and 90% perspiration ~ Thomas Edison.

Whilst we’re working hard around here trying to beautify our abode, I thought I’d simply post a few pics that are currently rocking my world on the design inspiration front.  Enjoy the random menagerie of eye candy…

Sources: drum chandelier | clock – source unknown  |  map art |   black on black stencil |   board-and-batten bathroom |   floating nightstands

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been searching the Interwebs for some design inspiration (although an unanticipated side effect of this is wanting to redo our recently “done” downstairs bathroom). During my searching I’ve come across some really cool designs.  Some of these pieces might be better suited to an ultra-modern art museum or avant-garde contemporary loft space, but they nonetheless provide inspiration for creating some similar looks in the everyday home.

How about this concrete vanity in the shape of an ammonite, which is the sea creature that when fossilized creates this unique design:

Or how about these table lamp-inspired wall lamps? These cute lights are expressed in silhouette form, featuring the shape of a shaded lamp atop a real shelf – perfect for placing your glasses or other reading accoutrements – all as a one-piece that’s mountable to your wall…

Lamps not your thing? How about having a rolling fireplace? This ultra modern fireplace can easily face any direction to turn any room into a comfy cocoon for the winter. Just roll it where you want some warmth:

Lastly, this is a more modern take on the wall boxes commonly found in most home decor stores. Instead of the traditional rectangular design, how about funking things up with asymmetrical storage?

Could you see any of these designs in your home?  I really love the sea-shell sink in the first photo, but would worry that this look could date very quickly (after all, we have the 80′s version of sea-shell sinks in blue cultured marble in one  of our upstairs bathrooms).  I could also see building a version of those asymmetrical boxes to install on our walls – but again, are they too cool for school?

Image sources:    sink  |  lamps  |  fireplace  |  boxes

I have very much enjoyed my time visiting family and friends during my extended stay in the UK.  But now that time is at an end.  At the end of last week, I flew across the pond back into the arms/paws of my beloveds.

Over the past few days as I become adjusted to my new time zone, I have spent some time perusing the Interwebs searching for some design inspiration.  I like to think of it as a way to kick-start my motivation to get working on our massive house renovation project again.

But my dear blog readers, searching the Internet can be a very dangerous thing.  The endless sources of design and inspiration offer a vast array of possibilities for creating (and recreating) our living spaces. So even when you think you have finished a space, you might get the proverbial itch to change it all over again. The saying goes, it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind (along with a few other things).  But it takes a strong husband not to murder his wife when she says she has “a few small ideas to change things” in their recently renovated bathroom.  Yes, I’m that woman. 

After posting about our newly madeover bathroom, I realized that there were two things that I wasn’t feeling anymore. 

The tile.  And the vanity.  Oh, and not to mention that the glass vessel sink and faucet have to go because they have impossible-to-remove water stains. But that was from before.  It’s not a new thing.  So it doesn’t count.

It’s not that I dislike the tile and the vanity.  It’s just that after perusing the Interwebs, I have found design elements that I like better.  For example, I much prefer the style of these open-base vanities (with a white-and-much-easier-to-keep-clean vessel sink):

And I also seem to be gravitating towards the simple lines of the board and batten look:

While the tile on the walls could easily be covered with the board and batten, the tile on the bathroom floor would be replaced with the wood floors we will be installing (eventually), giving it a seamless look between the living rooms and the bathroom.

So, help a girl out here…. I am not usually so fickle when it comes to design choices.  I am entering new territory wanting to change things up. What do you think?  Am I crazy to want to redo our recently madeover bathroom?  Are you feeling the potential new looks or do you prefer it the way it is now?

If all goes according to plan, we should have family from the UK coming to stay for the Thanksgiving holiday.   Although it’s not on our list of renovation goals for 2010, we really need to make a start at getting at least one of our spare bedrooms more visitor friendly by November. 

 Until recently, the spare bedrooms have been empty shells… well, apart from a few boxes of junk that we’ve never sorted through since our move in 2009:

A couple of weeks ago, I worked up a inspiration moodboard for this room.

It involves repainting the walls a lovely duck-egg blue color, and bringing in some sumptuous chocolate furniture, with touches of turquoise and silver and contrasting red accessories.  I also talked about having a dark bedspread, but funking it up with some graphic black and white sheets and punchy pillows.  Throw in some modern sleek lined furniture and an architectural light, and we had an initial plan for transforming this blah space.

Well, phase 1 of the bedroom makeover is currently underway. We’ve yet to paint the walls – I think this will make the biggest transformation in the room.  When I return to the States at the end of this month, the search will be on for the perfect duck-egg hue (any suggestions?). We have moved some furniture in to the room, making it decidedly less storage-room and much more bedroom.

