Plantation Shutters for the Master Bathroom

Our master bathroom shades and valances have never been my favorite.  This may be a theme on my blog!!  The shades were intended to be placeholders until I found something more suitable and permanent.  Cordless cellular shades are great for so many applications (my kids' rooms included), but I never loved them in our master bathroom.  When the shades were down, we couldn't see anything although the light filtering and privacy was nice.  The valances were from Walmart and certainly were not investment pieces, and I resold them for $15 for the set so it wasn't a total loss.  

Plantation shutters seemed like an obvious alternative.   I wanted to be sure before I made that kind of investment.  I'll often jump into things I'm not completely sure about if it won't cost much money.  That was the case with the valances and cellular shades (about $150 originally for all 3 windows).  I lived with them for 5 years and now I got exactly what I wanted.  

Here's what it looked like before.

 And now…

Might have to ask Handy Hubby about some crown molding in here.  I can only imagine the moaning and groaning I'm going to hear. 

I'm not sure I would ever put plantation shutters in every window in my house but they are super tempting!  I would love to add them to our bedroom at some point as well. 

Any plantation shutter lovers or haters?  What do you think of them in my bathroom? 

Shower Update and FInale

I'm glad to say the shower issue is fixed.  The cause was both a poorly installed and caulked shower seat and a potentially faulty body jet spray.  Everything is now reinstalled, retiled, and ready for use!  Wahoo!

We were lucky that The Tile Shop still carried our tile so we didn't have to take more extreme measures.  For those who are looking for the tile (one of the most frequently asked questions on this blog), the wall tile is Lansdale Carrara Medley (item #659075) and the mosaic floor tile is Lansdale Carrara Niles (item #655758).  Of course the first salesperson I spoke to told me that neither was available and that I would be better off calling the main office to see if they could track it for me.  PANIC!!!  Grrrrr.... I felt like this guy might not be that with it so I talked to another salesperson and he located 2 boxes of the floor tile in the same store's storeroom (grrr... but thank goodness) and located 3 boxes of wall tile in another store 30 minutes away.  Lesson learned: Don't take no for answer and if you don't trust the first person you talk to, find someone else!  If you are looking for this tile, it does seem like it's not readily available right now so go get it ASAP if you want it.

The pictures aren't exciting so it just looks like our regular shower!  Just waiting on the drywall and painting to be finished and we'll be fully back to normal!

The main lesson learned here is that you need to caulk your shower every year... We learned the hard way that this can make a small probably huge.  It won't take long but it needs to be done!!  One tip from the plumber was that if you want to use the caulk that matches your grout color around your plumbing fixtures, you can do a very thin "pencil" line of caulk so it really just looks like grout.  Let that cure for a day, and then go in and cover that with a fat bead of clear silicone caulk which will hold up much longer and you won't be able to see it.  At this point, I am really just aiming for function not beauty, but I thought I would pass that along.

We are so thankful that we chose a builder that is willing to stand by his work at any cost.  He continues to answer our calls so we love him for that!

Case of the Dripping Kitchen Ceiling: Solved

An alternative tile for this post would be: Is that a hole in your DuraRock?  Why yes it is!  And the case of the dripping kitchen ceiling (more on that here) is now solved.  It appears that the seat in our beautiful shower was installed incorrectly by a not so expert tile installer.

Today, our contractor and the plumber who installed the plumbing in our addition spent 45 minutes running water in our shower with no luck getting it to drip in the kitchen.  Frustrating for me as I sat there staring at the ceiling and trying to will water to come out. No such luck.  The assessment was that if water was dripping it was a very tiny leak it and it might take several showers to get the water to come out as far as the kitchen ceiling - the plywood would absorb quite a bit before it starts puddling.

Before ripping out the floor of the shower, I suggested ripping out some drywall on the walls outside the shower just to be sure there was no other source.  The next step was to rip out the floor of the shower and replace the pan and hope that was the cause. Thank goodness I suggested this.  

Tonight, while I escaped the house to head to a yoga class (I am a newbie yogi - love it though!), Handy Hubby ripped out some drywall in our upstairs hall which lines up with the back of our shower.  

Once Handy Hubby opened up the hole and ran the shower for a few minutes, he started seeing puddling at the bottom but couldn't figure it out until he cut a little higher to see around the seat.  Bingo.

To give you an idea of what you're looking at, I labeled the picture.

Cutting the Durarock is a BIG no no.  The shower seat is supposed to rest on the tiles below with the tiles above also holding it in place.  Basically, a tile sandwich supported on two of the three sides.  If you want to see how it should be done, check out this You Tube video.  Love the music.

Anyway, if you need more proof that this is a problem, then check out the photo below which I took in the dark hallway but left the lights on in the shower.  Yes, that's light coming through the wall. Where light can get through, so can water. ARGH!!

So, it looks like the area around the seat needs to be ripped out and the tile needs to be replaced and the seat correctly reinstalled after the durarock is properly patched and likely some sort of membrane is attached to be sure water never gets through again.  

We even have a picture of the original Durarock in place thanks to my obsessive picture taking throughout the renovation.  This photo was taken as the Durarock was being installed.  

Let's see how quickly we can get it fixed.  At least it doesn't look like we need to rip out the floor and the walls!

Our Master Bathroom

Before we tore our house apart top to bottom (more on that here), we had one real bathroom and one sort of half bathroom (really a toilet and shower in a basement closet with laundry tub outside the door).  I'm really happy to say, we are now lucky enough to have three full bathrooms and one half bathroom which seems to work well for us... at least until Elizabeth is 13! 

Here's the tour starting with the entry which is a pocket door from our bedroom. We really only close this in the morning when we shower. Otherwise, it's open 90% of the time. It might not work or everyone but it works well for us because we saved the space of a swinging door.

