My family is concerned with having good hair. I don't mean the way other families are concerned with having good hair, I mean the way other families are concerned with not accidentally setting each other on fire and then eating each others noses.
We're serious about hair. So it makes no sense, as a 3rd generational hair obsessed, that I bought the house that I live in. It has a tiny bathroom with a tiny bathtub, and a tiny medicine cabinet that sits over a tiny sink. If I could leave it at that, it would be dreadful but bearable. But I not only have a tiny sink, I have the most useless of all tiny sinks ... I. Own. A. Pedestal. Sink. Moment of silence.
The bathroom is the last room in my house that needs to be redone and I keep NOT redoing it in the hopes that one day I'll be able to afford to put on a small addition to my house with a real and actual bathroom. If I ever got the chance to do that, I'd completely reconfigure the horrifyingly useless Pedestal Bathroom at the same time so I don't want to put any money into redoing it if in a year or two I'll be gutting it.
I've been thinking this exact thought for the past 16 years. So yeah.
The absolute worst thing about a pedestal sink is there's no storage on it or around it or underneath it. Nowhere. The stupid thing isn't even big enough for a pump bottle of soap to sit on it without slipping and shooting across the room when you use it.
So if there's no room for a bottle of soap, there's definitely no room for the hair obsessed's most coveted item. Our professional grade hairdryer.
I used to have a hair dryer holder that screwed into the wall but it was bulky and ugly so I broke it on purpose.
And then I made a cleaner, neater looking one myself.
Here's how to do it and what you need in 3 easy steps.
Materials:
1, 2.5" PVC coupling (you'll find this in the plumbing aisle)
1, 3X3 white hinge
3, #8 screws
3, 10x24 machine screws -
3, 10x24 nuts
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Total Cost: Around $10.00
STEP 1
Place hinge, centred on PVC coupling and mark where the hinge holes are. Drill holes.
STEP 2
Place the hinge on the PVC coupling and insert the machine screws.
STEP 3
Screw on the nuts.
STEP 4
Screw the other end of the hinge into your wall using #8 screws. Going into wood you can just screw them straight in, if you're going into drywall use anchors.
Now all you have to do is shove in your hairdryer.
Because this is a hinge and it swings open you can either use a bit of 2 way tape to stick the two hinge sides together to keep it from opening or you can use a magnet to keep it together. A bit of glue would work too but not too much because you need to be able to pry it apart fairly easily to access the screws if you ever need to remove it from the wall.
Don't wanna DIY? Then by all means, buy! This chrome hairdryer holder is $13 on Amazon.
Most importantly, if you only remember ONE thing from this DIY, remember to never eat your relatives noses.
Roxanne
When I purchased my cottage 10 years ago the previous owner had redone the entire interior of the cottage including the bathroom. He had placed a pedestal sink. I thought who would do this when ther is only 1 bathroom! The first project I took on was removing the pedestal sink and placing a proper vanity. I also added a linen closet as there was no storage room.
mia pratt
What a great, simple solution to a very annoying and common problem<:} Cool!
Audrey
I hate looking at cords in the bathroom, so when I remodelled ours, I installed a plug inside the cabinet beside the vanity. Now hairdryer and electric toothbrushes stay hidden in there. Each morning when I open that cupboard it make me happy to know I'm a smartie!
Heather Sykora
My husband built a shelf above the sink with a cut out to solve this problem. It looks lovely. It's a half bath, so we don't need to store a hairdryer in it....
I tried attaching a jpeg, but it wouldn't work for me. Not good at this computer stuff
Nancy Blue Moon
Excellent DIY Karen...and quite easy to do!
Kelli
Pedestal sinks are cute, but OH THE HUMANITY if you ever need to hide myriad bathroom items...like wot I have. And apartment living means that drilling into things is a no-no. Sadly, I tend to be a clutterbug, so to compensate, I have over door hooks and cabinet doo-hickies like these everywhere: http://tinyurl.com/j39tg56 They're in my closets, under all my sinks, in the washer/dryer room, kitchen cabinets, you name it. If there's a room door or a cabinet door, it probably has something hanging off it. Those, and anything 'Command Hook' are my apt. life BFFs! I have one similar to one of these for my hair dryer, it's an oldie but a goodie: http://tinyurl.com/zp6ke7t
I like your idea, but I don't know if I could look at something that 'out in the open' for all the world to see. A girl's gotta have a little mystery, y'know? :)
Julie
Well...I have lots of storage for my hairdryer, but you tricked me into thinking we were going to learn to DIY a hairdryer stand. I was thinking how fabulous I would look if I had both hands free to style my hair while the new stand held my hairdryer.