A brand new queen sized mattress and box springs has been topped with a simple black bedding set and a few cute pillows.  The bed is flanked by two glossy nightstands (that were bought on clearance, score!).  The generic drawer handles were replaced with some funky crystal topped ones, which I think tie in nicely with the brushed nickel finish of the lamps.  The black bedding is only temporary until I can find a more exciting set like one of these.  I do like the graphic pop of the black-and-white sheets and pillow that peek from behind the more subdued cover.

Opposite the bed, an Ikea Hopen dresser (another Craigslist bargain) is topped by three mirrors found at Target, which are great for bouncing light around the room.  The dresser is actually quite large and so has plenty of space for guests to place their foldable items (the door to the left of the dresser is a small walk-in closet).

A few small red accessories have been placed on the dresser, including the very first photo taken of Rick and I when we began dating (10 years ago – eek!).

So, we’re starting to make progress transforming this room in a more liveable space.  There are many things left to do in this room: paint the walls, lay some flooring, change the bedding, bring in some artwork and figure out some cool lighting.

Eventually, I’d like to think about installing a built-in bookcase in that wall where the roof line comes down (instead of that small door).  It might also be cool to install some window seats under those two windows.  That would add a little extra storage and create a nice relaxing space for our guests to chill with a book or to look out the window at the scenery.

I am still looking for design inspiration for this room.  Do you have perfect duck-egg blue paint on your walls?  How about a great architectural light fixture?  Have you built a fab window seat? Help a girl out here and spill the beans!

How cool is this eco-friendly alarm clock?

The clock is powered by water.  Yep, H2O only.  And it also has a thermometer and calendar. You simply add water to the cell to activate, and enjoy free energy to run your clock.  I could see having one of these in each of the guest bedrooms, not to mention the office  and the front rooms.

In addition to being good for the planet and pleasing on the eye, it’s a steal at only £14.99 GBP (approx. $25 USD).  Want one (or five)? Check ’em out here!

I’ve been promising to reveal our downstairs bathroom makeover for months weeks, and now the time is upon us!  The actual bathroom has been complete for a while, but I’ve just procrastinated in writing a post about it (on account of the millions of photos you’re about to see).  So, before I reveal what the bathroom currently looks like, let’s see how it used to look…

 

Yowza.  This is exactly what we saw on the day we first visited the house.  It’s amazing we didn’t run away screaming, don’t you think?  Fast forward to the day we moved in, with all the clutter removed, the bathroom revealed more of its potential…

Check out the sea-foam green wall paint, shell-shaped cultured marble vanity and green floral themed plastic mirror.  This bathroom was calling out for an update.

Just over a month after we moved in, Rick had demo-ed the bathroom, ripping out the vanity and toilet (which we offered for free on Craigslist and were snapped up within hours).  The wood floors had to come up as well because of the underlying rot…

The plumbing under the toilet was fixed, the missing floor joists were put back in and the sub flooring was reinstalled.  This gave us the basic canvas to start tiling with these large 18″ neutral-colored porcelain tiles… 

Whilst we were working on the walls, we decided to move the light switch closer the the door. 

For some reason, the previous owners had placed the light switch about 20 inches in from the door frame.  Meaning that short people like me had difficulty reaching the switch when entering the bathroom.  Rick removed some drywall and moved the switch much closer to the door.  As an added bonus, he changed the switch so it is now motion activated.  Whenever you enter the bathroom, the light automatically turns on.  After you leave the bathroom, it automatically turns off after about 1 minute.  Now we don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving the light on. Plus, we don’t have to worry about what kinds of germs might be on the light switch from unwashed hands.  So, this switch helps cleanliness and our electricity bill – score!

Next, we transformed a vanity we got for free on Craigslist…

… by painting it brown and installing new brushed chrome hardware, adding a new granite countertop, vessel sink and waterfall faucet.

Then we hit a snag.  A couple of the tiles developed small cracks running along the joint where the cement backerboard pieces met below the tile.  Although all the tiling was finished, we didn’t want to grout before this problem was solved. Solution?  To pull those tiles back up. It was a little disheartening to see all our hardwork being demo-ed again, but knowing that the tile would be set properly sans cracks made it worth it.

Once we tiled, again, we were ready to grout…

…and paint.  We also installed contemporary track lighting and ceiling molding to finish off the space.

A few decorative accessories and the bathroom was ready. And so here we are.  Finally. Here it is. The bathroom reveal…

The photo above shows the view as you enter the bathroom.  Below is a photo showing the opposite corner of the bathroom.

A shot of the madeover vanity:

Let’s see a close-up of that vessel sink and waterfall faucet.  As I mentioned previously, the faucet might eventually be changed to this one on account of the impossible-to-remove water stains on the glass.

