apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

• Put down the toilet seat.
• Close the shower curtain.

I couldn't agree more with these.

ooh ooh, i want to put a plant or flower, but my bathroom gets very steamy and that always makes me think the plant in question wouldn't fare well. does anyone know what kind of flowers/plants can withstand the steamy, damp environment?

If there is enough light, Maidenhair ferns love the steamy, damp environment of a bathroom. In the wild they are found at riverbeds and they love high humidity, but they need to be near a window that gets plenty of light.

My tiny, tiny, tiny WC (if you're over 5'2", your knees will hit the wall in front of you) is completely dark--I can't open the door, because it's directly opposite the entry. Feng shui is against fake flowers and the like, right? Is there anything I can do?

What if you had a couple of plants and rotate them out, a few days in the sun, a few days in the bathroom?

Also, miniture gardenias love humidity and I think need less than full sun. But I am not sure how big a plant you want on the toilet. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I have killed about four of these plants, so, maybe a second opinion would be good.

I've heard of these light bulbds you can get that basically act like the sun. Apparently they really work.

My mom keeps a couple of orchid plants in her bathroom. They're a bit more work than your standard houseplant, but they give back a lot when the blooms last forever.

I usually keep an orchid on my toilet tank. They're cheap-ish at Trader Joe's, they last for a few months (look for ones where some of the buds haven't opened yet), and they're actually startlingly easy to take care of -- you just feed them an ice cube or two once a week.

Man, looking at that shiny floor reminded me....I have old white tiles in my bathroom (from the 30s i guess) and they are very dingy. I"ve tried everything, including bleach. I think they'll never be white again. Some cleaners, for some reason, also turn the grout blue. Has anyone solved the problem of cleaning old tiles and making them shiny and white and feng shui-approved again?

Someone told me to try Oxyclean on ours, but I never got around to it.

I have discovered, though, that cleaning the floor by skidding around on a damp towel gets the tiles much cleaner than scrubbing on my hands and knees. I guess it's a matter of more pressure on the dirt.

Air plants to fairly well in a bathroom. The steam is all the water that they need and they are also very sculptural. (Home Depot always seems to have a large selection.)

Gabrielle - feng shui is pro-fake flowers & plants, but it is anti-dried flowers & plants. So if it's actually alive & green or just looks alive & green, feng shui is for it.

True story - I had a former co-worker who after working at our company for a week, decorated her cube with a lot of old black & white photos... of the result of a California earthquake in the mid-50s or 60s. So she had all of these photos of damaged buildings in her cube. Talk about *horrible* feng shui! Needless to say, she didn't last too long and wasn't happy in that job.

Speaking of tiles and grout- anyone have good ideas on how to whiten dingy grout?

i whiten my bathroom grout using one of those clorox bleach pens.

Try one of those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They do a suprisingly good job on so many things that they just might work for your tiles and grout. However, it sounds like the glaze on the tiles has worn to the point that the tiles have become rather porous and there's lots of "pores" for dirt to reside.

Gabrielle,
I have the same problem as you have. My bathroom door is directly in line of the front door. I bought a shoji paper room divider (the 3 panel kind, they're pretty affordable) and placed it just inside the entry. This way, I got better feng shui and the bathroom isn't the first thing I see when I enter my apt.

Josie

zen garden -vs- small bathrooms -vs- spa retreat.

i guess i missed a meeting ;)

I haven't tried the newer cleaning products people have mentioned, but Lime-a-way has worked very well for me in the past.

Thanks for the tips, I'm going to give them all a try!

Try Tilex. I used this last week on a bathroom that I could barely stand to look at. Mold, mold, mold! I just sprayed it and left the bathroom for about one hour. When I came back the mold was gone, and I had never seen the tiles sooooo bright white.

LOVE the orchid on the toilet idea. My cousin has wonderful luck with African Violets in her bathroom as well.

Do they mean the toilet seat cover or the seat?

Close the whole thing (the seat and the lid down). The idea is that the chi in your home is being sucked right down the toilet. Even if you don't believe that, it's still just a nice thing to do.

I've always liked to think of Feng Shui as the ancient Chinese art of living space organization. :) So many people think it's bunk, but the fundamentals make for great place to live.

John (with the dingy white tiles),

I'm not sure how dingy your tiles are, but I would say that given their age, their dingy aged appearance adds, not detracts, to the quality of your bathroom. The imperfections bring the nobility of history into your home. I would not try to erase that.

I have a white tile floor from the 1920's in my Los Angeles apartment. The tiles are grayed in some spots, chipped and repaired in others, and for all of their scars, they are wonderful. The floor contrasts wonderfully with newly plastered walls and a fresh coat of paint, creating a harmony of old and new, bridging the past and the present.

Here's a lesson I learned from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the book): You can tell 'Old Money' from 'New Money' very easily. In a New Money house everything will be bright shining new. In an Old Money house, there might be fraying on the edge of the late Roccoco period embroidered chair cushions.

Good luck!

"You can tell 'Old Money' from 'New Money' very easily. In a New Money house everything will be bright shining new. In an Old Money house, there might be fraying on the edge of the late Roccoco period embroidered chair cushions."

I think it was Ralph Lauren who talked about something like this too - he called it integrity and I always use that as a benchmark for my stuff - is it essentially cheap trash or does it have that worthwhile integrity no matter how old and battered

I'll take my old 100% cashmere cardigan with holes in the elbows over a new acrylic one anyday...

Re: Plants for the dark bathroom. Try "snake plant'. You can virtually ignore it too. very hardy. i have one of those "lucky bamboos" in a vase which has been in my dark bathroom for a year and doing very well.

How about a bathroom with no direct or in direct sun light? Every plant I have put in there promptly dies.

Another question for the masses... nothing I have used for my glass shower doors cleans them- I was using the 50/50 vinegar. I have tried lime-away, scrubbing bubble, tilex and a variety of soap scum products- I try to avoid nose burning 409, but I am seriously considering it. Suggestions?