Cowen
Just hang it high enough to stand under
Thera
IKEA has a small shelf thing that goes around the base of pedestal sinks and with adhesive Velcro strips you can make and attach a removable sink skirt (been there, done that and I sympathize)
And I am very fancy with my blow dryer holder, it's a big nail stuck in the wall as most blow dryers have a hoop thing for just that purpose lol
Lynn
Although those sinks have a tendency to look so cute they are rather useless for the modern way of living. We have just to much junk now.
Same goes for outlets in the bathroom, once girls stopped having a dressing vanity in the bedroom an the boys went electric with their shavers outlets went in our bathrooms.
A bathroom was not ment to spent so much time in, that is why it small. Today most want a double sinks an yadyad but why two sinks when it is a space for one at a time. ( I to would like two sinks just cause it would mean my bathroom would be at least 24 inches bigger). I just wouldn't use the 24 inches for a sink , but put more space between tub, toilet an sink cabinet. From the toilet bowl I can reach both tub skirt an sink cabinet with my small hands . Which makes for a small space full bathroom. Plus it is the only one in our house an we raised 2 teenage daughters here. We might like more but we really do not really need more just smarter in how we do what we do . ?
NWms
Funny, I always really wanted a pedestal sink. Instead I have a gigantic monster of a dual sink cabinet thing that houses a bottle of Windex. I don't keep stuff (other than soap) on my sink; I'm not a big on accumulating stuff; and I hate storing things under the sink because I'm always convinced that the minute I put something under there there will be a leak.
I continue my impressive trend of being a the undisputed leader in negative market trends (I also didn't/don't like iPhones, skinny jeans, ombre, gigantic purses that are bigger than my carry on, In-N-Out fries...). You know the commercials that say "4 out of 5 prefer?" Yup. I'm the 1.
Karin Sorensen
woah woah whoah, hold on...... in n out fries??????? telp me! tell me about those in n out fries, i beg ya!
Sue
I loved the way they looked and was so happy when it was installed. Fast forward and I''ve learned my lesson. My gripe about the pedestal sink is cleaning behind it. The half bath this thing is in is teensy and dust etc gets behind the pedestal and mixes with ??? to form grunge. I'm no longer able to get down on the floor (OK I can get down--the getting back UP is the problem) and trying to get that area clean without dislodging the plumbing is a misery.
Bethany Jones
Karen- I don't know the layout of the rest of your bathroom, but would a "between the wall studs" cabinet work? I've seen a lot of tutorials for them and you could get a tall, narrow panel of barn wood or antique cabinet door inset with bead board or something?
Jennie Lee
I originally wanted a pedestal sink, but my plumber looked at me like I was crazy and told me I didn't want one. I have been very happy with the vanity sink I ended up with. The outlet in the bathroom is another matter. When you turn on the bathroom light, the outlet has power. When the light is off, no power. So I have to fetch my electric toothbrush from the charger in the bedroom, before I brush. I have a suggestion to fix the problem mentioned by Ronda. If it IS a problem, that is. Are you familiar with Sugru? It is a heat- and water-resistant moldable adhesive that comes in many colors and turns into rubber in 24 hours. Just make two little balls of Sugru and squish them onto the ends of the bolts. Twenty-four hours later, the scratchy bolt-ends are covered with rubber. White rubber even, if you want. Sugru is awesome!
TucsonPatty
Yes, Sugru is the best! I tell everyone I know about it!
Ev Wilcox
My house is in Ohio, 211 years old. Through the years it has acquired electricity in the bathrooms-thankfully!!! Can't imagine not having it. Guess we are luckier than we thought!
Wonder what our "other" residents think about it. But that's another story....