The Upcycled Bedroom Sink
One of the small but mighty features I was most excited to include in the design of our new cottage is the sink in our primary bedroom.
Our ~900 sqft home has one bathroom for the four of us, which we believe is enough since the kids’ grandparents’ home, which has multiple bathrooms, is a lovely one-minute stroll away. Plus, a key concept behind this “ADU” cottage and our French Farmhouse is to live with less stuff by sharing more resources.
One of my clients overseas has a sink in her bedroom, and it’s a design feature I enjoyed often when staying at her home. I found the opportunity to keep select self-care routines within the intimate cocoon of the bedroom to be beneficial in terms of both logistics and mental wellbeing.
I personally don’t function well when I’m rushed, and having (wonderful) children tugging on my clothes while I attempt to capture two minutes for myself at the bathroom sink to be stressful, but not reason enough to add a costly and largely unnecessary second bathroom.
Per usual, our aim behind the design of this sink was to use up as many existing items as possible, rather than sourcing newly-manufactured goods. However, I do intend to acquire a decorative switch plate cover and electrical outlet plate via Buster & Punch, as those standard white plastic ones make me cringe.
The sink is an antique, wooden French bowl (via Elsie Green). It’s coated / waterproofed inside with Rove & Dwell finish coat.
Much of the copper piping was salvaged from local, small business that was modernizing their interior.
The pedestal is a handmade plant stand I found on Etsy,
The mini cabinet was a second-hand find.
The ledge is a spare, river-recovered pine floorboard from The Goodwin Company.
The hooks and folding mirror were leftover from a previous project.
Clay candleholder is vintage via SSS Atelier.
Lime paint in “Cobblestone” by Color Atelier.
Vintage-style rotating soap holder via Vivi et Margot.
Our friend Danny helped us bring this to life, and we’re thrilled with how it turned out. It’s one-of-a-kind, meaningful, and ever-useful.
Slowly Crafting a One-of-a-Kind Space with Plants & Vintage Goods
When we moved into our cottage, the first place I biked in order to find items for our new home was our neighborhood vintage shop. My favorite discovery from those days was a compact wicker chair — unlike any other I’ve ever seen— that sits on our front stoop, serving as the perfect lil’ perch for removing shoes and dropping mail and leashes.
Our world is awash with consumer goods that are designed and manufactured with unsustainable resources to swiftly become outdated and discarded, then heavily and wastefully packaged and transported thousands of miles. Rerouting our dollars away from such practices and directing them towards buying local and vintage instead can almost feel like a tiny, quiet act of rebellion.
The same goes for prohibiting ourselves from being tricked into believing that our personalities can be formed, solidified and/or validated through our purchases, and that the more we buy, the happier and fuller we’ll feel. Instead of decorating (and redecorating routinely) with the same products as everyone else, vintage invites us to slow down and patiently find exactly what we love and need, rather then being told what we love and need.
And when we walk away from a second-hand shop with our unpackaged items that we salvaged from within our own town, we’re also walking away with pre-loved, story-rich treasures that form a collection that’s entirely unique.
It’s for these reasons (and several more,) that I appreciate Venice Vintage Paradise, our family’s closest source for vintage goods. Recently, this long-standing business within our quirky beachside community converted their back patio into a small, beautiful plant studio, which they’ve named Venice Roots.
The plant pots they sell are mix of handmade and second-hand, and the space is outfitted with vintage furnishings and accessories. (They even used reclaimed materials in order to construct their show-stopping back wall.) If you’re in the area, it’s absolutely worth a visit.
A note from the shop:
Venice Vintage Paradise has been a local Venice favorite on Abbot Kinney providing one of a kind vintage goods to our community for over 16 years. With the new addition of our plant studio,Venice Roots, we now offer a plethora of outdoor and indoor plants. We are providing creative and informative workshops and sourcing vintage and locally handmade ceramic planters to beautify your space.
Sustainability is on everyone’s mind these days, and how to better reduce, reuse and recycle. It’s always been part of our mission to inform and educate our community that when we incorporate vintage into our lives, we are being more environmentally friendly.
- Venice Roots at Venice Vintage Paradise