Above the toilet are three photos depicting lighthouses on the North Carolina coast…

Opposite the facilities is a small magazine bin, so you can catch up with all your essential reading while you are … cogitating.

And here’s a close-up photo of the painting that adorns that wall.  It was the first gift I bought Rick on my very first trip to the USA.  The image ties in nicely with the lighthouse photos on the opposite wall and the color really pops against the gray-blue walls.

This is the new track lighting we installed to give the bathroom a more contemporary feel – gotta love that we found this on clearance at Lowes a couple of years ago for 10 bucks!  I also really like how the molding gives the whole bathroom a polished look.

So there you have it.  Our bathroom makeover. 

Let’s check out the before and after photos…

Rick and I are thrilled about this bathroom makeover.  The space seems a lot bigger and more contemporary after removing the large outdated vanity, installing tile and updating the paint and accessories. What do you think?  Do you like the transformation?  What’s your favorite part?

One of the features that caught my eye when we were looking at buying this house was the stairs in the entry way:

It reminded me of the stairs in the movie Titanic (of course, no where near the scale and grandness of the luxury liner).  The central staircase dividing off in two directions had me at hello (in case you’re wondering, the stairs to the right go to the master suite, the stairs on the left head down the hallway, past the bedroom-turned library, the two spare bedrooms and on to the game room).

One day this week, I was wasting time working hard on the Internet and I came across some pretty cool stairs. How would you like to walk up and down these?

Or these?

Or these?

I think all three stairs are sooo to cool look at, but I imagine I would fall down them pretty quickly!  One way to remedy falling down?  Include a slide!

I think these would work great doubling as a work out tool.  Imagine running up those steps again and again so you can slide back down them.  Fun!  And talking of combining stairs with recreation, I am in L.O.V.E. with these bookcase stairs:

I am seriously tempted to do something like this with the stairs leading to our attic (which will *eventually* be turned into a bedroom suite). Don’t have an attic?  How about these cool stairs leading to a basement.  Think of the storage capabilities!

So, there you have it.  Some stairway design inspiration. Drool at will.

(Sources: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Image 5, Image 6)

As part of our vanity makeover in the downstairs bathroom, we installed this fountain faucet over the glass vessel sink:

However, over the months of use, we’ve ran into one problem.  Water stains.  After we turn the tap off, the few remaining drips have left an indelible stain on the glass. We’ve tried a bunch of things to remove the offending marks, but to little avail (glass cleaner, lime-away, magic eraser). So recently, I’ve been looking into alternatives. I really like the waterfall effect of the existing faucet, so I wanted to find one that mimicked that effect  Just minus the glass.

I’m lovin’ this trough faucet by Pfister.

The open faucet creates this cool waterfall effect.  At 8.25 inches, the spout is high enough to sit above the raised vessel sink.  Plus, it is a single-hole configuration which matches the existing faucet, so swapping them out would be a breeze.  The faucet comes in a range of finishes – chrome and brushed nickel being the most popular. So, unless I can find a way to get rid of the water stains on the existing faucet, this baby might be coming home with me. 

Have you guys got any fab tips for getting rid of water stains?

How cool is this?  Benjamin Moore have launched a new iPhone app called Color Capture. The app  lets you take a photo of anything you’re around, and then shows the closest matching colors in the Benjamin Moore catalog — there are over 3,300, so it should be easy to get a pretty dead-on match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But wait! The coolness does not end there! Shake the phone when your matches come up, and it’ll give you coordinating colors for your new palette, and once you’re convinced these are your home’s new hue, it’ll use the phone’s GPS to find the nearest retailers with the Moore paint.  How’s that for decorating on the go?

What do you think of our new dining room set? Shopping at the weekend, we came across signs saying that World Market was closing its store in Durham and that everything was being sold at up to 30% off.  Neither of us had shopped in this particular store before, and always open to a potential bargain, we took a quick peek inside.  We certainly hadn’t intended on buying a dining room set, but we found the table and chairs at such a steal, it was difficult to turn down. Luckily, we had taken the truck with us on our shopping spree, so we had the ability to put the (very heavy) table and eight chairs in the truck bed.  When we got home, assembly was quick and easy.  It was really exciting to see the set in situ in our to-be-made-over dining room (which is currently serving as the dogs room when we go out). Even with no flooring, the dubious 80′s chandelier and gothic red paint, I think the dining room is going to be a stunner!  Now, all we need is people to come and visit so we can use it! Perhaps sometime in the near future, my family in the UK might come over for an extra special Christmas holiday break.  It would be magical to have everyone here at Christmas time … )