Tuesday, June 18, 2013

brunnhilde's shower curtain



The first time I took a shower in brunnhilde I was so shocked to see the amount of water leak though the gaps of the bathroom door. When I examine the design of the door closer I realize it was not design to withstand any direct or indirect spray of the shower water. Something has to be done to resolve this. At the mean time I try to avoid spraying water in that direction. To do this in the bathroom with the old toilet you just take the shower sitting on the toilet.

Now with the new cassette toilet install there is a lot more room in the bathroom to take a shower while standing comfortably. For the first shower to be taken in the newly installed toilet and shower pan I finally got around to install this home made shower curtain.

increased standing space in the bathroom with the cassette toilet
i want to be able to take a shower without needing to worry where shower head is aimed
The most obvious way to install a shower curtain is to put up a curtain rod. Most household curtain system is too big and bulky for install in this much scaled down bathroom. I have never found a shower curtain hanging system satisfactory. Most are just downright crude and ugly. In one of a bathroom renovation I used sailboat stainless steel rigging.
these rigging parts were not cheap - they are marine grade
one driving factor for the design was to maintain unobstructed view of the skylight when using the jetted tub
i chosen these clean looking hangers - they are the bigger version of the one used by Westfalia behind the closet
For this diminutive bath, I wanted to devise a satisfactory way of a scaled down curtain. It has to be easy to use and compact to store. I was looking for a fabric suitable for it. I chose to use the $1 tablecloth I bought on my trip to Vancouver.

The reason I bought this tablecloth was for cultural reference. It is a vinyl material that is extremely thin and most people in the West would not consider it fitness for used as a table cloth. Yet you can find it use in many Asian countries especially by poor people. To me the economy of the material and down to earth design has it's own aesthetics. I wanted to turn it into a shower curtain.

I want to hang the curtain with the suction cups that I bought many years ago. When I saw these suction cups I didn't know how I would ever use them but I knew somehow I would one day. What are unusual about them is it has a plastic push pin that you can detach. They are perfect to support this very thing and light table cloth.

normally i don't care much for floral design but this pattern is a classic from the early 1900s
The length is just perfect and one table cloth cut in half made two shower curtains - at $0.5 each!

suction cup with a detachable plastic push pin


i want a very thin fabric so the fabric will clink to the bathroom surface with just a bit of wetness; this forms a tight seal that serves the purpose
because the fabric is so thin and tears easily i reinforce it with a bit of duct tape where the it is anchor to the push pin of the suction cup
just two suction cup and it is hung - i only erect it for the show
to dry after taking a shower I hang it up this way so the it will dry; once dry i store it away
oh, the miser shower head consumes only 1 gallon per minute
1 gallon of water is nearly half sink full




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