NOW VOYAGER! / BATHROOM ADVENTURES @ LAND'S END

My apologies 

for taking so long 

to log my 
ADVENTURES 
re: the making and re-makings
of the bathroom

@

LAND'S END

I've no excuse to offer 
other than that there were times I was just too lazy 

and/or uninspired to work on it. 

Inspiration for the bathroom 

came in waves 

but as of today, 
(fingers crossed)

all that's left to do 
is to add the ceiling to the cottage
and then move on to the exterior.  

So without further delay-
let's weigh anchor 
and

 let the Orinoco flow! 

so.... 
Back in March 2020,
 before I began work on the bedroom,
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-long-days-journey-into-night-lands.html 
I took the opportunity of  replacing the bathroom's original wallpaper 
 to what you see above.
Both the bedroom wallpaper and the bathroom wallpaper, were glued 
end to end onto a single template,
then 
that template was glued onto the exterior wall.

The bathroom wallpaper also needed to be installed onto the interiors of all the connecting walls before I could finish the bedroom,
and the kitchen.
It was only after I'd completed both of the other rooms, 
that I took a long, hard look at the effect of the vertical stripes on all 3 of the bathroom walls. 

The space felt like a shoebox
very tall and narrow, and the skinny vertical stripe accentuated its "elevator-look" even more.

After thinking over what to do and where to begin,
I decided the best course of action was to break up the vertical stripes with some "cottagey"wainscotting, 
similar to what's in the living room.
In hindsight,
it would have been better to have installed it as shiplap 
but that's now water under the bridge. 

 I made 3 wall templates using cereal boxes and proceeded to glue coffee stir sticks to the card.
I made the wainscotting higher on the back wall than on the sides,
just as I'd done in the living room; 
but because of the protrusions of the  2 channel supports which I needed to use to stabilize the interior walls, 
it caused the wainscotting to stop short of the corners
which presented an additional design problem for me,
of how to tie the panels in.    

I didn't want to paint over the dark wood
nor did I want to paint the wainscotting panels dark,
so I postponed making any decisions
 until all the wainscotting was finished. 

The Bathroom door(s):

It had taken me a while to finally go with a split door (minus a threshold) 
rather than with a single one. 
These doors proved to be more difficult to install
 than the bedroom door had been.  
Very Frustrating! 
Even so,
it resulted in additional usable floor space 
inside this tall skinny space
 which was worth the extra effort. 

TUBS: 
I have at least 4 different styles of miniature tubs in my drawer of bathroom fittings. 
I've been finding them here and there,
usually in the toy department of thrift stores.

 Some are in decent shape and some are not. 
I decided to use this ceramic one 
because I think it suits the style of this cottage. 

The interior of the tub is rather crude.
And even with some sanding it's only just 
"OKAY"
which is Ideal for Land's End!

  The toy sink and toilet pictured below
are also from the thrift store. 

And although they're obviously a set,
 the toilet is puny next to the  HUGE bathroom sink so 
I jetisoned the toilet 
and only used the sink 
which was not only the right size 
but the right vintage style too! 

It was easy to unsnap the sink from its backing, 
and cut away the support brackets
 from the body of pink plastic.  

As work on the bathroom continued,
I eventually cut the brackets down to their bare minimum and painted them black 
which you'll see later on in this post.

In the meantime...

 The toilet I decided to use
 came from the candy section of a dollar store with lollipops sticking out of the hole at the top of the tank and a bowl full of sour powder. 
The lollipops were Yummy but the powder 
was chucked overboard!  - YUK! 

And because the light passed through the plastic,
 I ended up painting the insides of the plastic with a couple of coats 
of white chalk paint as well as black acrylic paint 
for more opacity 
and it worked! 

I've covered the hole on top of the tank with a little pan which Janine had given me and filled it with a colourful collection of tiny sea shells.

I still have to decide on an flush handle but this is how it looks so far. 
By the way,
the lid opens and closes 
but there's no seat over the bowl
and I can't be bothered making one
for a lid I'll never lift. 

Because the style of this toilet 
is more modern than vintage, 
I went online and ordered a vintage looking one 
and will wait to see which one looks best: 
but in the interim;
 this one will do. 

I'll also mention 
the addition of a shelf on the back wall.

Adding the shelf and the nail hooks,
was instrumental in determining 
the final layout of the bath fittings, 
because in order to easily access 
the hooks and the shelf; 
I needed to move the tub to the side wall.

In order to put a mirror over the sink
I needed enough wall space above it 
which by default
 left the toilet under the bathroom window 
and 
 directly in front of the bathroom doors: 
not an ideal location for a toilet
 in my estimation, 
but hey!
"them's the breaks".

I didn't realize at the time I was installing the doors, 
that the toilet would end up in front of it, 
but
I'd intentionally installed the door opening
 in line with the window
 so that when you look through
there's a view staight into the kitchen 
from the outside;


here's the view from the outside the bathroom window-IN:  

And from the inside the bathroom -OUT

LIGHTING:

For the overhead lighting 
I was going to go with the lantern
but I felt that the light was too dim and yellow. 

I ended up making one 
from brass tubing; a white plastic ball and assorted bead caps

I threaded the wires through an overhead beam and hooked them up to a transformer to see if I liked it and I DO!
 Later on, in the build
 I shortened the brass tube by 1/2 inch  
to raise the fixture higher.

As the bathroom began acquiring a personality;
 I was taking more and more pictures. 

It was as I was looking at the following one,
 that I thought about adding more shelves




Obviously, I needed a place for storing
 towels, bath products, photos 
and other related items 
AND 
I had all this available vertical wall space! 


At first I tried an enclosed cupboard shelf unit
which looked top heavy as well as impractical.

I felt that the shelves should be open and simple, 
so I made some with tongue depressors,
 and stained them brown to tie in 
with the support beams in the corners. 

 I didn't like it that much

and although the green towels fit; 
they didn't look good either.  
So-
 I painted the shelves in a watery, 
off-white chalk paint; 
enough to cover the wood stain 
 but not completely obliterate it. 

Then I glued the shelf unit 
onto the wall and began searching through my stash to find better towels and other cool stuff
 to place on the shelves. 


I spent the next few days trying out different combinations 
until I could get most of what I wanted, 
on display,
after which I continued editing and tweaking and photographing it.   

It wasn't long before I decided I wanted
to add a light to the corner of the bottom shelf,
so I found one I'd saved in my stash, 
which had suffered severe damage during
those infamous"garage" days.

It used to be a shiny hanging lamp fixture,
 but 12 years of neglect in my damp garage 
had corroded the metal so badly that it literally 
fell apart in my hands.
Nevertheless, 
it was precisely because of all of its green rust 
that I'd held onto it, 
and I was determined to find a way to reuse it.

I carefully unthreaded the fragile wiring from the lamp housing,
 and then removed 
any left over crumbling bits of metal.  

Then I reglued the main housing back together 
and rethreaded the wires back in. 

In my stash of light fixtures
I found a white plastic chimney  
and slid it over the bulb;
then 
I turned the unit upside down and sat it on the shelf.
 I fed the wires from the back of the lamp 
out through a tiny hole 
drilled through the exterior wall- 
"And then there was Light!"

It totally opened up the visibility of the items on 
 the shelves! 

HAPPY HAPPY DANCING!!! 
Arrrrggg! 

 At This Stage
the shelves were glued in 
but not the
 wainscotting panels.
Even so,
I continued busily decorating the entire bathroom
as if they were-
talk about
a commitment phobia!

With the shelves done ,
it was over to the sink side...




I found a loose bit of Chrysonbon plastic plumbing
which perfectly fit the underside 
of the thrift store sink; 
it was as if they'd been made for each other!
Still not sure about the mirror 
however,
 I remain confident that the right mirror will 
eventually turn up.

Progress is being made
and I'm taking more photos!

So
as I'm looking at the shelf and the light fixture,
 I'm thinking that that corner still needs something...

I LOVE the light but it's hard to photograph
 and now I want something to soften it,
without changing it. 

I decided that the shelves needed a draping plant.
Specifically a 
PLASTIC PLANT! 


I happened to have a set of scrapbook stickers of ivy which looked 50's vintage. 
I'd been pondering how to use 
ever since I got them. 

For my fake ivy
I peeled the stickers off the backing and stuck them onto thin Japanese calligraphy paper.

below you can see 
the clear plastic outline of the stickers

I cut out the ivy vines 
from the surrounding materials.   

using a felt pen, I painted the paper backings of the leaves with the green marker and the vines in brown.

Then I took lengths of fine beading wire and glued the wire to the underside of the vines.
If I'd been thinking ahead, I would have glued the wire in between the paper and the sticker FIRST,
but this way worked equally as well. 

this is the glue I used for the wire

By gluing the wire to the back of the vines I was able to drape the stems better.

I left a length of wire at the tops of each vine
so that I could insert them into a container, 
 on the top shelf.

 the shelf is too high to easily reach, 
 which explains why the ivy in the bathroom 
needed to be plastic. 

below is the pitcher of plastic ivy
draping down

and down...
and down ... 

providing a thin "living" veil 
in front of the light fixture
which 
 visually softens each of the shelves 
as well. 

and What's On The Shelves you ask?

Let me show you! 

Next to the lamp are the ancestral photos 
of The Captain as a boy and then as a young man. 
The photos share the space with a treasured 
heirloom vanity set
which the Captain had brought home for his wife 
after one of his extensive ocean voyages.

The china is English and Beautifully hand-painted 
with delicate lily-of-the-valley flowers.

(this was an indulgent Ebay purchase I made 
without any regrets!)

Next to the china is a glass jar of shell soaps
( nail appliques ordered from china)
Next to the soaps 
are the toiletries of man of the house
consisting of
 aftershave;
deodorant spray; 
soap on a rope;
liniment and cotton balls
These reside in a shallow box closest to the sink. 

On the middle and top shelves above the china,
are stacks of assorted linen
and  fluffy white cotton towels
tied with string or pale blue ribbons. 
You can find my easy towel tutorial here: 
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2013/03/throwing-in-towel.html

The middle shelf holds the towels and 
a fancy millefiori bottle 
and a gold lidded glass jar-  
( two buttons glued together 
topped with a filigree bead cap) 

At this stage, 
I decided it was time to
quit stalling and
 glue the wainscotting onto the walls-
About time! 

Here's a quick tour of the lower sections of the bathroom walls.

As I mentioned earlier,
on the back wall of beneath the shelves is
 a strip of wood with the nail pegs imbedded 
for hanging wet towels onto.
There's also 
a basket of Victoria Bliss magazines
next to 
a hot water bottle and a bath brush; 
and an ornamental life preserver.

The hot water bottle and back brush 
are painted
Chrysonbon pieces
and the life preserver
was in my stash.

I should also mention 
that by now I'd painted the tub and the underside of the sink with black acrylic paint 
followed with a couple of coats 
of a blue Quick Dry acrylic enamel 
which stubbornly refused to set-
Quite Maddening!
Eventually the paint did dry but not until after 
 my fingerprint impressions were imbedded in the paint- ARGGGGH! >/<

To try and fix(disguise) it
 I tried lightly sanding 
then aging the blue paint
which was somewhat successful.

Also,
because the inside of the tub
is a yellowish/white
and the inside finish of the sink is brighter,
 I began
dirtying up the inside of the sink to lessen the contrast between the two fixtures
but the truth is that they'll never match, 
so 
the back story is that
the fitting of this cottage were reclaimed salvage
 which have been replaced piecemeal 
as necessary.

But years of normal wear and tear
have taken their toll and 
the once fresh paint is plainly showing its age.
But as long as they still function, 
the owners are keeping them.

To dress up the old tub,
I made a bath tray from a section of white picket fencing.

 and here's the stuff I've put on it. 

There's a shampoo bottle and a lidded jar; 
a basket of two soaps made from a green eraser and some Japanese silicone putty. 
Next to the soaps are  
 an emery board and a loofah.   


Here's how I made the shampoo bottle

I used a toothpick with a brush attachment
 for cleaning between your teeth, 
which were purchased from a dollar store.
I removed the brush and cut down the rest 
with a box cutter.

I used nail decals 
to add interest to the front of the bottle
and painted the top with black nail polish,
before gluing it to the bath shelf.

For the tub's taps and faucet,
I began with a pair of screw back earrings 
similar to the one pictured above.

I cut off all the surplus metal from the screw posts.

I used a piece of soft soldering metal to form a faucet and glued a sliver of hollow plastic tubing 
to one end 
and a flat bead spacer onto the other end. 

I painted all 3 units with a metallic nail polish for uniformity.

When they were dry,
I glued them onto the wall.

The collection of bath toys are there for when the grandchildren come over on the weekends. 
Hey Birgit! 
 do you remember giving me the rubber duck
on the right for Christmas? ❤️




 THE SINK

The taps on the sink came from Miniatures.com which are newer looking than the old sink 
and 
I thought it would bug me more than it does, 
but I'm okay with it.

