definitely.
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