Colorful language flows from the fingertips, as it does from the lips of this spouse-made farm girl, but in this crazy life we all need some colorful discussion to distract us from our own, everyday craziness! In here, we do DIY, farm life, and a lot more!
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Well before we broke ground on our new home – actually, even before we purchased the land – I knew I wanted my house to boast a ton of unique features. One of the places that is often overlooked in a home is where most people spend a lot of time relaxing, in peace and quiet…you guessed it: the bathroom!
Our home has 3 full baths, so I had enough project ideas to fill up my entire summer, just in the poo room! The guest bath isn’t where I started when I got out the saws and drills, but it’s one of my favorite outcomes, so I’m starting my bathroom reveals with this turquoise gem.
I call it the guest bath, but it’s really the bathroom my athlete daughter destroys with smelly kneepads and dirty clothes strewn about on a daily basis. I figured my once little girl should have a pretty, feminine bathroom space to call her own (aside from when we have guests over) since her 2 brothers occupy the basement bathroom in an equally smelly manner. Girls should have white frills and pretty colors, right? In hindsight, I probably should have designed it to have a basketball hoop hamper and painted it the signature blue and yellow of the Golden State Warriors – my girl is a crazy Curry fan, but who isn’t? Anyway, before she was old enough to go complete Tomboy, I jumped on the feminine features and I’m so glad I did. This room is a pretty mix of vintage, modern, farmhouse, and feminine all wrapped up in basic pine trim.
I love it, and it brings compliments from anyone who has the opportunity to sit on it’s throne.
I’m not sure when or why my love affair with antiques started, but I’ve always been a fan. I love the character and detail, the story every scratch and ding holds, and most of all I love that it’s super green to repurpose! After all, we did build a net-zero, solar-powered farm. Lucky for me, my mom loves antiques too…what’s more, she loves to shop for them.
I knew I wanted a unique vanity, so the hunt for dresser-like treasures commenced. No exaggeration, I think we spent 3 months exhausting every hour we had open on a weekend to this hunt, and the darn thing didn’t even come from an antique store in the end. It just so happened that one of my mom’s coworkers needed a little help moving out of her apartment, we volunteered to help…baddabing, baddaboom: I got a nice little antique buffet for my birthday…thanks, Mom (and coworker who wanted one less item to move)! Now, I had to focus on the sink, itself. My plan was to find an antique wash basin and include the pitcher as an accent piece for flowers or just prettiness.
All I’d have to do is drill a hole in the bottom of the wash basin for the drain. For some reason, in 2015, there wasn’t a soul on this planet who wanted to sell their antique wash basin. No joke, I looked everywhere; in person, online, you name it, I looked. To say I was growing frustrated, is an understatement. In my searches for the antique sink, I managed to find a brand new, porcelain vessel sink that fit my plan to a T! Sadly, I can’t for the life of me remember where I found my sink, but similar vessel sinks can be found on Amazon for less than $100. I will admit, purchasing the sink without worrying about how to drill a hole in ceramic, made this build a lot simpler. The faucet that came with my sink (it’s rare that they come as a pair) is a ceramic waterfall faucet. I think I paid about $170 for the whole unit, sink and faucet together. Now I can’t seem to find the exact faucet anywhere. Sorry, folks, but you can certainly find an equally perfect faucet to fit your taste, at a friendlier price. Anyway, after I found the pieces I needed to complete this vanity, I could finally take out the saws and get building!
You already had a sneak peak of the final product in the intro pic, so now let me walk you through the simple steps I took to build this beauty…
Materials & Tools
Method
1. Measure the height at which you want the top of the vanity to sit. The buffet I used to make my vanity was about 3 inches taller than I wanted because the sink’s height would have made the whole ensemble too far out of reach for my 5 foot 4 inch stature, and I wasn’t building a sink for circus performers. I used the jig saw to cut a few inches off each leg of the buffet. Here’s where the sand paper comes…just give the fresh leg cuts a quick swipe and they’ll be smooth as a baby’s bum.
2. Shorten any drawers that get in the way of plumbing. My unit had 2 center drawers, and since I wanted the sink to be mounted in the center, I removed the drawers and shortened them to fit the drain pipes behind. I marked the lines on the back of the drawers – all three sides: bottom, left and right – and used the jig saw to shorten the depth of the drawer. I then removed the drawers’ original back pieces, and reattached them to the back of the shortened drawers with my screw gun using L brackets and screws.
3. Cut drain and water line holes. As stated, I wanted the sink in the center of the unit, so I measured the center and used the hole saw to cut the hole for the sink drain and plumbing. The unit needed a smaller hole (maybe more than 1 for your set up) for the water lines to fit through, so I used a drill with the appropriate sized bit to make this hole, after measuring the distance from the drain hole in the sink to where the faucet hook-up landed. The water line hole is in the back of the sink, and isn’t visible to the public, so I wasn’t too fussy about it.
4. Mount the sink, attach the drain and water lines, and replace the drawers. **Note: We were in the process of building while I was making my vanities, so our plumber did all of this step for me. I highly recommend this method!
Voila! A custom vanity that will withstand the test of time, and be the topic of conversation at gatherings. The best part – new life and purpose has been brought to a beautiful, old piece of furniture.
