<p>The “Dressing Young” thread has been so much fun that some of us started inserting home decor posts in among the fashion discussions. It was irresistible given so much CC good taste and smarts not to exploit it for redecorating the home within the budget and in good taste. Thus was born the notion of a companion thread so that the home redecorating stuff doesn’t muddy up the discussions on “Dressing Young”.</p>
<p>I will kick this off with my Powder Room. This is a home we purchased six months ago after a pretty tumultuous job relocation to New Jersey. The home has what my DH calls “warring sensibilities.” The floor plan is great, the natural light is wonderful and many of the rooms have a really clean almost mid-Century vibe. Then there are certain pockets of the house that are pretty crazy. First up, the Powder Room. It is just over-the-top nutty. I have not altered it because every time I try, the personality and “vision” behind it just sort of paralyzes me. Anyway, here’s what I posted on “Dressing Young” because I trust those posters with my life as far as taste and good value goes. Also, they can always be trusted to provide a good laugh.</p>
<p>Hope we can make this a free flowing, “what would you do with this room?” kind of thread. Apologies if it’s already out there in the annals of CC.</p>
<p>Sewhappy
I’m here to help! I have a red powder bath with a green granite countertop and it is fantastic! I also have a dining room with a silverleaf ceiling, but that is another discussion.
Since you want to keep the sink, that should be your focal piece. I would keep the wood chair rail and pick up a red from the sink and paint the walls that color. I am a fan of light ceilings but there might not be enough KILZ in the world to cover your ceiling, so maybe loose the red dribbles on the gold ceiling or bring it down a notch with an antique wash. The right framed mirror over the vanity could unite the bath beautifully. Think about a wood framed or maybe a tasteful horn or capiz framed mirror.
If you can afford to change the fixtures I would go for Oil rubbed bronze, and if it means hocking the silver get a new light fixture as the one you inherited sounds hopeless!!</p>
<p>I am headed now to dressing young thread which no one told me there was interior design discussed!</p>
<p>I can’t find any links yet in this new thread, but will repost my frequent advice to head on over (hie thee hither if an English major instead of a Texas mom) to Gardenweb dot com. Lots and lots of great free advice in a forum that is at least as civil and well-educated as this. In fact, a recent thread about “math kitchens” vs “humanities kitchens” showed a population very similar to this one.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll chip in with my project. As some of you might remember, my bathroom mirror (a good 8 ft by 4 ft) fell off the wall in January. It is June, and we still have no mirror, but there is at least some progress: a whole bunch of electrical wires is now sticking out of the wall, and the drywall is all patched up. As we speak, I’m looking at paint chips trying to decide what color I should paint the walls… We will be replacing the brass faucets, but will keep the tiles that are white ceramic with swirls of purplish grey. Should I match one of the colors of the tiles, or should I go with something non-matching? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I have mirror originally purchased in 1986, it is a big mirror in the middle with a mirror outline around it like a picture frame. The metal trim around the outside and between the outer & inner mirrors is thin brass, but not too too shiny. It is probably 3 feet by 4 feet. My girls say to get rid of it, too eighties.</p>
<p>I would <em>embrace</em> the tulip sink … and do a tulip mural. Lose the chair rail. Lots of gigantic green leaves … with tulips at the top of the room, in various colors. The sky (err… ceiling) has to be blue of course. After all that. I’d use a simple light fixture!</p>
<p>The effect is “Honey I shrunk the guests and they wandered into the tulip patch.”</p>
<p>I had the impression that sewhappy doesn’t like the sink. Are you keeping it? It does seem a shame to trash it. Assuming the sink and the counter remain intact, I would cover the walls with a toile wallpaper in a red shade already present in the sink, paint the ceiling the same color as the wallpaper background - creamy white or ivory, most likely. Not sure about the chair rail - you could paint or add bead board below, or remove altogether. If the chair rail is just a simple strip of wood, I would probably remove it. If it’s more substantial, work with it.</p>
<p>I love the good strategies for keeping the tulip sink. DH has bonded with the tulip sink! It really is a shame to trash it since it was expensive, apparently. Oddly, the cabinetry in the powder room is not high quality - builder grade in a light pickled color, nothing to write home about. The mirror is kind of cool, though. It’s set into the cabinetry and has little spotlights above that I like. Then there’s sconces on either side of the mirror, attached to the cabinet and sort of jutting out from the wall, which manages to not be too awkward since the space is pretty big. Those sconces . . . let’s just say more Garden of Eden motif, there are apples and grapes festooning two more of the little corn cob lights from the ceiling. Oh my. One get’s dizzy. </p>
