Monday 20 July 2009

Oh la la ... it's a beauty

Randall, a furniture designer based in Chicago, finally gets round to finishing girlfriend Seena's renovations. This post will feature Seena's bathroom countertop. Later today will be Randall's other hack, a set of Grono lamps.

He says, "Her Condo in downtown Chicago is one that she has occupied way before The Donald (as in Trump) ever laid eyes upon her neighbor to the south - The Chicago Sun-Times building, which he has torn down to build a major skyscraper - and, so when Miss Seena started to actually rehab her tiny Condo - the Economic Crisis started to weaken The Banks confidence in Real Estate resulting in her Construction Loan (Line of Credit) being slashed to next to nothing! So - out went many custom crafted touches- and in went many shopping trips to Ikea.

The results are stunning!

Knowing that the small bathroom had a "width" of only 59"- we set out to scour Ikea's cabinet selection(s) - not just the freestanding Cabinets, not just the Office Solutions, not just the TV stand - but everything, in the entire store was measured and considered to be a possible candidate for an Ikea hack!

How fortuitous, when we put the tape measure to the Torsby!


Exactly (OK - on 1/8" of an inch larger) than we needed.
But what about the internal shelf support?
Won't that be in the way of the plumbing/drain????

Not for an experienced Ikea hacker like the Furniture Designer boyfriend.....(me!).

And - what about the Torsby finish to the top - how will that hold up in a moist bathroom environment? A scrap piece of honed white Corian from a local cabinet maker, helped solve that concern - a piece was cut at 59" by 16" (a 1" overhang in the front) to give a nice detail - as well as a bit more countertop space (we know how girls can use up counter space in a bathroom!)

So working from an elevation drawing I created - we went to work.

After much sweat and tears.....we are almost done- just the tempered glass shower doors and a bit of Corian for baseboard moulding..... and that's all!


Check out Randall's previous hack and studio.

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