Mark my words: In 20 years, today's vessel sinks — invariably black, white, silver or transparent and, to me, resembling giant cereal bowls — will suffer the same fate as the pink models of the fifties and sixties did a couple of decades ago. That is, they will be unceremoniously ripped out as homeowners cry, "Oh, how very early 2000s!"
So, to save future buyers of my home that trouble, I've decided to install an example of the earlier style in my upcoming bathroom renovation.
My quest for a pink sink (or turquoise or mint green or canary yellow) has been difficult, which was to be expected since it's currently a powder room pariah. With my fingers aching from e-mailing every architectural salvage place in Southern Ontario and my ears numb from phone calls beginning with "You want a what?!?," I'd almost given up hope of finding one.
First, I crossed long-time retailer Addison's Inc. off my list (the store had exactly what I wanted but the fixture had a crack), then the Habitat for Humanity ReStores (they reject coloured sinks as a rule), Mr. Used in Hamilton and about a half dozen others. At that point, my wife, Shauntelle — a dear, sensitive soul — tried to convince me that our dead stock 1960s Italian mosaic tiles in various shades of green — procured from an architect who knows an architect who happened to buy out a warehouse before it went belly up — could now take centre stage.
Top, The inspiration: An image from Retro Housewife: A Salute to the Suburban Superwoman, by Kristin Tillotson, (Collectors Press, 2004). Below, the current bathroom, and a sketch of the reno plan.
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But I knew differently. That would be like asking a theatre audience to appreciate the sets more than the actors — and you'd have to have a pretty bad play on your hands for that to happen. I don't want to perform my daily ablutions as a dime store Shakespeare, I want my sink to have the starring role.
Why is colour shunned in the kitchens and bathrooms of the early 21st century? Like the 1950s, we live in an optimistic, economic boom time with an underlying threat — Cold War then, global warming now — that makes the positives all the more poignant. The difference is that, back then, there was a lot more cheer in home decor colour schemes. Refrigerators were pink, cars were two-tone turquoise and cream, and bathrooms were often multihued. I wonder why automobiles, appliances and bathroom fixtures today are white, black or silver, and what that says about our society?
In any case, after exhausting the retail angle, I gave the popular Web-classifieds Craigslist a shot (www.toronto.craigslist.ca). While it hasn't turned up anything concrete yet, it has restored my faith in humanity: People really want to help each other. Within hours, I had a few people willing to sell me their vintage treasures. Unfortunately, on offer were the wall-mount variety and/or the wrong colour (I'm looking specifically for a vanity drop-in model with the stainless-steel band), but I did get tips on other retailers to call. The hunt was back on.To backtrack, I suppose I wouldn't be in my pink pickle if the nice lady who sold us our little 1961 Scarborough backsplit hadn't renovated the kitchen and bathroom in the 1980s. If the original tile and fixtures were extant, we'd have welcomed them with open arms, as we did with the rest of the house, which hadn't been remodelled much over the decades. Then again, since my love of postwar architecture and design knows no bounds, it would have been painful ripping out the water-hogging toilet for a new low-flow model or the dribbly showerhead for a sleek high-pressure unit.
As it happens, creating a retro-themed bathroom with my wife (an interior designer) has been much more fun, since it has forced us to marry the two worlds. In addition to the pink sink "star," with the green glass tile in a supporting role, we're having fun choosing a new toilet, tub and shower controls.In addition, Shauntelle is drawing up plans for storage millwork for this diminutive 50-square-foot room, which will include a display area for our small collection of vintage electric shavers. For lighting, I've got some grey glass pendants that I believe once swung in the foyer of the architectural offices of Page and Steele on St. Clair Avenue West. (I rescued them during an interior gut job.) And there's the possibility of raising the ceiling height — we'll know for sure once demolition begins at the end of the month.
Although a little worried at our retro ways, our contractor, Brilliant by Design's Aresh Katirai, is raring to go. And I'm so raring that if I could get him to come over any sooner I would, since not only are our tacky gold-toned, Dynasty-era faucets starting to malfunction, we're beginning to feel dirtier when we leave the bathroom then when we entered.
As Shauntelle likes to say, it'd be a perfect water closet for a fallen-on-hard-times Alexis Carrington Colby, but it's not befitting an upwardly mobile couple of mid-mods such as ourselves.
And while I've got a few really good leads on the pink sink, it's not in my hot little hands yet, so check this space in four to six weeks when I'll report back on the finished renovation. If I come up empty, I may find myself in line at the big-box store, staring down at a modern, non-pink cereal bowl in the shopping buggy, waiting for its close-up.
The hunting grounds
Addison's Inc., 41 Wabash Ave., Toronto. 416-539-0612
Happy Harry's Used Building Materials, 4128 South Service Rd., Burlington. 905-631-0990 or www.happyharry.com
Builder's Bazaar, 180 Burnhamthorpe Rd. West, Oakville. 905-257-9070
Triple M Demolition, 1440 Colborne St. East, Brantford. 519-770-4916
The Salvage Shop, 1492 Kingston Rd., Toronto. 416-469-2557
Habitat for Humanity ReStores. Three in Toronto: 29 Bermondsey Rd., 1120 Caledonia Rd. and 7 Queen Elizabeth Blvd. Visit www.torontohabitat.on.ca
National Building Supplies (the salvage yard of Priestly Demolition Inc.), Sutton West. 905-473-3462, 1-800-665-8351 or www.nabusu.com
Murray Demolition Sales, 345 Horner Ave., Suite 300, Toronto. 416-253-6000, 1-800-565-7054 or www.murraydemolition.com
Mr. Used, 984 Barton St. East, Hamilton. 905-312-8733
Century Olde Salvage, 7615 County Rd. 91, Stayner. 705-428-0493 or www.centuryoldesalvage.ca
Artefacts Salvage & Design, Cedar and Isabella streets, St. Jacobs. 519-664-3760 or www.artefacts.ca
Home Again Recycling Depot, 89 Research Rd., Toronto. 416-467-4663 or www.homeagaininc.com
Legacy Vintage Building Materials & Antiques, 540 Division St., Cobourg. 905-373-0796 or www.legacyvintage.com
Envirosponsible, Whitby. 905-666-2002
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