Manolo for the Home

I’ve had a love affair with gray since my teens when I painted the walls of my bedroom varying shades of gray. As a color, gray is frequently associated with neutrality — being neither white, nor black — and cool self-control. Because of its versatility and ability to harmonize with a variety of other hues, the color gray often serves as a backdrop to other, more vivid colors. But shades of gray can be their own perfect palette instead of highlighting bright yellows or pinks. Used on their own, shades of gray can make for a dramatic and bold or calm and soothing space, depending on how they’re used.

According to Wikipedia: “Most grey pigments have a cool or warm cast to them, as the human eye can detect even a minute amount of saturation. Yellow, orange, and red create a “warm grey”. Green, blue, and violet create a “cool grey”. When there is no cast at all, it is referred to as “neutral grey”, “achromatic grey” or simply “grey”. The color grey is often associated with aging or the passage of time, likely due in part to the decreased pigment-production of hair follicles in time, corresponding to the greying of human hair. In this context, grey is often used synonymously with “elderly”, as in “the grey pound” or “grey power” (when referring to the economic or social influence of the elderly), or as used by groups such as the Gray Panthers.”

You have your choice – go gray on your walls, go gray with accessories, or go gray down to the smallest detail. It’s easy, when there are so many different grays to choose from! Here are some inspiring images to get you started, and tomorrow I’ll show you how you can go gray for less than $25!

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Friends of mine are remodeling their master bath, and part of that remodel involves switching out a very old fashioned (think grandma, not hip retro) bathroom vanity for something new. I cannot, of course, hear about anyone’s remodel without thinking about what I’d like to put in my home given the chance. Unfortunately, my own bathroom is quite narrow and none too long, which means that anything other than a simple pedestal will look monstrously out of place. Still, a girl can dream, right? There are so many ways to do bathroom vanities, and here are just a few to inspire those of you with bathrooms bigger than my own.

A bathroom vanity might be modern and colorful and in keeping with an overall decor theme, like this one. (via)

Or rather feminine and romantic, like this one. (via)

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One of the strangest things in our house is the room we like to call the Quarter Bath. Think a half bath without a sink. Basically, it’s a closet with a toilet installed down in our finished basement. We’ve just added it to the list of strange DIY projects that one of the house’s previous owners decided to tackle, badly. Anyone else have this problem? Because we have it in spades.

As it stands right now, there’s no room to add a sink, even one of those tiny corner sinks. What we’d like to do someday is expand the room, finish the walls properly, and add something like this:

Inspiration provided by Kristen Buckingham. I think something like this could really cheer up my sad basement half bath (which as I said is currently a quarter bath). I’ve thought about scrapping the project altogether as rather ambitious, but really, it would be nice to have somewhere to wash one’s hands after using the facilities instead of having to pop back upstairs to use the kitchen sink.

Isn’t this polka dot bathroom just to die for?

Look at all the reading material there on the shelves — now imagine slipping into the tub with a magazine and staying there until it reaches t-shirt weather. Perfection!

And how about that sink. At first glance, I actually thought it was another storage box, but no. Loving the way it’s framed by even more polka dots!

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Every been tempted to cutesy up your powder room by replacing all your bathroom accessories with a matching set featuring, oh, a fancy hat and feathered pumps?

Or flowers or little pink poodles? When I moved into my house, the sickly yellow bathroom walls were painted with badly-stenciled ivy, and the combo was supposed to match the white and lilac tiles (including accent tiles with sad little groupings of flowers). The only reason I can think of for stenciling in ivy was to try to make the bathroom a little more cute.

We’ve done what we can to tone down the cute by painting the walls white and pairing the purple with a soft green, keeping our bathroom accessories subdued, and avoiding signs that advertising things like “We aim to please. You aim, too, please.” Seriously, what is up with those?

Looking to refresh your bathroom or hate the bathroom you inherited when you bought your house? You’re better off skipping the cutesy accessories that are going to grate on your nerves in six months or a year and saving your pennies and springing for a gallon of paint, some new towels, and a pretty mirror. Maybe a pedestal sink if you’re otherwise set where bathroom storage is concerned.

Trust me — think long-term when you’re updating a room and you’ll save money in the long run.

Your home can be a little bit country without animal heads on the walls, lots of dark exposed wood, or being a little bit rock and roll. Just like you can be mod without plastic chairs or inflatable furniture. Not that there’s anything wrong with going a really rustic route.

Check these country interiors out for down home inspiration without the gun rack:

A recipe for rustic: take one piece distressed furniture and combine with old world landscapes, vintage art pieces, and crisp white furniture. (via)

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When The Beard and I were house shopping, we toured one house whose previous owners decided to swap a bathroom and a bedroom. What they ended up with what a fairly small bedroom — appropriate for use as a nursery, tiny home office, or perhaps a walk-in closet — and a gigantic, wholly cavernous feeling bathroom. While in the past I might have thought “Bathrooms, the bigger, the better,” that strange house cured me of the very idea.

Which brings me to this bathroom, outfitted with fixtures from Hansgrohe’s Axor Urquiola range designed by Patricia Urquiloa. I adore the colors and the glass and the overwhelming indoor pool spa aesthetic. All the little stools and tables are darling. The whole thing says aquatic and means it. But while the double tubs are… interesting, truth be told, with a tub that big I’d much prefer to invite The Beard in with me. And as for the space itself? It’s just way too big for my particular tastes. Huge bathrooms over a certain size just feel wrong to me.

What say you?

Why did someone finally start manufacturing proper Tetris tiles? The right answer is “Why not?”

These custom-made tiles from the UK are crafted from Italian ceramics and are suitable for indoor or outdoor use, meaning you can tile just about anything with them. I have to say I do prefer the actual Tetris piece shaped tiles — with the Tetris pieces, you could base your layout on random choices, making decorating very much like actually playing a game of Tetris — rather than the Tetris mosaic, but that’s only because the mosaics don’t immediately look like Tetris pieces to me. Maybe, however, that would be a selling point for some who would prefer a subtler video gaming reference in their personal space.

If you’re anything like me, you’re lusting after these pretty hardcore and wondering just how much they cost. Prices are based on the size of your order and possibly your color choices — Tetris Tiles can be matched to most Pantone-colour references — so I have no idea whatsoever.

The lovely Glinda of Teeny Manolo thought y’all might like to see some, er, unique commodes. Designer toilets, really. The LA Times put up a photo spread entitled ‘Glamorizing the toilet: Designers take on the most utilitarian fixture of all,’ which featured toilets as envisioned and created by designers like Stefano Giovannoni, Wiel Arets, and Troy Adams.

The plum tree design of silver branches and vivid flowers represents spring in Toto’s Miyabi collection. The LA Times also mentions that plum tree blooms were often used in Japanese poem manuscripts. What this has to do with going to the bathroom, I don’t know.

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Wait, you thought I meant it like that? Moi? Nooooo. I’m talking about stress relief… the kind of stress relief that comes from surrounding yourself with somewhat overpriced bits of nature. Specifically in the bathroom, where thoughtful designers have thought up sorts of cheeky ways to make river rocks into visual stress-soothers.

For example, here are (admittedly lovely) stone towel hooks. Here is how Viva Terra describes them:

Elements of nature unite to create this clean-lined multi-purpose hook perfect for towels, robes, or clothing. Carefully selected from rivers and beaches of New England and gently rounded through years of tumbling, each stone is unique. And we particularly love that for every smooth stone collected, a rough stone is “planted” for the water to tumble into smoothness.

New England? I live in New England! I think I’m sensing an upcoming DIY project…