Thursday, December 27, 2018

Vintage Cast-Iron Sink From the Dump

You never know what treasures you'll find at the dump. In Maine, when we lived there, there was a dump store, a shed where people could display their trash that still had life left in it, where people could shop. Here in Henderson, NV, there is no store, but I still like to shop. A few months ago I found this awesome vintage, cast iron, utility sink. I spied it about 1/3 of the way up the huge trash pile. (I'll spare you the long story of how Dave tore his bicep "rescuing" it for me. Let's just say it is VERY heavy and tripping with it in your arms is not a good idea, and leave it at that.) It spent the past few months down in my garden where it would have made a fine potting sink, but I longed for it in the house. So, I decided to move forward and have it installed in our new laundry room, once I clean it up a bit and preserve its awesome vintage patina. It's the perfect combination of industrial meets farmhouse, and is just what my laundry room needs.


My restoration plan is to patch the chipped enamel, scour the bowl and polish it, and scrape down some of the rust on the base and seal it. Whether or not i'll re-paint the outside of the bowl has yet to be determined, but I like the idea of dark green. This vintage model looks very much like the American Standard reproduction utility sink that is sold today, but I love this one more because it has been well loved and withstood the test of time. Imagine all the projects that were cleaned up in this sink over the decades!

I ordered a mounting bracket today, and a porcelain knobbed industrial faucet. Once Carlos patches the walls in the laundry room, they'll be ready for tile, and then, I can install the sink. I plan to get working on it this week. I'll post updated pictures.