Anything But Boring. Great Bathroom Designs

I am sick of boring bathrooms- actually I am sick of boring everything.  You all know I encourage the personalized, original, inspired, unique.  This has nothing to do with style- I just want individualized anything.  The bathroom is a particularly fun place to design, you can do a lot without getting sick of it- you're only in there for a minute or two.  Think of it as a little jewel box.
Check out these interesting spaces:















Apartment therapy
Notice that many of the bathrooms (not all) used simple classic plumbing fixtures and then added character that could be changed without calling the plumber or costly construction.

Mom, no more pink!

My Daughter is turning 10 (yeah OMG!!!) and for her birthday she wanted a room redo, OK- that I can handle.  She currently has an over the top girlie pink and green room- see below:

Her room has looked like this since she was born, I’ve gotten ten great years out of this room.  When she was younger she LOVED it and certainly everyone who sees it falls in love and wants to be a little girl again for a few minutes (ok- so most of the men who see it don’t have that reaction- or maybe they do… hmmmmmmm). But at ten years old- “pink is so not cool anymore”- she is “so over it!”  My little girl who was such a girlie girl is now 10 going on 25.  She designed the new room’s color scheme as “tonal creams and whites with accents of silver”- holy shmoly who’s kid is this???  Ok- so at least she has not asked for a cave with a black light and Zeppelin posters, although maybe that's next.  She has designed a tranquil, sophisticated room with a very eclectic mix of traditional, contemporary and ethnic.  We are half done with the room and will show pictures on the blog in a week when it’s finished, as long as my husband and I can put in the extra 5 hours of work a night to get it done by then.  Stay tuned this week as I examine kid’s rooms, pink as it pertains to adults and the finale- the finished room!

I’ve Been Clocked!

If you don’t know by now I have a pretty healthy obsession with the color turquoise.  It all started with a tiny French carriage clock given to me by my grandmother (who also LOVED the color)  This tiny clock was a gift from her father after he returned from a long trip to France in the early 1900’s.  He brought back three clocks for his three daughters, all somewhat similar- except for the color.  My grandmother Alice had turquoise, her sisters Ines and Winn had pink and yellow.  See my beloved clock below:

This clock started my obsession with turquoise, as well as a collection of Guilloche with enamel.  According to Wikipedia:

Guilloché, phonetically pronounced gee-oh-SHAY is a French word for the process of engraving either by hand or by machine intricate repetitive patterns.  Guilloché, is an engraving technique in which a very precise intricate repetitive pattern or design is mechanically etched into an underlying material with fine detail. Specifically, it involves a technique of engine turning, called guilloché in French after the French engineer “Guillot”, who invented a machine “that could scratch fine patterns and designs on metallic surfaces”. The machine improved upon the more time-consuming practice of making similar designs by hand, allowing for greater delicacy, precision, and closeness of the line, as well as greater speed.  Yet another account is that it derives from the French word for an engraving tool, not the engine turning machine.

Further details on Guilloche from e-Bay:

Although Enamel and Guilloché was used, pairing-first, applied by Peter Carl Fabergé on the Faberge eggs in the 1880’s-they are nevertheless two separate techniques and were not applied to one another until Fabergé.
Below is a picture of Guilloche with out the applied enamel:

Next group of pictures below are examples of Guilloche after enamel:

The machines used to create guilloché designs are no longer produced. Today true guilloché can be found in mostly luxury watches and then only a very few companies practice the art.  The guilloché technique can be seen in various antique and vintage jewelry and vanity items from compacts, pocket watches and  dresser sets to charms.

 And then of course, there is my favorite- CLOCKS.  See below a bevy of clocks to delight the eyes:

    

Because this process is no longer practiced, these items have become very desirable, expensive and hard to find.

Grey sucks!!!

Grey as used by Mother Nature between winter and spring.  I do like grey for interior design, it’s calming, chic, sophisticated and it makes other colors pop insanely well.  Check out a post by another great blogger: http://habituallychic.blogspot.com/2010/02/mellow-yellow-and-grey.html .  But where I'm going with this, is that I am sick of grey outside.  It has rained in New England everyday for 5 days- maybe more, I stopped counting.   My basement flooded, my hair has settled into a permanently disastrous state, my dogs do not like the rain and thus will not stay out long enough to poop (yeah, guess where they go), my kids are bouncing of the walls and outside the world at large all over New England is just ugly- no matter how beautiful it is in summer.
So here are some colorful pictures that just really make me happy- enjoy!





(Jane McGarry)

Color

To me experiencing color can literally change my mood, my day and inspire my thoughts.  The idea that by giving my house “flow” and “continuity” might require me to have an overall color and style theme connecting all the rooms is such a kill joy!  Sometimes I need warm and cozy, or fun and wacky, or serene and tranquil all in the same house and all within the same day. 
Wake up to sunny and pretty:

Make the kids lunch and eat breakfast in sunny, uncluttered and clean:

Go to work in exciting and vivid:

OR

Then come home, Pour a glass of wine, read a magazine, open mail and return emails on the laptop in warm, familiar and sophisticated:

Homework with the kids and dinner in warm cozy and casual:

Kids in bed, watch your favorite TV show with Hubby, just before retiring for the night:

Then so sleepy you go to bed in the coziest bedroom ever:

Now how you go to sleep in dark, warm and cozy but wake up in Sunny and pretty………….well that’s why you hire a designer!