BEDKNOBS & BAUBLES

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

March 21, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

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!

March 18, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

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!

March 7, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

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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