apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The reasons most toilets don't have "real rugs" is that any rug in the bathroom should be cleaned frequently and it's hard to toss a real carpet in the washing machine. I don't like the kind that mold around the toilet base either, but I don't think a real carpet is the answer.

Insights about how high to hang art are really useful, and the whole "anchor your rugs" line won a domestic dispute for me ("Designers say that the furniture should be on the rug. Therefore, it goes this way.") but ...

I call bullshit on 7 and 25. Not to cry class war or anything, but am going to go out on a limb and say that it is a rare, rare person who has plastic furniture slip-covers and would like their livingroom better without them. My old super had a plastic runner on his livingroom carpet, and plastic slipcovers on his couch. And he was happy. He and his wife and their kids did not come home and stare at their living room and say "oh, boo hoo, how can I make my living room classier?" They came home and said "oh, I wonder if my son's blow up fifth grade portrait should be in a gold frame or a black frame?"

My father came through and built some great shelves for my studio apartment, which horrified my super who thought it was clear that they needed curtains. Preferably pink. And no matter how many times he saw me with my combat boots and my shaved head (and I looked good in both, thank you very much) he was sure that what I needed to really pull my kitchen together was pink curtains. I'm sure that if his wife was the sewing sort I would have had pink curtains over my open kitchen shelves.

I never had occasion to use their toilet but I'm sure they had a toilet-surround rug that matched their toilet seat cover.

I think the author disapproves specifically of shaped toilet rugs that hug the base-- all manner of rectangular washable bathroom rugs are readily available.

I don't like them either, and I'll try to articulate why: (beside the fact that these rugs are almost always cheap brightly-colored acrylic)... there's something particularly unpleasant about outfitting a toilet as though it were an easy chair. It's akin putting a shelf of reading material next to the can.

(Plus, let's face it: any such rug would absorb an inordinate amount of pee, if there's a man in the house.)

Oh hey and ...

The problem with the floating rug photo above is more about mistake #26, which is pushing every piece of furniture to the walls when you aren't actually preparing to roll up the rug and dance.

Toilet rugs are pee catchers. Gross.

They came home and said "oh, I wonder if my son's blow up fifth grade portrait should be in a gold frame or a black frame?"
_____

Very funny--I can picture the whole place based on this one sentence!

LOL, HGTV giving rules on how to arrange a room? This is the very same channel that airs "Decorating Cents"!

And "Room by Room"

And is home to Debbie Travis!

I don't think it's necessary to ban all fake flowers. They come in really good, real, looking versions these days...
I have a severe case of always-forgetting-to-water-my plants plus hay fever. So what I have is 50/50 real and fake: a real cactus, succulent and bamboo stick that won't die on me when I forget them and fake flowers to add colour. If I add real flowers, I end up sneezing and having a runny nose all the time.

You can get decent "real" bath mats from Ikea that are cotton and can be tossed in the wash. There really is no need or purpose to shaped polyester toilet mats. Ew.

Ignoring windows: Whether shades or curtains, don't forget them. Think of windows as art. They need a great frame.

Actually, I think bare windows can look great. Sometimes the window frame perfectly frames the view and doesn't need anything else.

These rules are good general guidelines for the design-challenged, but there are ways to break at least some of them with great results.

In reference to the windows; When she was still a young woman Georgia Okeefe shocked her landlords when she asked if she could not only leave curtains off of the windows in her room, and, even "worse" she also wanted to paint them black, to frame the view from her windows (she was still in the mid-west at this time-I always think that her view must of been pretty much brown, gold, and blue sky-lots of sky)

I agree with fabframes. I strongly prefer naked windows, especially if they have a frame. If I must, I can accept very simple, thin, white curtains whose purpose is namely to filter the light. But anything more makes the place feel closed in and cave-like.

I kind of like a closed-in feeling at night. I draw the curtains shut as kind of a security thing. Maybe it's a womb memory. :D

As for shaped bathroom rugs, just...no. I do have a long rectangle next to the bath, though, since I don't want to step out of the shower and kill myself by sliding on tile. It's exciting beige cotton. I don't have the desire to put my feet on something cuddly while going to the bathroom.

Nice fake flowers are a good idea to keep around. I have some Calla Lily fakes that I use between trips to the florist or if the real thing happens to go bad before I can replace them. Think of them as a decorative place holder, not a permanent solution.

66" on center seems way to high for picture frames. They should be lower - 57-60" on center.

I'm a man and I don't pee on the floor. Don't be sexist!

Bath mats: I like the thick towel like ones that go in the wash with the towels every week. Not the furry weird ones that have rubber on the back and never get washed. Especially if there is a matching toilet seat cover.

I really like bare windows too but I also like privacy. When we lived in Germany there were these heavy metal blinds that went over the outside of the window that were great. They were hidden when they weren't in use and at night you could roll them down and have privacy. They were great for sleeping during the day too, no sunlight to wake you up. I think tacking up sheets or random pieces of fabric to cover the windows (as in the picture) is way worse than having bare windows.

