BEDKNOBS & BAUBLES

Pretty, Useful Things: Stylish Soap Dispensers

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12 Stylish Soap Dispensers

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE

Fortunately I don’t suffer from decision paralysis because this renovation is one decision after another, and it’s everything from location of light switches and outlets to the size of the shower nook to the color of grout — and even to the accessories like soap dispensers. The soap dispensers I’ve had from Target haven’t really held up over the years, with exception of No. 6 above which is in our kitchen, so I’m on the hunt for new ones to outfit both bathrooms. Since I already have dozens of tabs open, I thought I’d share some of my favorites. Right now, I’m leaning toward No. 2 or No. 10 for our powder room. For the main bathroom, a glass version like No. 9 looks like it might be the perfect vintage-inspired choice.

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Project Update: Main Bathroom Progress

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sneakers

The team started on the upstairs bathroom last Monday. They’ve been making a lot of progress over the past week and a half, so I thought it was a good opportunity to share some photos of where we’re at.

First, let’s revisit where we started:

coat, top, jeans, bag, phone case

Once the bathroom cabinets were cleared out, Oliver couldn’t help but seize the opportunity to fully explore every nook and cranny of the room! I also snapped a few final before photos of the room in a widescreen format to give you a better idea of the layout. You can see additional before photos here, along with more details on what we’re planning on doing in this space.

This was the end of the first day of demo. The team needed to remove tile before they could remove the lath and plaster to bring the room down to the studs. You can see that we had some water damage where the tub was, but fortunately it was limited to the floors, wood we were removing, and insulation that would be coming out anyway. Apparently all of that insulation you can see in this image was wet. We’re incredibly lucky that the exterior wall and studs were all in good condition.

After tearing out the linoleum flooring, we discovered that our red oak floors had originally extended into the bathroom — as you can see in the opening image of this post. It’s a shame that the wood wasn’t in good shape and it had been patched in a few spots with plywood. I would have happily pivoted my design plans to have hardwood in here!

We also learned that our floors were hilariously uneven. Overall the subfloor was in good condition and they just needed to replace some of the subfloor that was next to the toilet due to some rot. After putting in the new board, they leveled the floor with various heights of materials to even it before installing the backer board for our future tile.

Here’s where we were at yesterday morning. We’re going to have two built-in cabinets flank the shower and they were able to frame the new one to match the original within an eighth of an inch in width. Also, removing that counter on the right side immediately added so much more room to the space.

The team is working on roughing in the tub and shower plumbing today. They’re also working on replacing the window that will be in the shower. We bought a new window that’s half the height, but the same width. This will allow us to keep the natural light that we love in there, but offers more privacy than that frosted window cling did. We chose a window that won’t open to ensure that the space remains watertight. We’ll be keeping the window at the left of this photo. It was important to me to save the original trim of the remaining window and the door, and we’re incredibly lucky that the old wood didn’t crack or break during demo.

This is one of my favorite additions: an electrical outlet inside the built-in cabinet! This is going to allow us to charge our toothbrushes in the cabinet and not on the counter! Seriously, if you’re doing a remodel of any sort, think of those ugly yet practical things that take up space and figure out a solution for them. Each contractor that we spoke with to get a quote thought this was brilliant and was going to suggest it to future clients. I should really get a commission. 😉

Clockwise from upper left: the wall where the vanity will go and progress on plumbing; our little home inspector; another look at the shower area; new insulation!

I’ll check in again once we’ve made more progress!

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On the Right Foot: Embracing Vintage Tile, Studying History with Fashion, Spring Garden Ideas & More!

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Happy first Monday of spring! To celebrate the return of warmer weather, I treated myself to this beauty of a bag. It’s so pretty and eye-catching, and I am just head-over-heels with it! (It’s also available here for 30% off.) It’s refreshing to add a seasonal statement-maker to my closet after two years of schlepping it in yoga pants and sweaters.

On the topic of refreshes, our tile is installed in the powder room and it’s gorgeous! The sink was installed on Friday and we’re hanging the mirror today. The team had used a plumb bob to center the sconce over the sink, however our room isn’t level (#OldHouseProblems) and the sconce is about a half inch too far to the right. So, the team will be scooting that over today so it’s all lined up correctly. They’ve also made a lot of progress on the main bathroom upstairs. It’s all of the behind-the-wall stuff right now, but I’ll share an update later this week. While I love those surprising before-and-after reveal posts as much as the next person, I think it’s important to share snippets of the process for a “real” person with a budget so you know what to expect.

I didn’t realize that some of the characters in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel were based on real people. (Spoiler warning for those who haven’t watched the season four finale.)

