Well, hello!
Sorry to have missed Tuesday’s post, but I spent all of Monday in bed, sick to my stomach with a migraine and neck ache. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling 100% on Tuesday, but woke up feeling fine on Wednesday. But enough about all of that! The real news is that we have a working pedestal sink in our downstairs bathroom! No, sorry. I’m not going to show you any pictures — not just yet. But I did want to share a tip with you that is some what sink related.
It has to do with these guys, the shutoff valves :
Not very pretty to look at, am I right? If we were just putting another vanity in here, it really wouldn’t matter, because no one would ever see them. However, with a pedestal sink, and the values near eye level when in… er… sitting position, it matters! I was all set to replace them. I even bought new ones. But we haven’t been able to shut the water off completely, despite turning off the main and opening all the faucets (upstairs and down). There is still a slow, steady stream coming from the cold water valve, in this downstairs bathroom. And that, my friends, is not what you want when you need to take plumbing apart.
While procrastinating on Pinterest, I found this post on removing rust stains from chrome. If you’ve been reading for any amount of time, you know I love a good cleaning experiment, and since I had the supplies on hand (an old rag and Bar Keeper’s Friend), I decided to give it a try.
It works! It really works!
(Sorry for the difference in lighting. We’ve been working into the night on this bathroom. Are we done yet?)
Perhaps, I’m a little too excited about this, but when I showed it to Michael, he thought I had actually replaced the valves! So, it’s kinda a big deal.
Assuming you have your own rusty mess to deal with, here’s the how-to:
- Damp rag
- Sprinkle Bar Keeper’s Friend (BKF) on damp rag
- Smush BKF in rag (so it doesn’t all fall on the floor when you start wiping)
- Wipe rust away
Yep. That’s it. Seriously, this rust was on there for only God knows how long, but I didn’t even have to scrub it! It just wiped away! I did have to make a few passes, but nothing that would constituted “scrubbing” by any means.
Now, I’m wondering what else I use it on. When I was pulling the link for this post I saw a pin about using it on pans. That may be my next experiment. Anyone else use BKF to remove rust? Or do you have some other great use for it? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know!
Psst! Missed a post about our bathroom renovation? Catch up here: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