I think it's a good set of general rules.

And like quiltmaster, I'm a man and I definitely don't pee on the floor.

I actually just sewed together smaller IKEA mats to cover my (very tiny) bathroom floor, and yes, it also wraps around the toilet. Why? Because the apartment complex tiled the floor with the most god-awful poop-brown-orange lumpy tiles, and it's the only thing this renter can do to hide the horror.

I can't imagine having a real rug in a bathroom. It's much better to have something you can easily pick up and throw in the laundry machine.

I'm pretty strongly opposed to fake flowers in general, but I think paper flowers can be beautiful. Plastic flowers are never a good move.

Those around-the-toilet rugs are nasty. The matching fuzzy things that go on the toilet lid are almost as bad. I have a cotton bath mat that is only on the floor when I shower. I hang it neatly over the side of the tub to dry once I've toweled off.

This is patronising. I'm sure readers of AT don't need this kind of simple advice.

Fun fact: everyone pees on the floor. Get a blacklight in your bathroom if you don't believe me. A fine spray splashes back up whenever you pour liquid into a bowl of water. If you pour from your hips standing over a bowl at your knees ... well. Some of that mist is going to land on the floor.

If you pour from knee height, that mist is going to hit the bottom of the toilet seat and some of it will escape the loo. Don't take my word for it. Get your hands on a blacklight and see for yourself.

Sometimes I'm not paying attention and there ends up being pee on the floor. You really need to aim that thing.

When I was a kid, my parents decided to decorate the guest bathroom, which happened to be mine. They purchased a wrap around rug and matching seat cover, and the next morning, when I was half asleep and unaccustomed to the lid being down, I sat down and peed all over it!

Read the labels on bathroom rugs- some are machine washable- definitely the way to go...

I say make your own rules....IT'S YOUR HOME! It doesn't belong to some tasteless decorator from HGTV. If you want to pee on the floor and not clean it up, that's up to you. Cleanliness is a reflection of the priorities of the inhabitant of a home. My home? Spotless. My home is my sanctuary that I share with very few. Meaning, of course, individuals who are quick to condemn the functionality of an item because it clashes with the design of a space. If it works for you, then who the hell cares what some designer thinks of it.

My cat will eat/chew on any real flower if she can reach it. Since most flowers are poisonous to cats, I do have some fake flowers, and I've gotten compliments on them. Fake flowers have come a long way. I use compressed air to get dust off, or even wipe them down with a wet cloth depending..
I desire my toes to be on something soft when I use the bathroom. Getting up in the middle of the night is bad enough, cold hard tiles just makes it worse. I don't have a contoured toilet rug though. I've got a longer regular bath mat, that gets close enough to the shower, and to the toilet. I do think using anything non washable would be a mistake..

HGTV just wants everyone to subscribe to their way of thinking. If it were up to them, every house would be ready for "flipping", without an ounce of personality. I'd rather go to a house with plastic covers on the furniture, toilet rugs in the bathroom, and dusty fake flowers than some of the overly sterile, everything-from-a-model-home, look they promote.

stupid rules

"If it works for you, then who the hell cares what some designer thinks of it."
The designer is never going to think about it, because he/she is never going to enter your house. These rules are not for pleasing some designer, but for those who wonder why their house does not look as good as some others'. It gives the design challeged ideas to try out and see if they like the look better. No one is telling people to do anything, these are just recommendations to help you improve the aesthetics of your home (only if you want to).

And yes, not all rules apply to everyone. I like a minimalistic almost sterile look, so No.7 is not for me.

But do people really use plastic covers on their furniture? It's a joke, right?

I do have a fluffy rug in my bathroom, in front of the sink (I really dislike standing on cold tile in the morning) and I put a cover on the toilet seat lid so that my blind cat can jump up on it safely without skidding off. Both rug and cover are white and get washed often (with bleach) since they show any dirt. (The cat washes himself.)

We live in a world that is populated by germs and bacteria--there's no point in getting a phobia about bathroom rugs.

Some day, when I'm on some TV show somewhere and they ask me for my most embarrassing secret, I'm going to share that I love, love, love fake flowers. I was watching that HGTV special and feeling pretty darned cocky until they got to their #1 mistake. I'm unabashed.

Here are my top three kitchen remodeling mistakes you don't want to make:

http://jgkitchens.blogspot.com/2008/07/top-3-kitchen-remodeling-mistakes-you.html

These will set you back a whole bunch more than HGTV's list!

What's wrong about toilet rugs???

Toilet rugs, when used (and cleaned often) well, are absolutely fabulous underneath the feet.

Same for fake flowers -> Drop a silk flowers (without the stem) in a large glass vase with black pebbles and water and add a drifting candle. I did it, using the flowers in a color that came back in my painting and pillows - it looks beautiful!

I dont agree to some of these 'rules'.

The very idea of anyone taking these conformist ideas seriously is insulting.

Individualism is key. Even if it includes a well made fake flower or two.

Come on people.

although Decorating Cents and Room by Room are super lame, i actually like Debbie Travis.