Many would probably laugh if you suggested that he or she should get a combined WC+washbasin. Others might look at you as if you were from Mars for proposing a combination unit to the customer. From what I’ve seen, no Swedish company has started manufacturing these Frankenstein’s monsters of the bathroom world yet. Personally, I think it’s only a matter of time before we start to see them in Swedish bathrooms as well!
Combination Units – What are you really talking about?!
I mean, of course, a unit with separate parts for hand washing and meeting one’s needs. In many countries where you don’t have as much fresh clean water as in our long country, you really do everything to make use of every little drop of water that is used. Then it is natural to also try to use the water that you have just washed your hands with!
That’s where the combined WC/washbasin comes into the picture. Imagine that instead of a tank cap on the WC cistern, you put a small wash basin with a little mixer on it. When you wash your hands, the water does not flow down the drain, but into the flush tank in the toilet! That water is then used to flush the toilet with.
The first time I saw one, it was just a small sink on top of the toilet seat. These days, there are considerably more stylish variants in combination with chests of drawers and washbasin cabinets. It is also excellent to have a slightly wider piece of furniture so that the washbasin is next to the toilet seat, which means that you don’t have to lean over the toilet when you have to wash your hands.
Okay, but who would want to use such a solution?
It is perhaps not something that home decorators dream of – putting the toilet together with the wash basin, but it can have many advantages for e.g. very small bathrooms. If you live in the inner city in a small apartment where you have basically converted a wardrobe into a bathroom and share a laundry room with the other 48 families in the house, it can be very practical to have room for your own washing machine.
Instead of a toilet seat and a wash basin, side by side, you can put in a combination unit. Place it next to a washing machine in the same space. A normal toilet seat is about 35cm wide (55cm with leg room). A standard base cabinet is 60cm, smaller variants are available in 50, and even smaller variants down to 40cm. However, it is very doubtful if the 40cm commodes are sufficient..
But are there other uses than small spaces?
This type of combination furniture really shines if you’d like to have a built-in toilet, but cannot for various reasons. Then there are wider variants in e.g. 120cm which looks more like a regular chest of drawers. The only difference is that the toilet seat is built into the furniture and hangs on the front of the furniture instead of the wall. It can give a more uniform impression in the bathroom with the same color and pattern on all the furniture!
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