Tuesday, June 9, 2015

0 Turning a Vintage Sideboard into a Sink Base

People are always asking if we're done with the house yet, to which I reply "are you ever really done?" But in all honesty, although most of the big stuff - kitchen, flooring upstairs, kids rooms - is done, there are still huge things we have put off and are either ignoring or just dealing with.

What happens with those big things is we get so fed up with talking about them, or imagining things to do with them, that we finally just pull the trigger on one of the million things we were hoping to do within that one project and everything falls in to place from there.

One of those things is our master bath, and one of those things-within-a-thing is using a sideboard, buffet or dresser as a sink base.

The pulling of the trigger started with a sink search. I wanted a vintage sink, so I started with Pitsch Salvage, as most of my searches do. I found the perfect sink and faucet, but unfortunately they were separated, and Pitsch doesn't allow you to swap things. The black faucet is awesome, but the sink it was attached to had enamel chipping, so I found an equally cool wall-mount sink with integrated backsplash.  I picked up both for just $50.



Once I got them home, and went to swap the hardware, I found them a lot more difficult to work with than I'd hoped. The black faucet came off without much of a fight, but the silver faucet took some serious ingenuity and tool swapping to find the right combination. Ultimately, I had to cut the top flanges with my Dremil Multimax.

Next was finding the sink base. My staple location for furniture pieces is Y.E.S.S. Thrift, an estate sale resale shop - it just takes time to wait for the right estate pieces to come in. And one day it showed up on their Facebook page:


The perfect width. Almost the perfect depth (just an inch shy of the sink). Great coloring to where we don't even need to really refinish it. Solid wood. And best of all? $145. I rushed over to pick it up.


Once home, I set out to cut the hole in the top for the sink to rest in. I know it's a wall mount sink, but the water lines and drain in our bathroom go into the floor, not into the wall, so the combination of this sink and the base are perfect. It just sits right on top of the cabinet.

I made some measurements, drew it right onto the top, drilled holes in all the corners for the jigsaw and got to cutting.


With the top drawer removed, I tried the fit.


It was perfect. I removed the sink again to start finishing the top. Because this is nice wood, I went with a spar varnish - an oil based heavy duty sealant that will be perfect for protecting the wood base. The first coat went on smooth and shiny.


Three more coats and we'll be in great shape. I look forward to tearing out the rest of the bathroom and getting this thing in place. Stay tuned for more!
 

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