I always assumed that the idea of using carpet in ones bathroom was a trend that left us when the 80's did.  It's hard to even fathom that people chose to do this {right, mom??!}, but they did. How about this -- have any of you ever gone to take a shower and thought 'I know what would make shampooing my hair sooooo much better! If only I could have carpet under my feet!! How great it would be to have wet, plush, soggy fibers squishing between my toes...'  

Just saw the commercial for this, folks. No joke. With their BOGO offer that is currently in effect, you can get pretty darn close to wall to wall carpet in. your. shower....

I can't think of anything I would like less... 

We spend so much of out lives in our kitchens. They can be a huge investment and they also seem to create the most confusion when it comes to exploring how to make them functional, beautiful and timeless. I am a huge lover of classic historical design and one of my favorite designers who masterfully executes clean kitchen and bath design is Katherine Hodge of Sage Design. She has an incredibly impressive portfolio, but my favorite of her talents is shown in the designs of her elegant yet comfortable kitchen and bathrooms.    

 Although timeless in appearance, her rooms function with contemporary details. This kitchen has simple cabinets topped with Afyon Sugar marble which also lines the wall behind the sink. The shelves are wrapped in a hammered steel which are lit from underneath that casts a warm glow.      

 Her bathrooms reflect the same beauty and simplicity as her kitchens.

I like this creative mix of lighting--sconces flanking the mirror and picture lights on top. But my absolute favorite feature of this bathroom is the custom double stainless-steel vanity! It allows all of that beautiful millwork to be appreciated.

And speaking of millwork...it's one of the details that allows a neutral color palette to look so incredibly rich and textural. It's such a significant, consistent part of Katherine's work.  

 To see more of her portfolio, visit Sage Design.

Jonathan Adler is the king of groovy design. Now he's bringing his sassy style and bold colors to Kohler, in a new line of sinks.

 Pretty fun, right? I discovered this in the new Lonny. Check it out, 'tis a goodie!

{1/ 2 / 3 / 4}  

If you visited Rambling Renovators last Friday, you saw pictures of my newly redone
guest bathroom. A guest bath that I began working on several months ago. I haven't done
 a post on the details of how I drew/painted the 'wallpaper', so I thought we would talk
 about it today. 

Before:

 
Ugh!

First, we tiled the floor and  installed some 'faux' wainscoting Check out this post to see
 these steps.  

I painted the wall {and ceiling} a really pale blue. {If anyone is interested in the color, email
 me, and I'll go look!}

Then the fun part--creating my Sharpie art!

Instead of spending a fortune on my favorite Schumacher wallpaper, I decided to draw it
on my walls instead. I printed off a picture of the Schumacher wallpaper that I used as
my inspiration and taped it to the wall to refer to. 

If you really like a wallpaper, you can find out its repeat.  In this particular
paper, this is the distance {left to right} from one butterfly/bird to the next identical
butterfly/bird.

 

I could have easily just free-formed it, but I really liked the look of the wallpaper, the size
 of the birds, and the amount of color. So, I stayed fairly consistent to it's repeat. Schumacher
 has a cool site where you can actually zoom in on the pattern.

To make the process a little quicker, I zoomed in on each bird and butterfly to the exact same
 'zoom level' I then printed each off onto a piece of cardstock to use as a pattern.

My vertical area was only 34" so nothing was repeated up and down. Once I traced around
 a bird, then an identical bird was traced 27" to the right and 27" to the left. After penciling
in about a 6 ft area, I started sketching in the branches.

Using Sharpies on a wall is a little daunting at first, but they work really well.

After all the branches and leaves were done, I used white paint to fill in all of the birds and
 butterflies. This is not a necessary step, it just helped me to make sure I liked the placement
 of it all.
{you have to look really hard to see the faint white} 

It took several coats of craft paint to fill in the birds and butterflies.

After the paint was dry, I went back and added black details with the Sharpie.



{Hint-- try to end your pattern in a corner that is the least conspicuous}


It took an incredible number of hours to finish, but I am really happy with the results
 and the $600 I pocketed from not buying the wallpaper.




  




A set of crosstitched vintage framed birds and a $8 Goodwill brass lamp finish
 off the other side of the bathroom.   



I'm still waiting to find the perfect little vintage chandy, and then I can check this
 room off my {long} list!