The Smallest Room In the House

It's finally safe to go into the men's room.

After almost a year of on-again, off-again remodeling, the downstairs men's room (the one right off the commercial kitchen) is completely* finished. From the nasty, claustrophobic, little den that it was, it's now a bright, inviting... uh, men's room.

If you recall, we couldn't decide whether to save the wine-label "wallpaper" that was covering the entire room from top to bottom. In the end, we removed some of it and covered the rest. So the wine labels are still in there somewhere; they're just not on display anymore. We resurfaced all four walls (and the ceiling) with fresh new water-resistant drywall. The plumbing got pulled out and updated, both in the walls and under the floor; the electrical conduit got removed and the wires hidden appropriately; the oak floor got refinished; the ventilation fan got replaced; the ceiling light got swapped out; and all-new porcelain fixtures went in. In short, it's an all-new room in the same place as the old room.

Kathy went to work on the painting, adding almost as many colors as on the outside of the house. The bead board on the lower half is gloss black, the upper half of the walls is gray, and she hand-painted a series of horizontal black, red, and gray stripes around the top of the walls to visually lower the ceiling a bit. The room is actually higher than it is wide, so making it appear shorter is a good thing.

We found the tiniest sink we could fit into the corner, with an equally small faucet. The door still swings into the room and wants to hit the sink, so we mounted a permanent doorstop on the floor to prevent customers from inadvertently smashing the sink. I've still got to come up with some kind of lock for the door; the existing vintage lock mechanism might be confusing for people to operate.

We kicked around a lot of ideas for decorating the room. What colors do we want? What kind of decorations? Should we hang pictures, display old pieces of hardware, or leave the walls bare? In the end, Kathy found a group of vintage racing car photos that we framed and hung on each wall. They're big and oversized, and look great. I'm a fan. And the black/white photos, gray paint, red stripes, and black molding all look good against the stained hardwood floor. Our first public restroom is open for business!

*Well, almost. We need to add a small shelf to hold the hand soap and some paper towels. I give it another year.