Love unique drinkware? Check out these beauties on Etsy. I also like the maker’s heat-resistant glass mugs.

Going monochrome in this bathroom makes the vintage tile feel intentional.

Meet the woman who uses fashion to study history.

Here’s why you look rough after a bad night’s sleep.

How sweet is this swimsuit?!

I’m determined to practice my gardening skills even more this year and enjoyed scrolling through these ideas.

This made me laugh. We all have that coat that can be worn for just one a day a year!

Have a wonderful week!

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Powder Room Progress: The Tile is in!

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It’s been awhile since I’ve checked in! Our computer malfunctioned so I was MIA for a little while until we could get that back in working order and it couldn’t have come back at a better time when I have some updates to share with you from my last progress report on our powder room.

First things first, a peek of that easy-to-clean, flat-sided toilet was my most commented-on Instagram story ever. I love that we’re at the age where stuff like this excites us! If you’re the market for a toilet, you can find it here and here. I bought the recommended toilet seat for it.

Shortly after we left off, the drywall went up and it finally felt like a room again! We had a few days of mudding and sanding. In a perfect world, we would have primed and painted before the tile went in, but we had some scheduling delays that moved the tile up on the priority list. And trust me, I was not mad at it. Seeing the tile installed made my heart soar and I could finally see my vision board come together. It’s one thing to make a collage in Photoshop, but it’s another to see your selections actually take shape and work together.

It was around this point where I snuck downstairs and smugly smiled to myself thinking “I have good taste.” Haha. But it felt so good to see the pieces fall into place so well — and quite literally at that. You’ll see that we lucked out and were able to place a full tile at each corner and along the sides of the room. We did have a delay with the grout, so after the tile set in mortar, the floor was covered and attention moved to the walls and woodwork.

One of the things I really wanted to do in this space was make the millwork mimic that of the original trim in the house. They removed the frame and sill of the existing window in the half bath and rebuilt trim to match our window casings elsewhere. The window itself is pretty crappy and we’ll probably replace it down the road, but the new trim makes it seem so much larger and adds much-needed architectural detail in this space. The team still has some work to do with it to add a sill and a finishing piece over the seam, but I’m just so happy with it. They did a similar trim around the doorframe, and they put in baseboards that match the profile of our original trim on the first floor. (You can see these in the opening photo.) Our contractor’s team is so talented and they have such acute attention to detail that makes my perfectionist-heart sing!

The grout arrived on Friday of last week, which allowed the team to get that taken care of fairly quickly. This week was all about dehazing the grout, placing the finishing pieces like the trim, and starting to install fixtures. We still have to seal the floor and finalize locations of things like the mirrors and towel bars, but we’re getting there! The team also moved to the main bathroom on Monday and have already completed demo and leveled the floor. I’ll share more about that space in the coming weeks!

Until then, here’s a tiny peek at how far along this room has come. I’ll do a reveal post once we’re complete with a full source list.

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On the Right Foot: Creating a Sense of Escapism, One-Pot Pasta Recipes, A Comprehensive Guide to Secondhand Shopping & More!

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Image credit: Aaron Burden

Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a great start. Our contractor’s team is continuing to make progress on our powder room this week. Unfortunately we have a supply chain hiccup with our grout, pushing our project back a week. The tile is already laid in mortar (peek at it here), so this week will be priming and painting the powder room and getting the wood trim painted and in place around the window and part of the door. We’ll grout on Friday. Monday will be putting the final pieces of trim in around the floor and setting all of the fixtures so we can finally move to the main bathroom. The process is taking longer than we had anticipated, but it really is looking beautiful and I’m so grateful that we’re in the position to make these improvements to our home.

Even though we don’t have children, I still enjoyed this read on how a pair of toy mice created a welcome sense of escapism during the pandemic.

Last week we went to Harvey House for dinner, which was named one of Esquire’s best new restaurants for 2021. For those of you in the Madison area, it’s worth checking out. It’s expensive, but it’s by far some of the best service I’ve had, and the meal and drinks were both exceptional. Plus, they have matchboxes if you’re also into that sort of thing!

I just love glassware and treated myself to a pair of these glasses after admiring them all of last year. They’re even better in person!

16 one-pot pasta recipes.

I had no idea how tile was spaced before the introduction of plastic spacers. This was really interesting!

The prettiest shades of blue are part of the most recent roundup of covetable finds.

A comprehensive guide to secondhand shopping.

I’m obsessing over these oversized floral statement earrings.

Predicting the future of brick-and-mortar stores in 2022.

Enjoy the week!

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