Unexpected Mirrors in Bathrooms

One of my friends recently bought a large home and she's taking an interesting approach to decorating the spaces. My friend has great taste and knows what she likes, but she is not a fan of the creative process (and she'll be the first to tell you that). Since she has so many spaces to furnish and since she's basically starting from scratch, she's picked rooms from her favorite magazines and blogs to basically copy in style. I made fun of her at first ("...uh, what? you have a giant house, a healthy budget and you don't feel like making decorating decisions!? come again?") But now I think it is sort of a clever approach that really works for her. You know, why not? Especially if the creative aspects aren't fun for her, and she wants full control over the situation. If my plate wasn't so full right now, I'd be flying out there to help in a heartbeat, but so far her approach is working and things are getting done.

Anyway, in one of her bathrooms she is attempting to channel Rita Konig circa Domino years. The bathroom already had a vintage pedestal sink, so we worked together to find this wallpaper and a pair of brass sconces, but she got stuck on the mirror sourcing. She asked if I'd seen any great big round mirrors lately that didn't cost more than $500 (since she splurged a bit on the sconces) :)

Big round mirrors are tricky to find, but as luck would have it, earlier that same exact day I stumbled across a small treasure trove of relatively inexpensive mirrors on the Wisteria site. This huge 38" wide mirror would look lovely in her bathroom (or how about in a pair for a large bathroom with double sinks?). I'm really loving the simple gilded frame. It's perfect for layering on a busy papered or tiled wall.

Here are a few others of the many that caught my eye on the site, including a version of the honeycomb/peacock mirror we have all loved for ages. I know a lot of you were sad when Pier1 stopped making their affordable version - well here's your chance to snag an even more affordable one!

Also, Venetian style mirrors are always super pricey. This one is a steal. I am really tempted to buy two for my girls' bathroom. Farrow and Ball Pink Ground walls and these? Too perfect.

domino

House and Home UK

Gerald Pomeroy Design Group

The dimensions of this scalloped mirror are spot-on for what I need in our master bath. I was moving forward with another plan already though, so I can't decide if I should derail Plan A for this new Plan B. I really like that this mirror could go with us to our next house though...

Here's another pretty one that would look gorgeous layered on sheet mirror, like we did for my parent's master bedroom suite budget redo ages ago.

Huntley and Co

via

Speaking of mirrors - I finally hung the giant mirror on the bookshelf wall this week. I'll try to snap some photos today or tomorrow to share. I love how a unique mirror can completely change a room!

Editing My Make-Up Bag

I've been on an editing mission lately! I decided it's ridiculous to give up precious real estate in our house for things that I don't ever use (or even for the rarely used things). 

I used to keep my make-up in a huge zippered case. It was large and awkward and I only used a small fraction of the products that I was keeping in there. I did this for years! So silly! Case in point: Somehow I had two of the exact same green eyeshadow in that bag. I mean, what? I can't even remember wearing sparkly green eyeshadow post high school.

Then a couple weeks ago, around the same time we decided to paint the laminate cabinets, I found this pretty leather pouch at American Apparel and it inspired me to simplify.

After going through and tossing all the stuff I didn't actually use, I was left with a small collection of make-up that I really do love.  One of my latest favorites is the Beautyblender (the pink sponge in the corner of my bag here) - it was a bit of a life-changer for me. Have you tried it? I use it to apply my favorite tinted moisturizer and I use the flat bottom of the sponge to smooth out my blush when I wear it. I've been trying BB cream too, but I think I like the feel of my tinted moisturizer better than the BB cream. I do like how the BB gives you an airbrushed look though, and I was pretty shocked the first time I tried it! It's really amazing stuff. I ran out a couple weeks ago and decided to try the l'oreal version from the pharmacy and I like it just as much as the fancier brands.

Anyway, I still have a small drawer of cosmetics that I use less often, but it's nice to have my daily make-up bag edited down to the basics. I'm annoyed that I waited so long to make this happen, but now I am pumped and feeling ready to attack the rest of my house this weekend. Clutter, be gone! My closet will be hit especially hard and I'm determined to get it more edited and organized for spring.

Speaking of spring, I wish the weather outside right now would cooperate and help me get more into the spring cleaning spirit, but it's snowing again, so... mostly we're just combating cabin fever at this point. I hope you have a fun, warm weekend ahead of you! xo

Painting Laminate Bathroom Cabinets

The title of this post really should be "Putting Lipstick on a Pig."

The garden level bathroom is straight from the 70s, complete with lovely beigey-pink floor tile, a non-functioning hot tub style bath (ew) and, my favorite, laminate counters and cabinets. Please do your best to control your jealousy:

It's one of those spaces that you walk in to, trying to brainstorm ways to make it look better, and then you walk out five seconds later saying "Just burn it down."

Then last week I was at a Home Depot in Westchester that I hadn't ever been to before and they had a bunch of the Martha Stewart hardware in stock, including these polished nickel babies.

I decided to go for it and came home with $27 worth of hardware and a hope and a prayer for this sad little bathroom of mine.

   I painted the cabinets with two coats of my trusty Rustoleum enamel in gloss black. If you have similar laminate cabinets that you're dying to ditch, I totally recommend going this route first. Why not? You can prime if you want to, but I didn't worry about it. I just gave the old laminate a good cleaning first. Then I installed the new hardware once the paint was dry to the touch.

I had to hang the pulls a little higher than I would have normally preferred because of the way the drawer was made (boo). But it's still an improvement in looks and in functionality (I basically needed a screwdriver to pry the drawers open before the pulls were on).

We also brought in the vintage lucite stool I reupholstered here. Evie climbs up and kneels on it when she's washing her little hands.

I also added a new wastebasket from West Elm. $5 from the clearance section. Love the pattern here.

And I hung two of the $5 magnifying mirrors from IKEA. We've had these for a couple of years now and they are A+ in my book. As I side note, I am crazy in love with anything scissor-arm (these brass beauties were my favorite purchase to date).

This cute new coat rack from Urban is also a favorite now.

Truthfully, I am crossing my fingers that the landlord is up for a full bathroom reno this summer. (and really, shouldn't he be? maybe I should send him this post as a refresher on how nasty the space is!) But before then, I have big plans for the mirror area and I'm going to paint out the kick panel black and I think I'll add little feet so the vanity looks more like a piece of furniture. I wish I would have just done this while I had all the paint and everything out. In person it's not as obvious that that kick panel needs to be painted out.

All in all, I don't totally, totally hate this space anymore. And burning it down is a distant plan B now. So, that's good! All thanks to these pretty pulls and a little black paint.

What pigs have you been slathering with lipstick lately? I'd love to feel like I'm in good company here. :)

Powder Bath Updates

I have been looking for a new mirror for our powder bath for a while (you can see the super boring, plastic(!) old mirror here). The corner sink is so teeny that the dimensions of the new mirror needed to be pretty specific, and the frame had to be thin. It's hard to find a thin and interesting frame!

I found this antique beauty at Center Stage antiques in New Jersey (a fun place to stop by for furniture and mirrors if you're in the area) and it spurred a very spontaneous change of wall color.  Remember the DIY abstract walls here? I still liked the walls (they were really fun in person), but this mirror needed a more moody backdrop.

The new color is one of my stand-by favorites - Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray. It's dark, but not too dark.

And rather than going for a skirt on the sink like I thought I would, I just put a new coat of paint on the pipes so they sort of blend into the wall more. I love how industrial (and clean!) it looks compared to before.

I kept the bi-fold doors white for now for some lightness in the space. That old mother of pearl and brass light switch cover from Anthropologie came alive on the dark gray walls! It's been one of my favorites over the years. I think we've had this cover in five homes now?

I kept the old art hanging in the same places. These are all paintings (most of them really old) of my favorite places. I bought most of them in flea markets of the places they depict (Venice, Rome, Brussels, Bruges, and of course the Seaport etching.)

Most of them are unframed and a little ragged, but I think I like them best this way!

How was your weekend? Did you watch the inauguration?

DIY: Abstract Painted Walls

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Remember when I was contemplating some fun wall treatments for our powder bath? I thought about wallpapering, doing a faux bois or hand-blocking a pattern, but I wasn't super excited about any of those...

I've always loved Kelly Wearstler's staircase with it's hand-painted pattern, but I was worried something  this loose would be weird in such a small bathroom. 

When I saw this image, I really liked the idea of using oval or circular shapes.

Then I was looking at Domesticate's Spoonflower offerings, and this fabric pattern jumped out at me. 

I got excited because I knew I could get this pattern up in only a couple hours, so right away I pulled out my mint paint and a 1" square tipped artists brush, took down the art I had hung before, and was ready to go. 

The basic idea is super easy. In general, I did one large shape for every small or medium sized shape. There's no right or wrong way to do it - really it's just like doodling on the wall. It took about two or three hours to cover all the walls and the ceiling.

The mint paint I had was gloss, which I think looks really pretty against the satin walls. Gives a little dimension.

One important trick is the dip your brush only every three shapes or so, so there is some variation in the color opacity. This way it looks a little more like water color.

Since the ceiling of the bathroom is dropped and slanted, I went ahead and painted everything.

     

Once the paint had dried, I hung a bunch of vintage landscapes on the wall. I like how the super traditional paintings look on the funky walls.

Most of these paintings were ones I picked up at flea markets when we lived in Brussels for two or three Euros each. They aren't masterpieces, but I love them.

I need to take a photo during the day, but I'm so happy with the way the powder bath looks from the hallway with the door open. It really looks like wallpaper.

I know - it's kind of intense, but I'm loving it! Plus, it would be super easy to paint out or change if I get sick of the look.

Can't beat a project that makes a big statement, costs nothing and only takes a couple hours!