Julie Wawirka Bathroom Sinks
“A Touch of Class”
One of the most rewarding things to do with a bathroom, if you can arrange it, is to make of it a place of ultimate luxury and pampering. So, the question then becomes, how does one go about arranging something like that? What makes a bathroom luxurious is not so much the size, as the bathroom design itself. And if you’re one of those whose bathroom is so small that it barely has room for a shower/tub, toilet, and sink vanity, you’re probably wondering how in the heck you can ever hope to achieve something like that.
The solution to the problem, really, is to look at it with new eyes. And even if you are one of those who does not design, it is certainly possible to avail oneself of those who do. And by that, I do not necessarily mean hiring an expensive designer. Look about you; see what’s available. And that, in turn, is how I came across Julie Wawirka, who is an artist who works with sinks.
That sounds, at first, counterintuitive. How can an artist work with something as pedestrian as a bathroom sink? The answer, of course, is that in the hands of an artist, nothing is really pedestrian. I have a niece who is currently working towards a bachelor’s degree in the fine arts, and I keep telling her she ought to consider the commercial arts as well. Lots and lots of people can draw a still life with such realism that it almost looks like a photograph, so, despite the skills something like that requires, it is increasingly difficult to actually sell it and, more than that, sell it for enough to make a living at it. But many fine artists who have turned their talents to commercial arts, especially those items used in homes, have ended up making a rather nice living for themselves. And if you approach it correctly, even the very mundane can be a wonderful work of art.
Ms. Wawirka is very much a case in point. What most attracted me to her website was the ginkgo sink we’ve featured here, but Julie Wawirka has a large line of items that she describes, and rightly so, as functional sculpture for the bath. In addition to a large line of bronze sinks, she also offers matching hardware, towel bars, and even sconces. So, it is now possible to not only obtain a sink that is, in fact, a work of art, but also matching accessories.
What can be more luxurious than a bathroom with coordinated, elegant fixtures? Not much, really, and that’s my point. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
Joseph
Stainless Steel Bathroom Fixtures
“Steel Crazy”
I don’t normally feature the same company twice in one week, but Julien, Inc. has a long line of stainless steel products, and some of these items are found in their bathroom. I pointed out earlier that this company is actually headquartered in Canada, an item that’s worth repeating because the product line featured here is c
learly inspired by Japan. And so a few more of the boundaries that are thought to divide us are now seen not to exist at all. For all we know the designer of these particular items working in Canada may have come from South Africa! The world is getting that small.
Actually, some five or six of my fellow woodworkers are married to Japanese ladies and have, in consequence, a large interest in all things Japanese, as do I. There is a certain rightness that accrues to the simplicity of line that is used in so much of what is produced on that island.
Nowadays, of course, because the world has been made so small with modern communications, we tend to take so much of that for granted, but it is not hard to imagine the wonder with which the architects Greene and Greene approached the Japanese Pavilion in the Chicago’s World Fair of 1893.
I think what particularly intrigues me about this company is that they specialize in stainless steel, but they don’t just stand there with a stack of sheet metal and a welding torch. They design things that not only endure—as stainless steel must—but creations that you want to endure because of both the utility of the design and its intrinsic beauty.
And the other element that is worth noting is the cleverness with which they have approached their designs. This particular bathroom suite is very much a case in point. The one thing I found myself wondering about was the magazine on the bench. Well, as it turns out, what’s been made to appear as a bench is really something a bit more demure, a cover. One slides open the handcrafted wood top to reveal the toilet underneath. Ah, then that would explain the magazine!
Joseph
Decorative Kitchen Backsplashes
“You Say Façade, I Say Fasade”
All kitchens have backsplashes—the building codes in any city pretty much assures that—but there is a whole range of backsplashes, ranging from the single row of 6″ high, cheap tile that surrounds our kitchen to the rather more elegant backsplashes featured on this page. From a purely utilitarian point of view, of course, all one really needs is that cheap 6″ tile, but when you do that, you end up with a wall that is splattered with whatever kind of cooking you do. And if you’ve ever had an incident with spaghetti sauce, you know at once that one row of tile does not cut it. Unless you wipe that up the moment it splashes, you have red stains that are never in this world going to come off unless you scrub through the paint and into the drywall. Imagine the fun for those of us who are not adept at drywall repairs!
So, a decorative backsplash has its advantages, just in the amount of work it saves. More than that, though, it helps bring a kitchen to life, and does so at a price most of us are willing to pay. And now, thanks to the miracles of our age, we have choices. No, let me rephrase that, because I’ve been on the Internet for a while. MAN, do we have choices, lots and lots of choices. But I’ll try to keep it down to just two for the moment.
One of the elegant backsplashes from the past, because it has some of the timelessness we spoke of last week, has now made a bit of a comeback. Patterned tin was quite popular at the turn of the Twentieth Century, especially for ceilings, then it fell into disfavor, mainly because of the cost. It is still not used as much for ceilings, unless you have a professional to install it, because of the difficulties of working overhead, but it is becoming increasingly popular for kitchens, especially for those, like myself, who are using more traditional concepts, such as wooden countertops. And that brings us to our choices.
At the top of this blog is a sample from from Valley Tin Works in Pennsylvania, who makes patterned tin façades for backsplashes at a price of about $22 per square foot. The installation is said to be fairly easy, but I suspect it is a product that is better suited to an experienced do-it-yo
urselfer.
On the right we have a similar looking product from ACP Fasade, but there is quite a bit of difference. It is said to provide the look of the traditional tin backsplash façade, but to do so at about half the cost. The secret, of course, is that it’s not tin but thermoplastic. It comes in a large variety of finishes and designs and can be easily cut with a utility knife, which makes installation fairly straight forward. It can be fastened to the wall with adhesive or double-sided tape. The one drawback of this product is that it cannot be used behind a stove, although it is said to be suitable for an installation above the stove.
So there you have it. Façade, fasade. Tomato, tomahto. Never thought I was going to get any mileage out of that!
Joseph
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