POWDER ROOM DRAMA

 HOW TO FIX A LEAKY SITUATION

This particular powder room had an unforeseen problem we had to tackle. The original bathroom had hand-painted vertical striped walls on three sides in pretentious gold tones, already a mistake . Everyone knows vertical stripes will make a room look taller but smaller and horizontal stripes will make a room appear more gracious. In a small room the latter wider look is more preferable. You want it to feel larger not smaller. I know, in fashion these results have a very different appeal: taller is better and too much horizontal junk in the trunk is a no-no. The second flaw in these golden stripes also made you feel a little like you had walked in to a circus tent and the room was going to expect some sort of performance. Yet the walls were the easy problem, the obvious in your face problem with an easy solution, but the wall stripes weren't the biggest problem.

The bigger problem was the one you couldn't see. It was a hidden problem that our client didn't find out until after they purchased the place. The original owner had hung a huge wall-to-wall mirror over the sink and toilet that unfortunately covered access to the building's plumbing line. This they failed to disclose. It wasn't until the apartment above them had some construction work that required their water to be turned off that the new owners, our clients, found out about this hidden problem. Every time there was a plumbing problem in this vertical line of the building's apartments that required the water to be shut down this mirror would have be taken down so the main cutoff valve could be turned off. Because of the tight fit of the mirror stretching edge to edge and the sheer weight of this gold gilt beveled mirror coupled with the problem of having to lift the mirror up over the sink faucets without nicking the ceiling or cracking the mirror it would took four men from maintenance to wrangle the mirror off the wall and then get it back on its Z clips once the water was ready to be turned back on. No one was happy about this process.

We came up with a solution of three smaller mirrors instead of one. A simple and obvious solution to us but one no one else had thought of.

Now it only takes one guy with two good arms to take the mirror down from the upper left-hand corner and put it back on its hook after something has gone amiss with the plumbing requiring the water supply to be turned off. The building's crew is forever grateful with this solution and the client is equally delighted
The big mirror has now made it to the bedroom where it can rest without ever having to come down.