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Friday, February 20, 2009

Decorating...The Upstairs Bath

Some photos of the upstairs bathroom redo in progress. Okay, so I'm crazy undertaking all of these projects in the midst of the Second Coming of the Great Depression. The new toile shower curtain arrived yesterday; it's the "Antoinette" pattern that you can probably find by doing a search online. It's printed on a textured 100% cotton shower curtain in true black and creamy background - it's definitely not stark white, so now I can complete the rest of the decor; the goal is a sophisticated and yet comfortable black/white (cream) bathroom. I thought about taking "before" photos of the bath - too late! Darn! The old cheapo light fixture (it was basically a box that stuck out from the wall a good 9 inches with three half-light fixtures using those tiny base round "Hollywood" style bulbs) was taken down Monday and put out to the curb; it was gone Tuesday morning when I thought to pull out the digital camera and take a fare thee well snapshot. Oh well. The original shower curtain is still up, along with bits of the matching bordder along the ceiling line - also forgot to take photos of that before I started ripping it down! The original art work is in place. The mirror shot shows the new light fixture which throws off too much light! The electrician asked me for and installed three 60-watt bulbs which were blindingly bright in the small space. I later replaced them with three 40 watt bulbs, but they stick out too much below the line of the shades (I don't know if you can tell from the photo), and I am not used to so much brightness! I purchased some 40 watt appliance bulbs which are much shorter than a standard-size light bulb and are clear (so they will be transparent, hopefully), I will put them in tomorrow and retain the brightness, which is great for putting on make-up with these much older eyes. The third lamp in the old fixture had shorted out several years back, so the bath was lit by only two 25-watt bulbs. No wonder I couldn't see anything... Anyway, these photos give you an idea of what my 8 ft. long by 5 ft. wide bath upstairs (not including the tub width) is like. Pretty typical, I think. I will have to take a shot of the flooring - but not tonight, it's too yucky to contemplate tonight! So - the plan is to paint the walls medium tan, replace the artwork with black toned pieces and eventually redo the floor with black marble-look vinyl. I am also thinking about wallpaper or some decorative paint treatment once the walls are repainted. I am leaning toward a harlequin print wallpaper in black and tan on one or more walls, perhaps just on half-walls, or a varigated stripe in black and various shades of tan with a marbelized background... The dilemma is where to install such paper, if I go in that direction. Then - do I need a border if I decide to do only a half wall or two? What if I limit the wallpaper treatment to the little bit of wall that shows just above the shower, and on the opposite wall where the linen closet door is located? Oy, problems, problems... I also really like the idea of a lamp on the vanity - it's wide enough where water splash would probably not be a problem (since I do not have teenagers or children living in the house) - and I could shop for a tray to rest the base in to protect it from water splash-up. Then again, what kind of lamp would I get? And I'm considering several options regarding the overwhelming plate-glass mirror that takes up so much of the wall opposite the entrance. Framing it, perhaps? What about suspending a black wood-framed oval mirror by chains over the current mirror centered over the sink area? What about framing the current mirror into several different sections - perhaps a vaguely oriental motif? What about removing the current mirror altogether and going with the aforesaid black wood-framed oval mirror, flanked by two sconces on either side? Budget is, of course, always a consideration...

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