All Things Renovation
Are Colorful Sinks Finally Mainstream? Or Are We Alone?
While the layout of the guest cottage bathroom is still up in the air (much to my electrician and plumbers dismay) the overall vibe is clear and consistent. I really want it to be a medium-dark wood and richer, more saturated colors (maroons, reds, blues, greens, etc) so having white plumbing fixtures will pull your eye so much and just feel really high contrast. I’m not alone in wanting colorful plumbing fixtures, and I’m happy to say that every year more and more companies fill that hole in the market. Caitlin wrote a fantastic post about the revival of this trend. My thoughts are that since I didn’t live through this colorful sinks and toilets trend the first time around (in the 50s and 60s) every time I have ever seen one (in good condition) I have loved them. I think the way these won’t date is for them to be high quality (a cheap fiberglass hot pink sink could look questionable in 10 years). But a high quality porcelain, concrete cast or cast iron in an intentional color in the right environment will have longevity, I promise.
Vintage/Salvaged Colorful Sinks In Store
Burgundy, Hippo Hardware | Powder Blue, Aurora Mills
My first instinct was to find a vintage sink at a salvage store and I immediately found 6 at Hippo Hardware in Portland. Sadly over the next copule months ALL of them were bought (after I storied about them) before I actually bought mine (so dumb!!). Recently Aurora Mills listed this powder blue one but its being sold with the tub a $1695 (and the tub is massive, a big square). I could just buy the sink but it would be the same price which is just too much.
Etsy, Glossy Cast Iron Sink | Etsy, Vintage Steel Sink
We went online to see if there were any on FBMP or Etsy and found these two which could both work for different reasons, but I’m not totally desperate yet so I’d rather keep shopping to find something local.
Water Monopoly: Ceramic Color Sinks
Rockwell Basin | Rockwell Wall Hung | Rockwell Basin, Backsplash
Caitlin introduced me to this brand, Water Monopoly and my goodness these are so pretty. I could absolutely go this direction (and very well might). They even have a matching tub (although I’m not sure we even need a tub anymore, lol).
Kohler: Color Sinks
Kohler met te moment by re-releasing some of their original colors. I love that teal, but not sure a pedestal is what I want. I’m really, really hoping they launch more colors (especially withe matching tubs and toilets).
Color Concrete Sinks
Concretti, Terracotta | Concretti, Dark Blue
It’s hard not to love these Concretti sinks. They are certainly splugey but the colors are fantastic, they come in a lot of different sizes and shapes and again, so many colors.
Kast is another new to me brand that is likely too contemporary for this project (I still want vintage!) but when I plop these in the mood board or the layout they look FANTASTIC. I don’t believe that all your plumbing fixtures have to be period appropriate, but I’m just drawn to the sweetness of vintage that keep us a bit more in the past.
Nood Co, Copan Blue | Nood Co, Musk
But if you are doing a midcentury or contemporary house I LOVE these, especially for a powder bath – somewhere guests might use which can delight them.
Our Vintage Sink, But Reglazed Or Powder-Coated
After going round and round about finding the perfect vintage sink I realized that we have a pretty great one here already. We are not going to have a bathroom up here any longer (turning them into closets) so we can take this sink and bring it down to the new bathroom.
Now, this sink is cast iron base with a porcelain glaze (we think) and so technically its not recommended to powder coat over the porcelain. The general concensus is that in 5-15 years it might chip or crack (not the sink, the paint). The last place I got a quote from said it would be $300-$400 total and they would fire it multiple times for the best finish. They still couldn’t guarantee it will last forever, but my thinking is that this sink isn’t going to get a ton of high usage outside of hand washing (my crew during the week and maybe some tweens and teens on some weekend hang nights and 5-10 bigger summer gatherings). To be able to use what I already have and get the exact color I want, I might be willing to try this and report back in 5 years whether its still in pristine condition or not. The is what I was told by a local guy who seemed to really know:
“Old casting with porosity tend to out gas: meaning at cure temp air is forced out creating small pinhole sized imperfections where the air breathed out. We can mitigate it by pre-baking the item, spraying the powder while it’s hot, and do multiple coats (which we’d need to do anyway to try to fill in the cast texture.) If you end up with areas that continue to pinhole then the sink might not have proper rust protection.That being said: a couple years back I refinished all of the small bathroom sinks for a boutique hotel (I think 50 rooms) and I haven’t heard back that there have been any issues. We’ve also done some for some homeowners who were happy.Suggested process is we need to remove any/all old finish. Not sure how long that would take/how to quote it. We’ll pre-bake and apply 2 epoxy primer coats hot. Then 1-2 top coats. So sandblast Clean and 4 coats. Cost could end up being in the $300-400 range by the time it’s all said and done.”
Sounds pretty professional to me! I think if the size of the sink works with the potential floor plan (which is still up in the air – SO FUN) then I’m going to try it. If the size won’t work then I won’t, obviously. Regardless I love learning about this all and reporting back. If anyone has done a versino of painting porcelain or cast iron let me know!
