This weekend just gone Mr P and I finally had a Saturday free to hit the shops for supplies for our laundry and powder room renovation. Our mission was to find a basin and a toilet and that was all, just 2 things but 2 very important things and guess what? Success! We found a basin so I guess 1 out of 2 isn't bad.
We've learnt from our other big renovations like the bathroom and the kitchen that it's best to focus on buying 1 or 2 big items at a time, otherwise you just get too overwhelmed looking every which way at taps, cabinets, bench tops, sinks, comparing the pros and cons and prices of each product is all a bit too much so you end up coming home empty handed and grumpy from all the confusion!
Our toilet is very small but it is just big enough to fit a small wash basin inside in the corner either along the back wall behind the door or on the side wall and the door will just squeeze past with millimetres to spare (I hope)!
We've learnt from our other big renovations like the bathroom and the kitchen that it's best to focus on buying 1 or 2 big items at a time, otherwise you just get too overwhelmed looking every which way at taps, cabinets, bench tops, sinks, comparing the pros and cons and prices of each product is all a bit too much so you end up coming home empty handed and grumpy from all the confusion!
Our toilet is very small but it is just big enough to fit a small wash basin inside in the corner either along the back wall behind the door or on the side wall and the door will just squeeze past with millimetres to spare (I hope)!
It will make such a huge difference not having to wash your hands in the laundry trough or walk through the house to the bathroom which is what happens now. It will also mean that once I've added a nice mirror, hand towel rail and all the accessories we'll have converted our toilet into a powder room. Oh la la we're getting very fancy smancy here in the Jarrah Jungle house!
So let's talk basins, if we go for a stand alone basin attached to the wall you will be able to see the plumbing pipes sticking out from the wall which isn't ideal. We also found these basins were so small you could barely fit your hands in to clean them which is kind of the whole point really! The ones big enough to fit your hands comfortably were too big for the space.
So we changed tact and had our eye out for a sink and vanity combination, a compact vanity to hide the pipes and also give some storage for toilet type things like loo paper. I quite liked this design below but the basin was plastic and had a soap holder instead of a shelf which I'd prefer to sit a soap dispenser on.
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All the white cabinets with a white ceramic basin were 2 different shades of white (we all know how many shades of white there are!). In the natural light this vanity below was 2 different whites and just didn't look right. It made the unit look too mix matched and we decided a contrasting coloured cabinet would be a better choice with the white ceramic basin.
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We also discovered that a lot of the basins were plastic and not ceramic. We're a bit fussy with the products we pick for our house and try to go for good quality where ever possible, so a plastic basin just wasn't going to do. Bring on the lovely shiny ceramic basins!
We also discovered that a lot of the basins were plastic and not ceramic. We're a bit fussy with the products we pick for our house and try to go for good quality where ever possible, so a plastic basin just wasn't going to do. Bring on the lovely shiny ceramic basins!
After visiting half a dozen bathroom stores we headed to Ikea and what do you know .... we found a small vanity in black/brown to contrast against the white ceramic sink and best of all the sink has a shelf which was just what I was looking for.
We are a little unsure about the dark wood vanity clashing with the wooden bench top we want for the laundry so the good news is that this vanity also comes in white aluminium with frosted glass doors. I'm not a fan of see through glass doors unless there's something pretty to display inside and loo paper isn't one of them! So once installed we'll see if you can see through the doors and if you can we can apply some frosting to the doors as a solution.
The Lillangen Wash Basin is $135 and a perfect fit. I really like the modern shape and shelf to the side to sit the soap dispenser on, instead of a soap dish holder which just gets messy and leaves dried scummy soapy bits in the dish holder and who wants to clean that? Not me!
This shelf can probably hold a soap dispenser and a sweet little vase of flowers which is such a practical and clever design for such a small item. I guess that's where Ikea is great, they are all about making storage products to fit small spaces.
This shelf can probably hold a soap dispenser and a sweet little vase of flowers which is such a practical and clever design for such a small item. I guess that's where Ikea is great, they are all about making storage products to fit small spaces.
The Lallangen wash basin cabinet is $80 which is a pretty good price and certainly the cheapest we saw all day.
You can chose to have legs on the vanity or leave them off and have the vanity floating and attach it to the wall. If we can sweet talk the plumber into running the pipes through the wall instead of the floor, then we'll go for the floating option. I'm more than a little giddy with excitement about this because I love floating cabinets they look so modern and stylish ... I can't believe our 1960s toilet is going to have one eeeeekkkk exciting!
So we found our vanity unit and basin for a total of $215 and I'm really happy with that. We didn't purchase it there and then because we want to do some triple measurements and check out the plumbing first but I'm pretty certain we'll be heading back to Ikea very soon!
What do you think of my itty bitty basin and vanity?
Do you know anyone who added a wash basin into the toilet?
Any hints and tips I should know about? Please share!
You can see my Laundry/Powder Room renovation progress posts here:
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[All images my own, other than images 9 and 11 from Ikea here]
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We had a tiny wash basin in our toilet when I was growing up and it was great because as you've said, it saves having to use the laundry trough (which this toilet was adjacent to). It was just the basin though so if you can fit the vanity into your toilet too, that would be awesome. I've been trying to convince my other half that we need at least a little basin in our laundry toilet but so far he's having none of it :(
ReplyDeleteOurs is the same set up, toilet adjacent to the laundry, but it would make such a big difference. Especially for the girls being able to look in the mirror without having to head into the bathroom on the other side of the house! I'll let you know how much it costs us to do, Im sure it will be worth it though :)
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