Bathrooms - the smallest room in the home (usually) yet one that can be a big challenge. This month we are looking at what's out there to make the bathroom just as beautiful, organized and healthy as the rest of them. We'll be blogging products, fixtures, ideas and inspiration for the loo all month long.
Bathrooms are just hard to work with. For owners, you can't easily redo the layout of the "furniture" and the "wallcovering" installation often requires grout instead of wallpaper paste. It's a very pricy room to consider renovating and it's not the most diy friendly spot.
Which brings us to the renters - often bathrooms could use an upgrade or redo and tenants are stuck with a spot that they have to "live with" well beyond it's prime. Outdated color schemes and once-in-fashion fixtures are hard to ignore.
So, those are some problems - we'll be looking for solutions. We're hoping those of you who have tackled the bathroom design challenge will send us some photos this month. Whether is was a gut renovation or simply an nice new color of paint, show it off. Email us photos at chicago(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com. The first thirty bathrooms posted across the four AT city sites this month will recieve a tshirt or AT book as a thank you.
Also in March we will be revving up for the big annual "Smallest Coolest Contest". This is the first year that Chicago will be posting entries (we launched just a little too late last year!) and we hope the midwest will make a strong showing. Even though living space is generally more plentiful here, but we know petite places exist everywhere as does great design.
For the Smallest Coolest Contest 2007, the editors will take all submissions first, during a specific period beginning in March and then we'll start posting the best of the bunch in April. So, if you are thinking about entering, get those final design details wrapped up, start taking photos and keep an eye on AT for details - more coming soon!
(Image: An Artelinea sink from our top ten list of our favorites from KBIS 2006 - check here for the whole list...)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Bathroom month!
I'm in the middle of renovating a master bath and a guest bath.
Can anyone give me any advice on bathroom vanities? I'm going for the nice modern Duravit kind of look but am looking for an inexpensive alternative. I've looked just about everywhere but if anybody can provide me with a source I may have overlooked I'd be forever in your debt! (not really, just exaggerating).
I would really be excited to hear any creative solutions to re-create the look of some of these high end vanities. For instance, the Kohler Purist wall-mounted vanity is essentially a big wall mounted cabinet with a drawer--but it's 1400 bucks!
Please help, I've got less than a month to post my pictures and win a t-shirt!
art:
one source: last year during our bathroom month we posted a simple modern wall-hung vanity for $799 that you might like. i just checked the link and it's still available (unfortunately on back order)...the same online retailer (www.expressdecor.com) also has other modern styles at price points below $1000.
I am also considering a bathroom renovation. Janel, did you purchase anything from www.expressdecor.com or know anyone who has? That particular vanity is very attractive, but much too wide for my space.
The Artelinea vanity is beautiful, but I can't find any distribution information. Do you know if it is available here in the U.S.?
Kathryn:
Sorry, no - I don't have any personal experience with or know anyone who has used expressdecor.com.
I checked my KBIS file - a US distributor for Artelinea is Euro Design Interiors...
Overstock.com has had several nice bathroom sinks.
I purchased my powder room vanity set and kitchen faucet from ExpressDecor and from personal experience I can only say good things about them. Their customer service (Michael), pricing and shipping (FREE) was great. On vanity set I was not sure what faucet finish would work better in my bath so they just sent me both faucets to check and then return one I did not want, also I got free upgrade on sink...so very highly recommended.
They are based from NYC.
Vanity I got: http://www.expressdecor.com/product_info.php/cPath/4_24/products_id/406
Kitchen faucet is now sold out.
We make a tasty bath vanity that can be seen at the link below. It's made from 2 pcs. of 1/4" plate steel and can be made to fit nearly any space. We even do a double bowl!
http://web.mac.com/j3mbeck/iWeb/JohnBeckPaper_Steel/Bath.html
The bowl and faucet are not ours though. They can be had through
www.blueboatdesigns.com
I'm back again, this time with an idea.
I was thinking about using the Elan nightstand from Crate and Barrel as a bathroom vanity. The wood is beautiful, it will go great with the look I am trying to achieve in the bath and it will tie-in with my dining room table.
Obvious differences between this and a conventional vanity. This one is only 15" deep and only 22.5" high. Wall mounting it shouldn't be a problem. I should be able to seal the wood again so water shouldn't be a problem. My main concern is the depth.