Over the past decade or so, we’ve had droves of clients looking to have their cabinet vanities replaced with pedestal sinks. Pedestal sinks really have become an “it thing”, enough so that people are now beginning to ask us whether they’re just a passing fad that will make a home appear dated in no time. Without a crystal ball, the answer isn’t simple, but we have a few thoughts on the matter.
Style is ever-evolving. This is true for fashion. This is true for music. This is true for anything that has an aesthetic component to its design—including just about any visible element in a home’s interior, from baseboards to ceiling fans and everything in between. That includes, of course, the bathroom sink. Just as it goes in the worlds of clothing and music, bathroom trends follow a cycle: appearance, peak, decline, resurgence.
Pedestal sinks aren’t making their first appearance. They’re actually experiencing a resurgence. People who’ve lived in older homes may consider that news to be yesterday’s news. But it’s clear from the “Is it just a fad?” question we get about pedestal sinks, not everyone is aware that pedestal sinks were the “it thing” for about a half-century before cabinet vanities took their place. We think this bodes well for people considering them as a bathroom update.
Sound strange to have an “update” that hearkens back a century or so? Think about claw-foot tubs and reclaimed-barnwood floors. Think about Victorian-inspired spigots. Think about the cycle of trends wherever style is concerned: appearance, peak, disappearance, resurgence. In other words, an “it thing” once is bound to be an “it thing” again.
Can a trend be so off-the-wall or so overdone that it gets informally blacklisted by society, put in the vault for generations on end? Sure. We can think of a few avocado-colored appliances who would agree! But only time will tell—hey, you might find yourself pining for an avocado-toned oven in the next decade or so—and we think pedestal sinks have an advantage here. They were out of vogue for only about 40 years, and on both sides of those 40 years, they’ve been popular. What’s probably going to make or break them in your home is how you manage the loss of storage that comes with placing them where a cabinet vanity once stood.
One nice thing about replacing a cabinet vanity with a pedestal sink is that it’s a relatively low-cost bathroom update with a relatively high wow factor. Because the price tag isn’t a fright, the possibility of the look becoming dated sooner than you’d like, isn’t a risk worth a lot of fretting and agonizing over. Trends like these don’t change overnight. You have time. And as with window treatments and living room furnishings, you can always try something new when and if pedestal sinks hit the decline again, without having to break the bank to do it.
