Nautilus inspired bathroom (photo heavy)

[Joeynana]

Over the last few months (about six) I have been working on a steampunk bathroom.  I will, through these pages try to do the best I can in showing you so far the job step by step.

This will be a photo heavy post, so please be patient. 

[Joeynana]

So it all started the day our indoor water heater bit the dust and flooded the bathroom and home cinema in our "teenagers retreat".

At last I had my opportunity, now all I had to do was convince my wife... and after nearly a year I got her permission, just as long as I used the Nautilus as a loose inspiration, and I did. It was as close to steampunk as I could get, but since we have a young son, a submarine style bathroom was a perfect compromise.

[Joeynana]

The first thing was to make some designs, spitball ideas and garner a little a help from my friends.



After a thousand similar sketches.
More to show my wife my thoughts rather than anything else (I had this project planned for years so I knew exactly what I was going to do) it was time to start.

[Joeynana]

So the first thing was to pull out the existing bathroom.  With that done came the sudden realization that we had termites.  I had to pull off all the wall panels and replace some noggins, thankfully though they didn't like the taste of the load bearing stuff and a major crisis had been averted.  After our bank balance took the battering of a lifetime getting the pest guys in (in the vicinity of 3000 dollars) the whole project was scaled back.

[Joeynana]

I had revised my plans and went on to create a "bulkhead" style feature wall.

[Joeynana]

After the termite fiasco I could no longer aford the Iris Viewport window and had decided that it will just get the same treatment as the door and wall.



Back to the wall though, the "bulkhead" surround for the door was created with exterior ply, and continued along the wall as a picture rail which was extended toward the ceiling about 2 feet along... only a picture could make sense of that, so here it is.

[Joeynana]

this style was also continued for the cupboard door...



...the only problem was, was that where the "bulkhead" met the exterior corner in the wall it looked funny, with some leftover skirtingboard from the termites I cut it to length curved the top of it to follow the bulkhead and butted it up along the exterior corner.  This worked better than I had planned, it gave it a very solid cast look that made it apear as though it was inbedded into the wall.

[Joeynana]

During the planing stages it was decided that steam pipes would adorn the walls, and after the walls were given their submarine style treatment the pipes were the next thing on the agenda.
I had a play around with various types of pipes, ABS, PVC, Iron, cardboard and wood.  For several reasons we decided we'd use PVC, its cheap, plastic, rigid and easy to work with.

A metal restoring friend of mine took several photos of 100 plus year old iron pipes and I went on to style the PVC to get a close aproximiation as I could.

First of all I created the flanges for the ends (now I know this is a humid environment) but MDF was chosen... I didn't go for the waterproof MDF either because I just didn't like the look of it after it was cut.






I sanded the PVC rough (rough enough to take a paint and the painted on a goop of my own creation (not too unlike Plaster of Paris except for the ingredience)
The goop was roughly and I mean roughly because i'm not going to spill all my secrets here, 48 parts PVA glue, 48 parts warm water and 4 parts agrigates like sand and sawdust.



this was left to cure for around 24 hours and then a Zinc heavy primer was used to paint it, This paint was runny and filled in all the little gaps and crevices left by the textured goop, it would then also alow me to paint a water based acrilic paint over the top.
Still wet.


Dry.

[Joeynana]

This required no more than to be glued to the wall... The product of choice here was no more nails (of course)



This particular pipe runs low from the ceiling, and another pipe will run over the top.  The reason for this is so we can hide a very non submarine/steampunk fluro light behind it.



The top pipe continues along the feature wall and over the door, this also acts in place of proper cornice on these walls.

[Joeynana]

I had a weeks holiday up my sleave and I took it.  During this time came what has so far been the most fun, I made all the wall furniture (toilet paper roll holder, towel rail etc. etc.)
This was easy to do too, it was made using pre cut galvanized theaded pipe, flanges and nipples.

Robe Hooks


Toilet Paper Roll Holder


Towel Rail


Cupboard Door Handle

[Joeynana]

Then as if he had planned it on purpose my closest friend has his birthday.  I took a weekend out of my bathroom schedule to make him a "i've been sooking for the last year for a chess board" chess set.

