I had my birthday last Wednesday, and planned to take some time off. I always fantasize about doing nothing, but wouldn't you know, clearing my schedule just meant there was more time to make things.
I spent some time up the coast in Monterrey, Big Sur, and Cambria, and while I was at the Bridge Street Inn in Cambria I found perhaps the coolest idea I'd seen in a long time. A "lid sink."
I told the manager of the hostel that I was so impressed and needed to make my own! They have a YouTube video on how to do it yourself here...
So, just like the video says, choose your bowl. It will need a hole drilled in it, so find your local handyman, machinist, or father-in-law with a drill press. It's not that hard to do, and most people are happy to help with such a random project.
I love antique things that remind me of my homesteading ancestors, so this vintage porcelain-covered metal bowl was right up my alley. It already had a hole in the rim of it from where it once hung on the wall, so I thought the tubing would go perfectly through there.
While I really liked the copper tube idea from the hostel (mainly because of the patina), a clear plastic tube was more affordable, flexible, and resistant to water corrosion and mineral buildup. To give it strength and the copper touch, I wrapped the tube with the ground wire from a scrap piece of Romex (interior electrical cable). Hopefully over time, it will also get a nice patina on the outside, and we'll still have excellent water flow. The bottom end of the tube attached to the current thing in my toilet, it's the perfect size & easily replaces the tube that was already in there. So now, when the water comes up to fill the toilet, it instead goes further up and through the rest of the tube, which acts as the sink faucet.
I made the shelf from a bunch of mahogany scraps from a local woodshop, and attached it to the wall just above the toilet using simple L brackets. Also very affordable and sturdy.
Since washing hands can be messy, and soap drips wouldn't be very easy to clean off of wood, I made a little soap shelf with a spare abalone shell & another piece of the electrical wire. I used the plastic-wrapped wire, so that it wouldn't scratch the bowl, or add corrosion to the soap, since it would be wet. The cool thing about the abalone shell, is that it already has drain holes in it so the soap doesn't get all mushy!
The most time-consuming (and patience-testing part) was attaching the drain with silicone. It didn't take long to do, but you're supposed to let it fully dry before getting it wet. I really wanted to test out my sink but had to wait until the next day. For the drain, I kept it simple: the "ring catcher" style of insert for your common sink -- you know, it looks like a 1 1/2" deep strainer with a slight lip on the top of it. So I put a bit of silicone around it, set it into the bowl, wiped off the excess, and waited.
The whole bowl sets within a hole in the shelf, so it is recessed about 1/2" or so. It's not just a grooved indent like in the youtube video, but an actual hole. This prevents any water from seeping along the bottom & getting the wood wet, and also keeps all the draining water in the toilet reservoir where it's supposed to be. I think if I added a PVC attachment to the bottom of the bowl, surrounding the sieve-like drain, and sealed it with silicone, this wouldn't be necessary. But that seemed like too many steps for one night. :)
So the next day I tested it out. It worked perfectly!
The water flow was excellent -- a little cold, but whatever -- it's for washing your hands, not taking a bath in.
I love the fact that our bathroom now has a sink in it -- the only choice was to walk out to the kitchen & wash your hands there... which can make one forget to wash their hands :) That was the biggest bonus for me. For my landlord, the bonus was the re-use of water, especially since we use well-water! Any conservation of resources is a benefit to the landowner, and the environment.
In case you want to make your own lid sink, set aside a good day for the project, and expect to use it the next day. I like the idea of making an entire shelf for the sink, instead of just replacing the shape of the lid, so that you have room for your towel, magazines, and fun decorations.
Here's the full-view, now go make your own!
Labels: Bridge Street Inn, creative, design, inspiration, inventions, lid sink, recycle, repurpose, toilet, vintage
