What I'm Seeing in Design Trends, Part 3: Bathrooms

I'm going to be away for a week, but I thought I might leave you with some bathroom trends to ponder.  This is what I'm seeing as new (some not-so-new) trends in bathrooms.  The photos I collect tend to show larger bathrooms, likely because smaller bathrooms are so difficult to photograph and therefore there just aren't as many photos out there.  But bits and pieces of these themes can be carried over into small bathrooms for a very similar look.

"Floating cabinets", modern glam, lots of white...

from Desire to Inspire 

Polished finishes (specifically nickel), vertical mirror strips behind sink with tile on either side, wall sconces...

source unknown (sorry!)

Natural materials, curbless showers...

 

source unknown (sorry!)

Warm taupe-gray colors with whites and a little high-polish glam... a combination of natural and crisp geometric materials...

from Things that Inspire

Pebble floors, vanity areas in center of room, open vanity cabinets...

Chandeliers and other elegant lighting in place of traditional wall-mount light bars...

from raenovate

Wood floors (be careful!), wood trim, freestanding tubs... looks more like a regular room with furniture than a bathroom...

from design crisis

Charcoal gray or black cabinets...

from Amoroso Design via Desire to Inspire

Large showers being more important than big tubs...

from Amoroso Design via Desire to Inspire 

C.G. Sparks Dining Table on Sale

C.G. Sparks is a local furniture and accesssories store here in Salt Lake City.  The bright blue building has a lot of personality, and is a great indication of the fun character you'll find inside!  I've always loved their reclaimed wood dining tables, and was happy to see this reclaimed teak table is currently on sale for $ 550 (regularly $875). 

They have several standard size tables available, and they can also make custom pieces using reclaimed teak, rosewood, and other wood species.

C.G. Sparks features reclaimed pieces and materials from places like India and Tibet, most of which are hand-picked by the owner of the company.

Reclaimed Wood Seam Table

Small Teak Side Cabinet

 

Bihar Indian Rosewood 2-Drawer Dresser

You can also find random unique items like an antique door and frame from an Indian temple...

or a hand-carved Hannuman the monkey god...

If you live in Salt Lake City and haven't been to C.G. Sparks yet, I recommend you check it out soon.  And if you're in the market for a dining room table, check out the reclaimed teak table on sale! 

(I promise, I am getting nothing to promote this store.  I just really like it and wanted to share their fun stuff.)

Overstock Bar Stools

After a couple months of obsessing over these stools on Overstock, I finally bought them, and they're great with our homemade table.  While I probably would have chosen something different if budget wasn't an issue, these were under $100, including shipping (plus a discount coupon).  They're sturdy and they look good.  Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

DIY Inspiration: Bold Wallpaper

So, on a whim last fall, we bought 3 rolls of this cool retro wallpaper from Graham & Brown, called Boheme: Green. 

We intend to install it on a wall in our kitchen, and it will (hopefully) look something like this:

from retrotogo

The project is a bit intimidating, which is likely why we haven't done it yet.  A big linear pattern in an old home with crooked walls just scares me.  AND I believe the color is now discountinued.  AND I'm not entirely convinced we ordered enough to allow any room for error. 

There are so many great wallpapers out there now that wallpaper has made a comeback.  I'm loving all the bold patterns I'm seeing.  For your own inspiration, here are some great images I've collected.

from amoroso design via raenovate

(image source unknown)

from cococozy (paper by Graham & Brown)

(image source unknown)

from Nina Freudenberger via raenovate

from cococozy

Before & After: Living Room

This is what our living room looked like when we bought our house:

Yuck, right?  We immediately tore out all the dark heavy drapes and the carpet.  We installed a (I can't believe I'm about to admit to this!) vinyl wood-look floor on top of the concrete slab.  I typically avoid fake-wood floors, but this one is actually pretty impressive.  It's a commercial-grade floor, which means it's great with the abuse it gets all day from the dogs and it's good with moisture too, which is great when you have dogs that track in mud and also drool insane amounts of drool all over the floor.  PLUS the pattern of the grain actually matches the grain texture on the floor... imagine that.  (This is my complaint with most wood-look floors.  The grain rarely matches the texture, making it look even more fake.) 

Aside from the floors, we painted, and we added a dog door in the left side of the bookcase.  That's really it, but what a big difference.

Here's how it looks now:

This is definitely not a finished product, but you can see where we're going.

Things to do: 

1.  Do something about that big blank wall behind the sofa (see earlier post).

2.  Get rid of the hideous end tables.  I'm on the lookout for something cool to replace them with... but I refuse to pay full price.

3.  Get rid of the Ikea chair.  It's lived its life and it's time to move on.

4.  New sofa pillows.  These are stand-ins for the pillow the dog ate.

5.  Reupholster the sofa.  Will do this myself, hopefully, once my sewing and upholstery skills improve... a lot

I so want to copy this backsplash!

by de Guilio Kitchen Design via Urban Grace Interiors

I've seen this application before, but never done so well.  Check out the far wall - the marble backsplash is actually 2 marble panels that slide back and forth to conceal or expose the spice rack shelves on either side of the range.  How cool is that?  (Click on the link for a closer more detailed photo)

Coffee Tables on Casters

A recent post about tables on casters on Desire to Inspire had me all gung-ho about a possible new DIY project.  I love the look of these tables, and they're so easy to push out of the way, which in our case is important because our living room is also our workout room and the coffee table moves often (okay, maybe not as often as it should, as we're not working out as often as we should). 

 Well, after pondering this DIY project, guess what?  I found the perfect table on KSL!  

This used Room & Board (I've always wanted to own something from Room & Board!) coffee table is perfect.  It matches our style perfectly, and does everything I wanted a coffee table to do (moves easily, cleans easily, and allows some display without cluttering the top of the table). 

So another DIY project gets crossed off the list. (Is it cheating if I bought the table rather than making it?)