[Danbury Shakes]

Joeynana, this looks brilliant.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

I like your treatment of the PVC pipes - they look as if they're cast iron with various noxious liquids pumping through.

[Joeynana]

Danbury, as I get to it in this forum you'll see these pipes take on a whole new life.

[Joeynana]

The cupboard door gets it's proper makeover.  I wanted to keep with a Victorian theme here however everything i designd just didn't seem to work, plus it's a "faux" brace, it needs to look functional for the illusion to work.  Once again Trav' (my metal restoring friend) came through with the goods, some photos of 150 year old door bracing from the sugar mills around the town.  Even then the KISS principle was evident, with that I went to work.

As luck would have it, and somewhat on purpose too, the area where the flanges of the handle sit create a great Victorian-esque appearance.  Once again only a picture could make sense of that, so here they are.

[bigbadbritishwolf]

wow you have crawled into my mind i work with flanged ductile fittings all day and this is what i think of scary

[Musist]

Looks great so far, well done.

What are you using for all those 'rivets'?

Regards, S

[Joeynana]

The faux brace was glued to the door using a few dabs of no-more-nails and a liberal spray of construction contact adhesive and then painted with an undercoat.



the handle put back on...



... and then put back in place to await it's colour.

[Joeynana]

Musist.  An explination on rivets will come later in the post.  In reality while they are up in these photos, they were not at this point of the build. They came soon after and while doing the cupboard door.

A brief explination though is that holes were drilled in the paneling and a pine cover button (little wooden mushroom, incase they have a different name in your country) glued in.

[Joeynana]

It was now time to put in the pre-cut (by me and my trusty jigsaw) skirtingboards.   It was at this point I started to feel sorry for my wife who I realised would be the primary cleaner of this room.



It was also when most of the "rivets" went in.
I wanted a perfect alignment for the rivets so that each one would be the same distance from the next, the rivets had to meet up with the picture rail and also where the picture rail extends to the ceiling (ALL THE SAME DISTANCE APART) this just about turned my brain to mushy tofu, here I was thinking it would be easy... but alas my dreams dashed for the day and I went to bed unable to sleep, however as my wife recalls it I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow only to awake at 2am from a dream i'm sure had me and a scantily clad Sandra Bullock in. 

EUREKA I had figured it out and I went to work then and there measuring and drilling only finishing when the rest of the family got up and had breakfast.
This took a long time... weeks in fact, considering at this point i'm well and trully off my holidays and work takes up a great deal of my time.



As you can see for the window the rivets are not the same distance apart, to do so would have had me working in millimetres and my sanity over this job was already lost to a four year old that thought it would be funny to swing off our flat screen T.V bracket. (it survived, so did my son... just)

[k-9]

can i say WOW  nice work cant wait to see the end product good job

[Joeynana]

With the rivets in place, it was then time for a litlle experiment in making it look well worn.



I used real iron paint for this effect.

[Prof_Von_Grumbleflick]

I'm only commenting here so that I get a notification as new posts turn up.

Fantastic work. I'd have my entire house done out like this if I could.

[Mr Addams]

I'm only commenting here so that I get a notification as new posts turn up.

Fantastic work. I'd have my entire house done out like this if I could.

I used to do that.
It took me a long while to realise that the "NOTIFY" tab at the bottom of the page did the same thing.

I too am eagerly awaiting the next set of pictures for Nemo's Bathroom.

May I suggest a "Nemo Rifle" from the disney film hung at the head of the tub, in case of an emergency.
You can find instructions for making an inexpensive replica HERE.

[Danbury Shakes]

however as my wife recalls it I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow only to awake at 2am from a dream i'm sure had me and a scantily clad Sandra Bullock in.  

EUREKA I had figured it out and I went to work then and there measuring and drilling only finishing when the rest of the family got up and had breakfast.

My I ask, exactly what were you measuring on Sandra Bullock that cracked the riveting problem?

The more I see of your bathroom the more I think that Captain Nemo would be more than happy to stroll into it with his morning paper.

[Prof_Von_Grumbleflick]

I used to do that.
It took me a long while to realise that the "NOTIFY" tab at the bottom of the page did the same thing.

It does? Cool! Worth remembering, thanks!