A BIGGER Dilema for me was
 was what to use for a mirror.

I tried lots of different styles: circles, ovals, rectangular shapes; 
framed and unframed 
and finally settled on this large round one 
primarily
because I had lots of these PORTHOLE frames
AND because
I had an old compact mirror 
which happened to be the right diameter.  

Initially I left the chain on
 but because the frame's hung 
with its backside forward, 
the mirror refused to lay flat against the wall
 and required lots of blue tack to keep it straight. 

SO
in the end
I removed the chain

But after I'd removed the chain
I was left with a hole in the wallpaper 
where the nail had been
 and it was right where you could see it! 
SO HOW COULD I FIX IT? 

I ended up adding a light fixture over the bathroom mirror to cover the hole.

I'd debated a long time
 on whether or not to put a light over the sink and now I had no choice. 
I'd tried out 2:
one I made and one I'd ordered
and went with the one I'd made.

In keeping with the salvage restoration theme, 
I ran an electrical conduit up from the base of the lamp so that I could eventually feed the wire up and out through the roof.

This lamp is actually pretty rough looking and 
after I'd made it I was going to scrap it because I didn't like the look of how I'd wrapped the wires around the curvy frame.
WHY WHY WHY?

I had painted the fixture numerous times 
trying to disguise 
"the ugly"
wires 
but nothing worked and the successive layers of paint made the problem worse! 
 Even so
 I went with it anyway; 
ugly and all. 

Actually
adding a light over the mirror 
 was a good idea
not only for its practicality but also 
 because it balanced out the light on the shelf. 


and it seems that given enough time-
even ugly will grow on you! 

I made some daisies for the bathroom sink 
but I'm not happy with the vase,
so I ended up changing it.  

On the narrow ledge to the right of the mirror,
I added a fragrance bottle and
a lipstick which Linda Park gave me a couple of years ago, 
along with 
a bottle of pink nail polish which I made from a couple of beads. 

A bathrobe hangs from a nail in the door. 

Now skipping over to the loo! 

As I've said at the beginning

I may end up changing out the toilet for an older model 

but it happens to be as white as the sink

which makes it acceptable.

Janine's shabby pan has made a nice container

 for assorted  shells

                               

Fatima's jar of blue hydrangeas grace the wall above.

And on the other side of the window, 
is a collection of fleamarket art consisting of:
vintage floral painting on hardboard 
(cut from a magazine);
a nautical map ( another magazine cut out);
an empty carved square frame
and a blue and white plate which I won
in a Ebay lot of assorted kitchenwares.  

There were 2 plates included in the lot, one you've already seen above the side table in the bedroom.
https://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-long-days-journey-into-night-lands.html  
Both are signed but remained unidentified 
until a couple of weeks ago when I saw 2 similar plates listed on Ebay.
The initials on the backs were the same as the 2  
I had.
I was THRILLED to learn that my plates were by 
 Ellen Krucker Blauer
In case you're not familiar with her name,
Ellen Krucker Blauer and her husband John,
were owners of San Francisco's
 The Miniature Mart 
back in the early 70's and 80's. 
They were avid collectors and talented miniaturists, 
as well as regular contributor to
the Nutshell News magazine.

I was relatively new to the miniature world 
in the mid-seventies 
and a total devote to Nutshell News, 
which is how I knew who Ellen Krucker Bleauer was. 
When my husband and I took a late honeymoon trip to San Francisco 
I wanted to go to their store SO BAD!!!! 
but we didn't have enough time or enough money;  
my how things change...
I loved my plates prior to my knowing who made them and even more so now 
because of all the mini nostalgia 
attached to them. 

re: WHAT'S ON DECK: 
Down on the warm cork floor between the sink and the tub,
is a striped cotton area rug with a pair of slippers made from bent pipe cleaners, 
trimmed with bunka and
 lined with paper. 

A basket of dirty laundry sits in the right corner under the sink
along with a weathered blue stool. 
It took several tries before I was happy with the paint finish on the stool
  which looks neither too old or too new.



So there it is -
and  
now you've seen everything!

but here it is all over again ...

and Now Voyager, 
  you've journeyed through the bathroom 
and have arrived at your destination.

 watch your step as you disembark 
and 
please come again soon!

Arrrrggh! 

⚓️




elizabeth

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