We have a linen closet on the left side and our shower on the right. The tile is carrara marble from the Tile Shop.  The walls are subway tile and the floor is basketweave. If you take this picture to the Tile Shop, they will likely tell you they don't have this. BUT, this is not what I expected it to look like when we ordered it - I was expecting something more gray and white with hints of cream and blue - not like this. BUT, I liked this more so we kept it.

 

Next up is the vanity. This was a major splurge for us in our home renovation. We are definitely bargain basement, coupon-clippers, and web discount shoppers when it comes to our home renovation projects. I fell in love with this vanity in a Pottery Barn catalog even before we started the renovation and I set out to find a great discount alternative. None could be found other than building one (my mom's idea) but I nixed it for lack of time and patience in the midst of living in a tiny rental house, renovating our house, and having one child and one on the way. So we bought it. I helped ease the pain by getting reward points on a Pottery Barn store credit card which I used for other things in the house. It was all worth it.  One point to note - if you are thinking about this type of vanity, you have to build the space to fit the vanity - preferably with the vanity on site.

For those questioning the open storage below, it is GREAT. I love keeping extra towels there. Folding towels neatly is way easier than folding clothes neatly so it's not a big deal to have them displayed. No, it does not get dusty under there - the towels seem to take care of that.

Next up is the toilet room off to the right with another pocket door. We did not really have a choice here.

So, where's the big over-sized soaker tub?  Not there! We chose not to have a tub to save space and we are not really bath people - I can't really sit still that long! Instead, I chose a larger bedroom and closet, as well as an upstairs laundry over a large tub which collects dust because we never use it. With a shower this awesome, my kids rarely even take baths!!

The little box under the shower switch is the controller for the radiant floor heat which we LOVE. Nothing better on a cold winter morning than to feel the warm tile. We really don't need rugs other than to step out of the shower which is nice because we can show off our fantastic floor.
Sources: Wall color - Duron/Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay; Towels - Restoration Hardware Silver Sage and White; Tile - Tile Shop Carrera Marble;

Check out the great bathrooms linked below. Sorry, the party is closed to new entries!

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.houseography.net" title="HOUSEography House Tour Link Party"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfejo-vVCXhIt3k9eMCuNn1mekzH5IdoNfeEBzDPvkoAjAKPmJ92yHCkFN678vkSybsV2I2pocDmAKrGDA5dFMQ5deOCzH2RoYc0woHMDb7IRIkowA8_DtBNqk46cRD7cOx5Hklq6fIB9/s1600/HOUSEography+Button+HOUSE+TOUR+PARTY.jpg" alt="HOUSEography House Tour Link Party" style="border:none;" /></a></div>





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A Great Tray Find

I wanted to share a great little find I found a few weeks before Christmas at my beloved REfind Consignments in Vienna. I had been looking for a tray for our bathroom vanity to keep our various glass containers in check.  They have a tendency to find their way to all parts of the counter.  Despite looking for various months, I hadn't found anything so pretty much gave up. 


Then went to check out Carey's Christmas decorations, and totally stumbled on this little beauty!  

 

Perfect size and I love the flower pattern.  I added a couple of sticky rubber feet to the bottom to keep the metal from scratching the granite counter. 

Everything barely fits but I think it works.

Of course I have a thing for trays.  I have one on my dresser and I have one on the bar in the dining room.  I love the way tray has a practical purpose of keeping things together in one place and protecting the surface they sit on (such as in the bar) and they have an aesthetic purpose of focusing the eye on things that may be otherwise lost on the larger space. 

Do you use trays in your decorating?  Any good recent consignment shop finds?

Linen Closet Mecca!

I get a unique thrill out of a cleaned up closet!  I generally like to keep my closets orderly but for some reason, our master bathroom linen closet got really out of hand over the last few months. 

I just spent 15 minutes (literally!) cleaning it out ...

And the super organized after - no more wondering if there's any more shaving cream!

I had all of the baskets and plastic bins already.  Where are all the towels?  They are stored under our vanity on an open shelf - very easy to grab a new one when you need one.  I had originally thought I would put them in baskets, but since I like my towels folded neatly and consistently, no baskets were necessary! 

I also took the opportunity to throw out any expired medications and beauty products in our medicine cabinet over the vanity.  I LOVE opening that closet now!

Lighting Choices

For some reason when you are just visiting a house, lighting doesn't seem to be a big issue - unless it's really bad. If you don't notice it then it's working well. This is different from noticing a particular fixture because it's interesting. The light should set the mood for the room or area. Dimmers should be installed in areas where you may want to reduce the harshness of the light. Besides the obvious dining room example, in your master bedroom, you probably want some recessed lights on dimmers because as you are getting ready to go to bed, you don't need them on full blast but when you are trying to match your black and navy socks then you probably want as much as light as you can get!

I searched high and low for different lights to match the different rooms in our house. I stumbled on these through various web retailers (often on clearance) as well as outlet stores and big box home stores. For example, I found some Restoration Hardware sconces for our master bathroom but did not like the coordinating pieces but did find a Murray Feiss overhead light which worked perfectly with the sconces and which I love!

In our kitchen, I worked really hard to find the ideal pendant lights. Although some people may think they are too large to be called pendants, I chose some large school house style lights which really fit with the era of our home, as well as the casual elegant style that I strive for througout our home.

The most important thing is to pick what you love. Don't settle even under the time pressure of building a house or adding on. If you don't find what you are picturing, then keep looking until the right thing hits you. Be sure you leave yourself lots of time to make your decisions, but in general, you know what you're going to need even when you are only laying the foundation. So, make a list and start checking things off once you find them. This also gives you more to shop for bargains!