The public men’s room serving the restaurant and the bar/café of Mayville’s historic Audubon Inn was perfectly functional and serviceable, and featured some great old fixturing and classic black-and-white hex floor tile. But removing a collection of promotional beer mirrors left unsightly holes in the walls, exposing white sheetrock and plastic wall anchors in the now-damaged, dark blue wallpaper.
Patching the wallpaper or re-covering the walls was out of the question – and our budget. So we instead took careful measurements for new artwork that would conceal the damaged walls, then visited the website of Milwaukee based art photographer Jarrod Erbe. Intrigued by a gallery of vintage autos, we selected a group of photos to reverse print on acrylic panels, and then mounted them with modern, stainless standoffs to create a photo gallery that now makes the room seem like a destination.
The men’s room at The Audubon Inn might just be the coolest bathroom in all of Wisconsin.
PHOTO FOLIO PENDING
