Guys, do you cringe when your girlfriend or wife asks you to take her to see some fine art or to visit a museum? Does the thought of an expensive gallery just put you to sleep? How about driving to a museum an hour away in the middle of a sleepy village, only to find yourself still 45 minutes away from the Packers Hall of Fame?
If you're already swearing off this artsy-fartsy trip, guess again. Even a Miller High Life man will enjoy the Kohler Design Museum. Why? Because this gallery features fancy toilets, showers that will spray every nook and cranny, and all sorts of other upscale plumbing that is, in fact, art.
No, men, this isn't your typical crappy museum (sorry; had to work in the potty humor somewhere). Instead, it's a 36,000-sq. ft. gallery that draws more than 140,000 homeowners, builders and architects annually.
Technically, the museum is really just a showroom for the Kohler Company, based in (where else?) the Village of Kohler, just west of Sheboygan. But with more than 25 rooms featuring the work of nationally-acclaimed designers, it really has that gallery feel. And who knew that toilets could be so stylish?
Each of the rooms is done up in a different style, from traditional to avant garde, from handicap-accessible to downright '80s. It's kind of like a really fancy IKEA full of kitchens and bathrooms. You'll swear one of the bathrooms was featured on MTV's "Cribs," belonging to P Diddy or Tommy Lee.
Most of the sinks, faucets, showers, bathtubs and bidets are connected and working, which gives the museum a contained water park feel. The non-working stuff has an artsy look, too; a stack of hundreds of toilets line the wall. It's quite an impressive display.
{INSERT_RELATED}Admittedly, this stuff is expensive. Home Depot, it ain't. Sure, a $900 sink would look great in your bathroom, but for most of us, these are the kind of fixtures you'll install only when that dot-com company of yours goes public (or is that just my fantasy?).
In fact, almost everything at the museum has a price tag attached to it, but some of the items are just for show. For some reason (I suppose I could have asked), there are a few tractors and engines in the corner. The basement of the gallery houses a museum dedicated to the history of the company and the village -- and guys, this is pretty boring. But the basement is also home to the public restrooms, which are some of the fancier bathrooms you'll ever experience.
The museum is open Monday- Friday, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, Sunday and holidays, it's open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, give them a call at (920) 457-3699.
(While you're in the neighborhood, be sure to visit the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in downtown Sheboygan. They, too, have got some of the most stylin' bathrooms you'll ever see. -ed.)
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