<p>I like the idea of the white walls and perhaps a little bit of tulip mural accent. I’m not a mural type normally but I can visualize that and it sounds fresh and pretty. Much as I agree that red walls will pick up the red tulips, I just can’t go there. Don’t like red walls and with the wood floors I think the effect would suck all the light out of the room.</p>
<p>Thanks to all on letting me vent on my Powder Room. I feel better!</p>
<p>Will check out Garden Web, too. Have had trouble really diving into it but will re-visit.</p>
<p>Bunsen, I like a big mirror in the master bath. I know the trend is for smaller ones right now but that’s a logical place to have a good sized mirror and if you have the space, I’d be tempted to go large. We looked at hundreds of homes last fall and we would see a lot of ornate frames around bathroom mirrors and a furniture quality to the cabinetry. Personally, I like the “spa” look - clean, spare, lots of white. So I love that you have the white tile. Our own is a beige with brown splashes in marble tile that is showing a lot of cracks. That’s another “situation room” though . . .</p>
<p>My only other thought on choosing a mirror is that beveling seems to be a subtle but really beautiful feature in mirrors. If the bathroom has good natural light, a beveled mirror is going to catch the light and refract it and be pretty . . . Sometimes several beveled mirrors rather than one great big one is nice. The lighting around the mirror is also important. You’ve got a fun a project there!</p>
<p>sewhappy, another site that might give you some ideas is houzz dot com. There are thousands of photos there of every room in the house, different styles, etc. I have to warn you, though, that it is almost as addictive as CC. :)</p>
<p>I have a friend who had some similar rooms in her new home. The first thing she did was just paint what she could a soft white. Then after living with that for a few months she was able to “see” a new vision for those rooms. I know in her powder room, she ended up replacing flooring and using a muted paint effect on one wall and solid on the others, but left the sink that she originally did not like - it’s very pretty. I can’t remember if she replaced the cabinets or not…might have painted them to match the walls (it is a small room)</p>
<p>OK, so it’s a dining room, but somehow I could imagine the tulip sink in this kind of environment. Keeping the gold ceiling (but maybe toning it down as suggested in #3) with walls and chair rail (cabinets, too?) painted a smooth white. Then picking up the colors from the sink and the ceiling in metallic flashes with a stringed art fixture, like the ones pictured, spanning from floor to ceiling. Lighting fixtures also like the one pictured (kind of twigs gone modern and shiny). </p>
<p>This thread could be fun. Thanks for starting it!</p>
<p>Illyria, I’m really intrigued by the gold and white idea. Thank for sharing that. I like it but I think I’d need to lose the dark green countertop. Am investigating whether I can keep the sink but change the counter . . .</p>
<p>The mirrEdge idea is cool. I have several places I could use that. Our dining room has a very heavy dark stained frame on a rather nice beveled mirror. I love the acrylic frame. It looks art deco.</p>
<p>I’ve seen that sink but I lost the round with DH to buy it… I planned white walls and ceiling, and a white/gray marble countertop. (I should say that I very much like what we did instead. But that was a previous house.) (Current house has a very simple white pedestal sink.)</p>
<p>I’d rip out the chair rail and paint the walls taupe - but a very light taupe, two to three shades lighter than what strikes you as a good color on a paint chip. Small rooms without windows tend to intensify paint colors, which is why a red and gold powder room is too much!</p>
<p>Taupe is a great, sophisticated neutral that will play off the reds and greens and give you some breathing space. You can paint the sink cabinet if the color is wrong-here you would go towards a dark brown. Light fixtures can be replaced without too much cost, and even the faucets can be replaced inexpensively by someone handy. I love the idea of bronze faucets, but some do show scratches, so check this out if your powder room gets a lot of use.</p>
<p>Ooohh, I like that MirrEdge idea. I will have to investigate it some more for DD’s bathroom.</p>
<p>I like midwesterner’s paint suggestion. If ripping out the chair rail is too much trouble, I’d keep the chair rail, and paint the bottom part of the wall a shade or two darker taupe than the top. Oil-rubbed bronze is very durable, and is probably more widely available now than 5 years ago when my friend was renovating her bathroom. She spent 3 months looking for a perfect set of fixtures in that finish!</p>
<p>Could we free-flow over to closets for a spell? What is the current trend to treatment of those horrible floor-to-ceiling sliding front hall closet doors from the '80’s? At the time we bought our current house, all the neighbours were doing the smoked mirrored thing, which I coveted, but couldn’t afford at the time. Now I see they look pretty dated, but I don’t like our plain painted doors either. Shutters? Louvers? The thing is, the closet is a great size, maybe 7-8 feet in width. Lots of storage, but a monolith in terms of what-to-do-with-you?</p>