Bathroom mural ideas

The other day Jen at Rambling Renovators posted a link to a mural she liked that led me to the Canadian website anewall.com.  What an awesome site!  They specialize in historic, and I assume royalty-free prints for your home in large sizes, including wall mural decals.  I could lose myself for hours on their site, and their blog, but when I came across this painting above in the wall mural section, my imagination went a bit crazy.

A Dreamy Bathroom

These are my colours - muted blues, greys, a hint of green, and cream.  While I would be thrilled to have this on just about any wall of my house, for some reason it got me thinking bathrooms - perhaps because I could imagine lounging in a soaker tub gazing out enormous (but well-insulated) windows looking over a stormy sea like the one pictured.  What?  You don't have daydreams like that?  Weird.

Anyway, I spent much too much time flitting about the web, collecting items for my dream bath.  Of course the room is enormous, because to me the epitome of luxury is a huge bathroom (that and a walk-in closet).  I ended up with so many ideas I had to do a couple of boards.

Go with the Design Flow

Here's the funny thing: these boards looked WAY less alike in my head as I was doing them than they ended up. I started out with two completely different people in mind, but when I look at them together I sort of did the same room twice.  Not sure if that means I have a distinct style, or that I have no imagination. :)

Also, neither room looks quite like the ideal image I had in my head when I saw the painting.  It could be that this is where mood boards don't quite capture the essence of a room.  However, I also think that this is true to life in any design - you start with a concept and in fleshing it out you adapt it to the things you find and the pieces available, and it sort of modulates along the way.  I quite love how both the rooms represented above turned out! 

What do you think?  Is it better to stick more closely to an original idea - staying absolutely true to it - or to let the design take on a life of its own during the process - at the risk of losing the original thread?  I guess it would depend on the client, and the level of attachment they or you have to the original plan, or aspect of the plan.  Oh the things I waste my time thinking about...

PS. I have sources for all the stuff if you are interested.  Recognize the Turkish towels and hooks in the second board?  They are from Emma's bathroom on The Marion House Book!

Made A Mano Tiles

Oh heavens - is it normal that the above photo makes me weak in the knees?  It is from the website for Made A Mano tiles, from their Novecento collection.  This collection features silkscreened designs from the nineteenth century and is their tribute to the style found in the Aeolian Islands. Ah, so pretty!

Made A Mano was founded in 2001 by these two ladies, NanaKi Bonfils and Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer.  They have the most beautiful patterns and glazes, and everything is handmade, from the tile cutting to the glazing.  The designs are either hand-drawn, hand printed, or silkscreened. 

NanaKi Bonfils and Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer

Made A Mano Pop collection - the colour brushed on by hand.

They also make countertops and sinks, and these beautiful lava stone boards below from the lava of Mt. Vesuvio and Mt. Etna.  The texture, profile, and designs on the boards are stunning.  I would love a white and a blue one!

The other tiles they do are so one-of-a-kind - they would really be the showpiece in any space.  I am thinking of ordering a catalogue... just for fun...

Wow... just... WOW.  Thanks to Danielle at The Style Files for originally featuring them!

(Also I want to make that driftwood boat!!)

Bathroom Beautification Complete

Well, this project took much longer than I thought it would.  I guess the last time I re-decorated a bathroom I didn't have two kids to amuse...  After installing the new faucet, my husband did all of the kid entertaining and I did the days and days and coats and coats of paint.  I used outdoor deck paint on the floor, and I washed it, sanded it, washed it, primed it, painted it, let it dry, painted it, let it dry, did the caulking around the fixtures, painted that, and let it dry, then did touch ups.  AND I LOVE IT.  It was worth every curse-inducing moment.  I also painted several coats on the walls, trim, and ceiling, and they were also worth it.  I love my 'new' bathroom.

We replaced the tipsy over-the-john cabinet, whose doors didn't close, and the medicine cabinet we had stacked on top of it with a lovely, sleek mirrored cabinet from Ikea.  It makes the room feel so much bigger and brighter. I got it on the last day of the "bathroom event" and it is being discontinued, so I got to drag Will all over the highways of Toronto from one Ikea to another to get one.  Worth it.

The lovely West Elm shower curtain that inspired the whole room looks even better in person.  The grey on the walls and black on the floor highlight the original black and white tile beautifully - especially on the floor where it runs into the black band on the bath.

The faucet is my favourite part - we went from two leaky separate hot and cold faucets to this lovely number, from which WARM WATER (i.e. a mix of hot and cold!!) flows with ease.  Heaven.  I have had the whale hooks from Urban Outfitters for years and was happy to find the perfect spot for them. (The other two are going to go on the long wall, but my stud finder said it was full of electricity so I thought I would hold off on that...)  The painting of Nova Scotia we bought years ago at the McMichael Art Show.  My Aunt Daphne got the rug for me for my birthday.  The mason jars I got at Value Village ages ago.  The blind I have had in a closet for years.  (I am thinking of painting it with some blue fabric paint - maybe stripes?)  All in all, I think the whole room cost well under $500.  Worth it.

Ahhhhhhh.  The photos just don't do it justice.  It is my new happy place.

Bathroom - prepare thyself for beauty!

There it is, our lovely designer bathroom.  Yeah, right.  You know, when we first bought this house I was so excited because this bathroom was so much bigger than our last house - now I realize that one foot wider does not an enormous difference make. :)  The bathroom is last on our list for renovations, and we certainly don't have the cash to do it now.  So I am fancying a 'facelift.' After a bottle of wine and some sweet-talkin', I got the hubser on board.

The one thing we have done is to put up a shower curtain, there was nothing there when we moved in. Finding a curtain rod that could cover the side and the end of the tub was no small feat, and in the end we had to custom order one.  What the photos here don't show is that it is all the original white tile with a black and white border at the top inside - you can see the black tile around the bottom of the tub.  The floor is nasty linoleum tile - stained and yellowing.  The sink and bath are both original, and the sink is a pain the the patootie because it has separate hot and cold taps (and the hot tap leaks so we actually have to use a shut-off valve underneath if we every want to turn it on).  The toilet is also constantly running for some reason, and I shudder to think of the wasted water.  We got the shelf for above the toilet on sale somewhere and it wobbles, and the doors don't close because they are missing the magnets.  Let's see what else... oh who cares.  On to the pretty stuff.

I had lots of fun on Olioboard the other night, imagining a billion options.  First of all, rather than pulling up the floor and opening a can of worms, I am just going to paint it out black.  When we are able to do a real reno we can put in pretty tile, but for now I just want to cover up the ugly.  For the walls, I thought grey, because I always think grey.  I love grey.

The rest of the palette came from the shower curtain, which I thought was really nice (and not too expensive).  That, and I also just bought blue/grey towels.  The fabrics included are possibilities for a roman blind for the window (that I am hoping to make).  And I want to fill that wall beside the window with some nice inexpensive prints and drawings to add some life to the room.

The light has to be spot lights like this because the ceiling light is the only light in the room.  Someday... pot lights and sconces.  For now... this contraption.

I crawled under the sink yesterday (gross) and measured the opening in the middle where the sink stopper was attached.  It looks to be standard width (1 1/4'') and the two taps are 12'' apart so I am going to try to find a nice wideset faucet for the existing sink.

Anyway, details - shmetails.  What do you think of the board?  Too dark?  Not enough colour?  Pure perfection?  I would love to know your thoughts!