Colour & Pattern Courage

My friend Sally is an attorney who is a fantastic quilter. Mmmm, or is she a fantastic quilter who is an attorney?

But, I digress. Right now, Sally's entire focus is her daughter's health, so she's asked me to do things she might ordinarily have done herself. As I've mentioned before, Sally's daughter, Mary-Elizabeth is battling a recurrence of leukemia. It's scary, scary, scary. The good thing is she's holding her own and making progress ~ but, it's baby steps.

Last fall, I redesigned Sally's bathroom in what I like to call French Sanitary White. Then, she asked me to rearrange her living room. And, this spring, Mary-Elizabeth asked me to redesign her bedroom to be more for a grown-up girl.



A little while ago, Sally called me again to ask me to update her wonderful Mission style oak side chair that was in urgent need of reupholstery. When I went to meet with her, she had three fabrics out on the counter in the kitchen.


"I'm thinking something like these. What do you think?"

Knowing she has both colour and pattern courage and liking her combination, I said, "I like them all. Shall we do a multi-pattern extravaganza?"


"Yes," she said. "Let's!"

And, so we did.

The result? It is wonderful. Upbeat. Spirited. Friendly. Cheerful. A happy piece holding its own in a room with lots of other things going on.

Day 47 Everyday Grateful ~

"French Toast" is up and running.

Comcast has quit working up the street

so I have internet again.

Ramses and I ran a couple of errands.

Kindah nice.

Happy!

http://mary-elizabethsbump.blogspot.com/
http://thefairhero.blogspot.com/2012/03/design-for-smallest-bathroom-in-world.html
http://thefairhero.blogspot.com/2012/03/home-from-hospital.html



At Your Fingertips ~ Luxury for the Everyday

Maybe you are like me: you have darling things you've bought on trips when they caught your eye. They come home to live with you and often don't see the light of day ever again.

Many years ago, I made the commitment to use what I have ~ maybe not in the way it was originally intended but, if I liked it enough to buy it, I really want to make good use of it.

I'm soooo not interested in providing job security for dust. Just what we busy people don't need ~ more work.

Several years ago, I found this astonishing camel at a church bazaar. it's heavier than hell. I have no idea what it was originally for. It appears to have a place for something carved into its saddle. I think I paid $10 for it. When I got it home, I found a glass bowl (probably candy bowl missing its lid.) Sheesh, talk about a perfect fit! I filled the bowl with q-tips and the darling camel kneels in the family bath ready to be of service.

One of the things I am a sucker for is the small silver urns from the 30's and 40's when everyone smoked and it was considered polite to have a container of cigarettes on your coffee table for guests or at each plate for coffee and cigarettes after dinner. Creeps me out just thinking about it. But, it wasn't the fault of the little urns that they were used for that job.

I've given mine new jobs. In my bathroom, I use one to hold my q-tips. It looks pretty, clean and happy. Certainly happier than when it was forced into tobacco servitude.

Because I've got the world's smallest bathroom, storage is a problem, so, for things that need to stay out, I try to find nice solutions. I found the mouthwash dispenser in the scratch and dent table for $4 (though I didn't find either dents or scratches.) I had the one-off handsome liqueur glass. Perfect little combo.

As I may have mentioned, I don't worry about whether my silverware is polished. I use it and enjoy it every day. Sure, if President Obama were coming over for coffee and a chat, I'd stay up half the night shining the silver, but since that is not likely, I don't sweat it. I'd rather treat myself nicely every day by using it than by cursing it on holidays when I feel compelled either not to use it because it's tarnished or work for hours shining it. With that as an attitude, no wonder people think silver is not worth the hassle.

Lately, I've been having friends over on a more regular basis. It was feeling a little cloistered around here ~ and, not in a good way. After dinner, I like to serve coffee and tea as we sit around the table and visit.

Again, my little silver urns come into play. None of them match but they are so spunky and friendly ~ who cares? I predict there isn't a second hand store in the US that doesn't have at least one. They are very reasonably priced; available in silver and silver plate. For my coffee service, I like to provide raw sugar crystals and sweetener for my guests (yes, I do think artificial sweeteners are poison, but . . .) The darling creamer was also second-hand. All these things on a tray with a French press full of freshly ground coffee add an element of luxury to an everyday occasion.

Day 10 Everyday Grateful ~ a lovely sunny day made more wonderful

because my Logan is in town for an audition. Heaven!

The Power of Zen ~ the beautiful flourish

In life, it really is the little things that touch us most. The small kindness. The tender caress.

