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March 27, 2009
Retile your ancient treasures
How to recycle antique furniture into a usable sink.
MICHELLE DODEK
Everyone has a sentimental piece of furniture passed down from someone that is now sitting somewhere but doesn't really belong. I had a sewing machine cabinet.
The cabinet belonged to my baba, my maternal grandmother. She was a huge part of my life until she died at 93 and, when she was gone, I was happy to receive this part of her life. Although she began wearing commercially manufactured T-shirts at some point, most of her outfits were always something she had knitted or sewn herself. This cabinet that had held her old Singer resonated with me after her death but, in truth, was a useless piece of furniture.
I have a sewing machine, but its modern shape and size defy this sleek cabinet. My husband was skeptical that I could reuse the cabinet, but I decided to turn it into a new washroom vanity for our powder room when we renovated our house this year.
I looked into all sorts of vanity surfaces, including a granite or marble slab that would accommodate a gorgeous vessel sink. There are so many lovely fixtures on the market, it's very hard to decide. The more I looked, the more confused I became – until I really considered who would be using this sink.
There is only one washroom on our main floor, so the sink needed to be useful for my children, aged two and a half and almost four. This meant a vessel sink was impractical: it was beautiful, yes, but too hard to reach. Without the vessel, however, the interior size of the cabinet limited my choice of sink. Given the constraints of size and shape, as well as the seemingly ridiculous cost to have a stone top manufactured for this small piece, I came to the conclusion that a mosaic tile top was the way to go.
My creative desire was about to be satisfied and fused with my frugal nature. By doing it myself, I thought I would save so much I could get the coolest tiles around. I saw recycled glass tiles made in California that dazzled me. They were so beautiful, I fell in love instantly. Then I discovered that these amazing tiles were more than $70 per square foot. My project required 11 square feet. An outrageous sum!
I found reasonable irridescent glass mosaic tiles on the Internet. They were so reasonable that I ordered enough to retile my fireplace surround as well. The online store in the United States shipped the tiles to Seattle, where my father-in-law picked them up for me. They were perfect.
Most mosaic tiles come on a fibreglass mesh backing in one-square-foot sheets. This makes them very quick and easy to install. Careful planning will ensure that the spacing works out just right and the tiles don't need to be cut when working on large areas such as a fireplace surround. Although the preparation of the fireplace was time consuming, the installation took less than five hours, including grouting. My sister was a huge help with laying the tiles because sometimes four hands are immeasurably better than two.
The vanity top, however, was a solo job. After I had the plywood top cut at my local lumber yard, I made a template of the undermount sink I'd bought and cut out the oval opening with my saber saw. I laid out the entire design for the top on an identical piece of plywood and, after many redesigns, I settled on my plan and prepared my top.
First, I laid down a layer of fibreglass cloth on the plywood. I adhered the cloth with a black goo creatively called Tile Waterproofing Membrane. I was sure to wrap the fibreglass around the opening for the sink to prevent future rot problems. When that dried, I used thin-set mortar, a kind of cement, to set the tiles. I also had lots of thin-set left from the fireplace, which requires a fireproof adhesive like this cement product.
Thin-set is heavy and messy to work with, but it dries slowly so I had time to set each individual tile carefully into its place. The key is to be sure not to put too much thin-set, to prevent oozing between the tiles that would fill up the area meant for grout. When it dried, it looked bad until I grouted it. Grouting unified the piece, making it come alive. The installation of the sink with a couple of metal straps was straightforward enough for me and the plumber did the rest of the job. For about $650, including everything from the wall mount faucet, sink, tools and tiles, I made a washroom vanity and retiled my fireplace surround. The result is more beautiful than I had hoped for, and Baba's cabinet is now a permanent, treasured fixture in our home.
Michelle Dodek is a full-time mom and her family's part-time handy person.
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