Photos by Kaitlin Green
Wasn’t there a different post up earlier today with the final layout and some sink content or am I imagining things?
I was just wondering the same thing. Thought I might have dreamt it 😅
Yes! it was an older draft that got published by mistake!! with lots of wrong info in it (like the floorplan, we changed it AGAIN) sorry! so confusing 🙂
Emily shared on instastories that it was an accidental post! Drafted but now inaccurate and she forgot to update her team before it published
Yes to no tub! Then you can put the sink over on that wall and the outhouse wall won’t feel so crowded
i love the idea of reglazing the sink you already have! would you be able to re-do the glazing process again in the future if cracks start to show?
“I think if the size of the sink works with the potential floor plan (which is still up in the air – SO FUN) “
I thought the version of the floor plan we saw this morning was the final version?
Nope. totally my fault. that was an older draft that got published by mistake (written on monday, but things changed in a couple days!). So you haven’t seen the final floor plan yet (i’m genuinely so excited about it, FYI).
Just a hot tip that those salvaged sinks, while gorgeous, are actually MADDENING to use due to how close the water output is to the back wall of the basin. We had one at our last house, and to get your hands fully into the water stream, they literally need to be touching the back of the sink and you have to rub your hands around in the tiniest little motions like a baby raccoon. And like, I’m a small-ish woman with small-ish hands and it drove even me absolutely bonkers.
Yes! the goal should be function AND form with a bathroom sink and this is so smart to think about. I won’t even buy a sink where I have to adjust both the hot and the cold so this is a very smart point to make.
Recommend rethinking black / brown / dark colors for toilet and urinal … from someone who inherited a very chic designer guest bath with black fixtures. Ugh. They just never seemed clean, exacerbated by hard-water build-up and soap residue. Some guests (esp kids) were freaked out by the color and so ended up insisting on a very utilitarian creamy colored bathroom in the basement. I was with ‘em … don’t think I ever once used that guest bath until I got rid of all the chic-ness and returned to practical but still pretty fixtures.
Agree! A Cape Cod vacation house I stayed in for years had a cobalt blue sink and it was a nightmare e to keep clean- soap residue and toothpaste!
I love a colored sink. I love the concrete sinks, but they might read too modern? If you really love the powder blue sink, you could buy the tub and sink, and then just re-sell the tub. But yes, the existing sink is great. Can you have it re-glazed? I had both of my cast iron bathtubs reglazed during my renovation.
Justice for colorful sinks!! I love them. I had a rental once where the sink and toilet were almost the color of jade ware and I loved them so. Anyway, those powder blue sinks are SO pretty and would look lovely against the wood paneling. I also loved the colored concrete sinks and maybe those more earthy tones work better with your vision? Painting your old sink is a great idea too . $300-$400 all in is pretty good for an experiment. Why not try it and then you can get the exact paint (glaze?) that you want.
That’s what we are thinking!
I think that maybe that jade ware color is the only way I’d make an exception to white. There’s something about white. Clean, classic, always my first choice (but maybe I’m just boring, haha)
No you are NOT boring! I think for most bathrooms white is honestly the best call 🙂 This is a dark bathroom and I want to take some design risks, but if you aren’t excited about color know that white is definitely NOT a boring choice. xx
I know there is no talking Emily out of the urinal design. So be it. But maybe I can prevent her from influencing others, 😉 As someone who used to have to clean the men’s room at a restaurant I worked at, do not underestimate how filthy the space around a urinal gets. They also smell awful all the time The idea of a wooden wall behind the urinal gives me the willies. LOL .
It’s such an issue that scientists even research and write papers about it: academic. oup. com/pnasnexus/article/4/4/pgaf087/8098745?login=false
(I added spaces so this comment would go through – C&P and remove spaces to read the paper)
OOh i’ll click on that and read it! this isn’t a restaurant, its not public, but I totally understand alllll the fears.
I can’t believe I actually just went and read an article on urinals! I must say, it was pretty good too.
Reglaze existing sink and add piped frame for towel storage.
I have had a sink redone in the way you describe. It was a lArge farmhouse sink that practically sold me on my house. It was a kitchen sink and the coating didnʻt last more than 5 years. I say go for it since it is only a hand washing sink and not a kitchen sink, like mine was!
We talked about putting it in the kitchen, too, but for that exact reason we feel like its ok in a bathroom (but not in a kitchen with dishes, especially since we aren’t going to have a dishwasher as of now). But thats such good insight. thank you!
We’ve had our bathtub refinished twice now with about four years between jobs. There was a warranty for the first year that covered some issues, so that might be something to ask about. We are a family of four with two littles and it’s our only tub so it gets a lot of use!
Yellow Brick Home also reglazed a pink tub in one of their rentals!
Ooh good to know. i’ll look up their post!
If you get a vintage sink, I recommend measuring to make sure it can accommodate a modern faucet. We had a beautiful green sink in a previous house. The faucet which was probably the original started leaking. The proper gaskets to fix it were no longer made. We found that the sink wasn’t drilled to take any modern faucets and had to replace it. ☹️