Last year for my birthday, my oldest son sent me a small bouquet of lilies. Beautiful. So, beautiful, in fact, I wanted to see them more than the usual FTD. I took them to my bathroom and put them on my counter in front of my vintage Venetian mirror.

Now, I have the world's smallest bathroom. One and half steps in and you're standing in front of the sink. Half a step to the right ~ toilet. Half a step further ~ shower. Weensy. But, nice.

I tucked my little tussy-mussy of lilies by the goose neck. Wonderful. Fragrant. Elegant. Luxurious.

His present reminded me how much I was missing that tenderness of spirit. I had forgotten to treat myself in a soul-satisfying way. Since then, twice a month, I put a small bouquet together for my bathroom ~ flowers from the store (in the winter months) coupled with variegated greens boxwood, Daphne, etc. from my yard.

This small $5.00 luxury feels generous and optimistic. It's easy to fall into the austerity mind-set so everything feels like a withholding grind; where every outlook looks grim. Fresh flowers are a friendly way to soften that grind. A small expenditure that feels luscious and hopeful.

Soul satisfying.
 

Design for the Smallest Bathroom in the World

Let's chat about my design philosophy. I believe in saving my clients' money. I believe in using what we have. I believe in using architectural salvage. I believe in creative design solutions. I believe beautiful design saves money. I believe wonderful design is life-affirming and life-changing.

This past fall I had an opportunity to design a small bathroom in the Ballard. A long-time client of mine called to tell me the tile was falling off the walls in her shower and she didn't have a single second to deal with it because her daughter was at Children's fighting for her life. And, she said, "Keep in mind, I'm on a very tight budget."

Here are the "befores" ~ not terribly inviting:

     

When I went in to see the bathroom, I knew we needed to find a beautiful solution for the lack of storage and the very deep window that had turned into an unfortunate catch-all. Custom storage was out of the question. It was not in our budget.

However, without the "problem" window, the storage and the bathroom wouldn't have been nearly as beautiful. Finding a beautiful solution turned a "difficult, problem" window" into a star! Using a couple of sink bases from IKEA, I effectively doubled the storage space and put it all behind doors. Nothing like zapping the clutter of a very small room for a feeling of deep satisfaction. A beautiful solution! 

Every decision was a constant reminder that money was tight; the budget was the major issue. While the contractors gutted the space and restudded the walls, I started looking for a very small, very pretty vanity. I tried all my favorite salvage haunts ~ 2nd Use, Earthwise, the ReStore, etc. and Craigslist. At the first three, I didn't find a thing. On Craigslist, I scored. I found the fabulous marble vanity and sink for $50.










So, we have a lovely vanity and we have solved the storage. Toilet? The existing one was very plain vanilla. I found a darling one with double flush capabilities on Craigslist for $50. Done.

So, what about the tile, the floor, the shower? Well, one of the most wonderful bathrooms I've ever experienced is in a very small boutique hotel in Florence. I mean the room was tiny by anyone's standards, but, it was glorious. It was all crema marfil marble. Certainly, there was no way to do a marble bathroom on our budget but there were things we could do. What we needed was another beautiful solution. I found some very well-priced honed (not slippery) 6x6 crema marfil marble tiles for the shower floor at Home Depot (who knew?) and around the corner from that there was a pile of large scale porcelain tile that exactly matched it ($2.00 sf) Done! And, beautiful.


I did a quick sketch of the tile layout for the installer. For the walls, I decided on what is called in the trade "French Sanitary White" ~ clean white tile in different sizes with matching trim from Home Depot. A beautiful solution! The final effect is elegant and luxurious. Using the chair rail and braid trim pieces along the formerly difficult window sill established a nice line that allowed the deep window sill to really be the star. Following that line into and around the shower effectively expanded the space visually. Done. And, beautiful.

I matched the wall paint to the crema marfil (a wonderful chamois Sherwin Williams color called "Interactive Cream"), added a band of small 2x2 colored feature tiles in a checkerboard pattern around the bottom of the wall in my client's desire to celebrate the family's Hispanic heritage, bought the glass towel bar on Craigslist, found the wonderful Waterworks faucet (our biggest splurge), added a couple of alcoves and a shelf in the shower, new down lighting, a new fan, and hung my client's Scotty dog art and, voila, beautiful bathroom.

Using a combination of architectural salvage, vintage items and an eye to finding a beautiful solution at every opportunity, I was able to create a luxurious jewel box of a bathroom at a staggeringly low price. All good things when we still face recession worries. And, best of all? I turned problems into challenges and challenges into beautiful solutions.