Purchasing the Products

One thing I knew for sure is that I did not want a traditional vanity in my new powder room.  What I didn't know is how hard it would be to find a piece of furniture that would accomodate a sink, be the right height, and fit into the 42" space allowed by the plan. I'm pretty familiar with the shops that sell used furniture and I hit them all. One of these shops might have that piece next week or next month but I was not waiting until they did. I was ready to go now.

I finally found this piece that was scheduled for an auction.  I could have waited 3 days for the auction and possibly gotten it for less....or more, depending.  But I had a bird in the hand and I was not going to risk it.

Next mission was to find a sink that would fit and a faucet as well.  I lucked out by checking online.  I found this sink on Amazon and had it within three days.  It is an undermount and with some slight adjustments to the furniture piece (fingers crossed) it will drop into the space behind the top two drawer faces.  That nasty necessity called a drain pipe will eat up a little more of my drawer space.  In this case, I didn't have an argument.

(sorry, forgot to take a picture of the faucet before I dropped it off to be fitted for the cutout in the countertop)
 I bought locally because I wanted to see the finish (brushed nickle) and I also wanted to be able to exchange it easily if we ran into problems.   The faucet will have to be mounted to the right of the sink because there is just not enough room to place it in the traditional location.  That really doesn't bother me as I'm nontraditional when it comes to decorating.

Next task was to find a material for the counter top.  I knew I wanted a solid surface material.  Because of the sink cutout I was looking for something with a consistent pattern rather than the randomness of some granite pieces.

 After some debating I chose a quartz called Kenai by Viatera.  I found it early in my search and ended up coming back to it in the end.

The floor tile was the easiest choice of all.  I found it at the first tile shop I visited and knew it was "the one."  Although I need very little for this small room, it was nice to find a tile at a reasonable price. (Made me feel a little better about spending more than I wanted to on the quartz.)  It is a 1x1 inch tile by Mediteranea called Hera.

I was pretty sure I wanted a chandelier for the lighting.  I recieved a tip about a liquidation sale at an electrical supply and repair shop and dashed over to check it out.  I was given a pretour through the warehouse...well, where you could squeeze through.  It was/is jammed packed with what you would expect: bulbs, lampshades, lamps, boxes and boxes of light fixtures, and then a multitude of lighting in various states of disrepair. 

It was tough to restrain myself when items like this were begging for my TLC.

This one caught my eye and I still love, love, love it but...during price negotiations, I had them bring it down where I could see it better.  The wiring was brittle and breaking and not a rewire I was willing to tackle.  The price was already a little steep and tacking on the cost of rewiring was too much for me to swallow.

I found something much simpler, newer and cheaper.

It is a swag light but it will be converted to hang from the ceiling and light with a wall switch.  The plan is to add a few crystal prisms.  More on the outcome of that later.

With these purchases behind me I was now ready to select the finish for the vanity.  That will be in my next post.