Tag: interiors

Bathroom Mini-Tour

It’s a mini-tour because the bathroom is pretty small and straightforward.

Thought I ought to hop back on the room tour train, since I left off after showing the guest room and the bedroom, so here’s the last piece of the west part of the house. The bathroom. It’s really nothing special, but it’s an awfully important room in the house to have, for obvious reasons. And it definitely could be worse. After having a bathroom tiled in Easter egg colors (right off the living room where everyone could hear your business) this bathroom is a MILLION percent upgrade. Except the other one had a bigger/better/deeper tub.

Let’s get started! Mostly I wanted to show off some items I got at a design swap one of my gal pals hosted a month ago (it has been a month already! sheesh!). The colorful placemats you’ll see here are in the bathroom mostly because there were only three instead of four. If there were four I would use them in the dining room for (duh) placemats but I got creative and I love how they bring a little bit of pink in and really perk up the room. They also make it easy to tidy up. They help me tell myself, “Objects do not belong on the tan section of the counter! Hide them in drawers or cabinets!” It’s a little strange, but it works.

The third placemat got tucked into my open shelves and injects a much-needed little perk. The little sake bottle is from who-knows-where, and is cracked. The jar with sand in it is from our wedding (we did unity sand instead of candles)! My vintage train case made its way to the bottom shelf (much easier for short little me to get it out). The wicker basket (from Target) moved from the bottom shelf to on top the tank:

I was wary of putting anything on the tank because right when we moved in I had put a candle there and one night it slid off and shattered. However, seeing that this is much larger and less slippery, not to mention nothing in/on the basket is breakable, this has worked well so far.  The art in the little frame says “Happy Day” and was made by Libby as a housewarming present. :) There is a series of holes next to the toilet paper holder that need to be patched, but does it make it any better if I say they were there when we moved in? Maybe not, since it means we’ve lived with it like that for 8 months… (has it been 8 months already!?)

Here you can see the arch that I’m not crazy about, but everyone who comes over comments on how much they like it. Personal preference, I guess. It does tie in with the arched ceilings in the living room and dining room, but personally I fell that closing in the top of the shower like that makes it feel a little claustrophobic.

Last I’ll share two more little details. We have towels practically coming out of our ears, so we have an extra little storage basket (also from Target) below the counter, along with my scale (don’t remind me) and a step stool:

And I really like the art I have in the tall black frame (it’s from Target) so I thought I’d share it with you. They’re photos cut out from a semi-recent Conde Nast Traveler magazine, and all the photos are of spas in the Middle East. It reminded me of my hammam/Turkish bath experience in Morocco and felt appropriate for a bathroom.

Oh, and the paint color is Valspar’s La Fonda Mirage, the same color used in the kitchen, to not only bring in the Southwestern element of the house, but to save money by only buying one gallon, and to create a sense of continuity within different rooms.

There you go: the bathroom. Short and sweet for what I think is kind of a sweet little room. Did I mention it’s narrow and therefore super hard to photograph?

Remember, you have until Monday July 16 to enter the Scentsy giveaway! 

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Take a Tour: Huyze Anna

I was totally smitten with our rental home in Bruges. It had a young, comfortable vibe and plenty of room for 5 people. When entering, the space seemed narrow but getting past the stairs, everything opened up very nicely. The stairs did seem a little precarious (not that they were wobbly, just narrow) but nobody in our group had any casualties.

I particularly liked the huuuuuge, very old map of Bruges (I believe it was a reprint of the first official map of Bruges. You can take a peek at it in the photo above, on the right edge). Little touches like that reminded us that we were in a very old city!

I especially liked the juxtaposition of the pink accents with the gray-greeny-blue wall. I thought accent walls were out of style? This one pulls it off very well. One thing that helped this accent wall make sense was that the blue color was carried on over into the kitchen, which was located directly to the right of the living area:

Is it crazy that I found this tiny kitchen easier to work with than our own much larger kitchen? I think it had to do with the spacious lower cabinets (eliminating the need for upper cabinets) which really maximized the counter space (the cabinets in our current house are hung too low, creating a very claustrophobic feel when using the workspace). Did I mention the fridge was tiny? There it is, tucked under the counter on the right. Wonder how that would fly in an American kitchen….

The space was very minimal–which is to be expected of a European vacation rental, naturally, although cute boho accents were everywhere.

This little patio was carved out of the kitchen/living room area. It was nice to leave the door open and let in fresh air. All four walls went up 3 stories so it was very private. Most definitely outdoors, but not in the way most Americans consider an outdoor living space.

On the second floor there were two bedrooms. In the first one (with a double and a single bed) there was a shower RIGHT IN THE ROOM. Smart space-saving strategy, but very awkward. The other one had a little “room” in the hallway for the shower. All the bedrooms had a sink in them. Doug and I had the one with two beds–the twin became a dumping ground for laundry and souvenirs. My parents had the room with red curtains.

On the the third floor was my sister’s room. She got her own TV (not pictured) with an assortment of DVDs featuring Garfield and Saw. You know, family favorites.

Outside Stephanie’s room was an awesome rooftop terrace. She wins the best room award (in my opinion).

What do you think? Have you ever stayed in a vacation rental instead of a hotel? I loved it!

Need a recommendation for where to stay? Check out my Your Turn section.