Bathroom Sinks Emerge
As Conversation Pieces

When Greg Laurin raves about the artwork going in the bathroom of his Plano, Texas, home, he's not talking paintings. Instead, he's praising the sink.

Not only is the $1,500 bowl handcrafted from copper-tinted glass, but it rises up from the counter like a sculpture. "It truly is a conversation piece," he says.

Sinks as art may be an eye-opener for those who accessorize with globs of toothpaste, but a growing number of consumers are embracing the idea. Generously proportioned above-the-counter bowls, called "vessels," are taking sinks from ordinary to attention-getter.

"People are going back to the wash basin, but in a far more creative way," says Greg Schadt, owner of Gravity Glas, a specialty manufacturer in Peoria, Ariz., that made a splash two years ago with an assortment of the handblown glass vessels. It has since expanded its sales to 130 showrooms.

These increasingly popular vessel sinks are throwbacks to the deep, shiny porcelain bowls that sat bedside, along with a water pitcher, in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Minimalist designer Philippe Starck popularized the use of vessel sinks in his design for the Miami hotel the Delano in 1995, and they've caught on with design-conscious homeowners.

Architect Ed Kozanlian shied away from "the same old boring vanities" when he designed his New York City loft. His crowning achievement: the master bath, where he put a $3,000, clear-glass bowl on a matching glass counter and lit the ensemble from below.

"It's dramatic," he says, "a real show-stopper." Mr. Kozanlian cites functional advantages, too. With the vessel set some five inches above the counter, he minimizes splashing and doesn't have to bend over to wash his hands.

"You get a big 'wow' factor," says Frank Blair of Denver's Bath & Kitchen Design Center, a division of Kamen Supply Inc., where vessels range in price from $275 to $4,000. "People tend to touch them as they walk by. It's not often that people stroke" bathroom fixtures, he notes.

Though vessels remain a novelty item, manufacturers report increased sales since they surfaced about five years ago. They now account for nearly 5% of sink sales at Kohler Co. of Kohler, Wis., the nation's largest manufacturer of plumbing products, which introduced its own line of vessels three years ago.

Vessels, which have a center hole for drains, are anchored to counters or suspended in brackets. They come round, square and even hexagonal. Many vessels are made from glass, stone, metal or concrete. Faucets rise up behind them or often jut out of walls.

Whether rustic or contemporary, the look is distinct. That was the attraction for Mr. Laurin, the Texas homeowner, and his wife, Elisa. "We have two homes and are getting a little tired of the seven basic colors of ceramic," he says.

But keeping the big, shiny vessels spotless can be daunting. So when Sally Stinger, a homeowner in Tucson, Ariz., chose a $900 gold-marble bowl for her powder room, she devised a strategy to keep traffic down in that bathroom. Visitors can look, but they better not flush.

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