master bath

I've been hesitant to post about the master bath because there are some finishing touches that are needed.  However, it's pretty close, so here it is so far.

We still need a medicine cabinet or mirror above the vanity.  I also have yet to purchase the proper baskets for below the sink.  The sconces are working out well.  The lucite base matches the lucite towel rods.  I also plan to add some trim to the Roman shades on the windows.  The space is clean and nice, but needs a little life with color or pattern.

Just a quick reminder of what it was before:

Two bathrooms back to back got transformed into one.

powder room power

A powder room is my favorite place to decorate.  It's small and intimate.  It is used for small amounts of time & it requires lighting and a mirror.  Two of my favorite things!  For all of those reasons you can go bold and bizarre or glam and dramatic.  Our last renovation resulted in a super cool powder room.  It was a tiny space, but one of my favorite rooms.

The walls were lined in beautiful walnut flooring thanks to Jeffrey Katz & Kevin Musumano from C & J Katz Studio.  They had this vision on another project and it really worked well for mine. It created this warm enveloping texture.  I painted the ceiling metallic gold while the floors that ran from the kitchen were painted Farrow & Ball's Arsenic.

A truly amazing color.  The contemporary pedestal sink with streamlined faucet had a solid presence.  It looked more or less like this:

and the sconces were

the Punch sconce from one of my favorite resources, Urban Electric Company.
I love EVERYTHING they make.

This time I've made the powder room more classic and glamourous.  I had some more room to work with and have been making design decisions based more on the type of house and re-sale capabilities. Here some pretty drastic before and afters!

Before....

Clunky ugly vanity

Old school gravity toilet with wooden seat, ugh.

Terrible lighting.

I considered re-using the pedestal sink from upstairs.

Or finding a salvaged sink with real history.

But didn't I want to transform the space away from that old-timey look?

I decided on the Gramercy glass washstand from RH:

Painted the walls & trim the same rich blue, Ben Moore's Kensington Blue.  This is a good dark blue that has a touch of gray if you want to keep away from having a nautical feel.

The old threadbare red rug is a great contrast with the wall color.  Also it gives the room an old library feeling.  (Sorry about the toilet paper in view.  It wasn't complete at this stage!)

I choose a metallic pewter paint for the ceiling which combines the golds and silvers.  There is a mix of polished nickel & antique silver in the hardware and some gold tones on two mirrors in the room.  Yes, there is that infinity effect because there are mirrors facing each other.  Very cool in person.

I used the classic Bryant sconce from Visual Comfort because my beloved Punch sconces did not provide enough light.  We couldn't add an overhead chandelier so the two sconces are my only light source.

Moody & chic, non?

The last touch is the window treatment which will be a Roman shade made from this metallic linen that is going to kick ass. 

I'll make an update when the treatments are installed.  Hopefully soon.  I don't want to meet my neighbors that way.

Stay tuned.

xxL

Kids' bath

The bath at the top of the stairs is what the kids' share and overnight guests will use.  Some before pictures (which I know are terrible) illustrate the dark blue walls, dark wood trim and Victorian sensibility of the space.

The above three pictures, I am backing out of the room into the top hallway.  Sort of afraid.

Ideally, we would have knocked out the corner where the shower is and installed a large glass enclosure.  It would have really opened up the room and brightened it up tremendously.  After considering budget, time and two teens getting ready for school in the morning, we decided to keep it as is.  It's a private shower with nice simple tiles and is actually quite tall when you are inside.  It's not too cramped.

 Backsplash has to go.  The vanity too.  I saved the faucet for use in the downstairs powder room.  I should note, I kind of wanted to re-use that crazy marble because I think it's super cool.  In this context, it was not cool.  It was just kinda' crazy.

The floors were an ugly color of pink and yellow mashed up.

Choice one for floor paint was Farrow & Ball's Pale Powder.  It was too pale and, frankly, too powdery.  It looked dirty all the time.  And a bit dull.  It would be beautiful on walls of a bedroom, a sun room or a dining room with really dark floors.

I re-used a pedestal sink from one of the bathrooms that we combined to make the master bathroom.  I bought another of the same (Kohler Memoirs) and it made all the difference.  The floor space has grown and it feels much more airy.  You loose storage without a vanity, but there are original built in drawers and shelves that hold all the spill over of towels and toiletries just outside of the door.

New sconces with an additional in the middle helped to brighten the room even further.

We opted for a brand new blue paint that just came out from Farrow & Ball, St. Giles Blue, and are much happier with the result.  I also reused two wall-mounted medicine cabinets from the old master bath and had them painted out white.

I'll include some final styled pictures when I add the updates from the other baths.

A sneak peak on the powder room: