The Last Piece of the Puzzle
Round and round he goes, where he stops nobody knows.
I got the bathroom vanity today and this is the very first one I looked at a few months ago. I then looked on Ebay for a vanity. I tried to negotiate with DEA Bath for a vanity, but that fell through. I drove to Upper Lake and was insulted by Sheldon to try and buy a vanity. And after all of that I got the one I first looked at, but not before the store that had it almost burned to the ground and the vanity ended up in two different storage units, until it was delivered to my door today.
Whew!
The reason I didn’t like it the first time I saw it was because of the color of the vanity. Anybody’s who has read my blog over the past month or so knows I got my hands on a very, very nice pair of 1890s sink legs. I then had the matching wall brackets made. The wall brackets and sink legs need a marble apron to go with the vanity. I thought I would have a hard time matching the color of that first vanity and so I decided against it.
I then drove all over hell and half of Georgia and came up empty handed and so I went back to the start. In hind sight, it turns out that not being able to match the marble is not such a bad thing. First off, any 100+ year old vanity I get is going to be in less than pristine shape. I accept that, and in fact I relish it. If I got a white marble vanity it would be a few shades darker than it’s original white after so many years in service. If I went and bought new marble skirting, the new skirting would be brilliant white in comparison. Not good.
By getting the darker marble I can get new marble skirting and then stain it to match. I already played around with water colors on a scrap piece of marble and it should work fine. So really, no matter which antique marble vanity I get, getting marble skirting to match would be difficult. The problem with the first vanity – the one I ended up getting – was going to be a problem with any vanity I got. So it doesn’t matter.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the marble vanity for the bathroom….
Ta-Da (bowl not in picture)
It’s actually very dirty and desperately needs to be cleaned, but you get the idea. The best part is, now that I have it, I can finish up the framing in the bathroom and seriously think about rough-in plumbing and going in to debt up to my eyebrows buying tile.
6 comments:
Greg,
I bought a marble mantel in similar condition and had great luck cleaning it up and have one new piece made to match. To clean, I used Zud, which worked great and I believe is the same as Barkeeper's Friend. To have a simple square piece cut to size, we used a monument/gravestone company and it was much less expensive than the other options we found. And the piece matches almost perfectly with no stains applied at all. It might be worth checking into if you have any monument companies in your area.
-Richelle
Thanks! I've used Zud before and I use Barkeeper's Friend on a regular basis. I use the soft soap variety on all my old marble and porcelain. I'll check out monument/gravestone companies, but I'm not sure we have one around here.
So, how does the watercolor work? Do the pigments stain the marble permanently or would have to reapply over time?
John,
You know, I don't really know. I would think if it were cleaned a lot, or in direct sunlight, it would lighten back up over time. The apron is a thin strip of marble that runs under the vanity. I don't think it will be cleaned excessively.
Greg,
the vanity looks great! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished bathroom.
Richelle,
thanks for the info on headstone companies! I have a slab of marble that needs to be cut for our kitchen island. There is a headstone company less than 3 blocks away from my house. I didnt even think to look into them.
your bathroom is going to be the bomb! entirely worth all your leg work. I can't wait to see it.
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