I count one, two, three… four patterns in this pretty pink and gray bathroom. There’s the flamingo (or as my daughter calls them, flamenco) wallpaper, two hand towels with paisleys, a third hand towel featuring a different pattern, and the the pattern on the tablecloth, which could be anything for all I can see. Mixing patterns – or mixing too many patterns – is sometimes considered a decorating no-no, but if your patterns come from the same palette and aren’t crazy complicated, you should be golden!

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There is a rule in my house that says we cannot buy any soap, no matter how cute and amazing. It’s circumstance, not anything against soap. For whatever reason, at Christmases and birthdays, The Beard and I have been the recipients of an inordinate number of soaps. Black soaps from Spain that my uncle maintained were good for pregnant women. Bear shaped soaps meant for the baby. Olive oil soaps from Greece, eco-friendly soaps with hollowed out centers to decrease waste, and even one clear soap in a bag with a toy goldfish in the middle. And then, you guessed it, I gave soapmaking a try.

And normally, this soap moratorium doesn’t weigh heavily on my mind. In fact, I can honestly say I hadn’t thought of it at all until, that is, I came across Soapylove. Soapylove, created by Debbie Chialtas, began as a hobby and evolved into a line of soaps, a shop and an Etsy shop, a magazine for soapmakers, and a book! But as cool as the Soapylove story is, the Soapylove soaps are even cooler!

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How adorably clever is DCI‘s clothespin trashcan? It appears to be available in Europe, but not ’round here which is probably a good thing as I don’t actually need another trashcan.

But you have to admit it’s a rather good buy (if you can find it for the U.S. price of $16 instead of the 20EUR price) when you consider it can accommodate not only plastic totes, but also paper bags and re-usable canvas or cloth sacks. You can even use the bag that the Clothespin Trashcan comes in as your first garbage receptacle!

Interestingly, the clothespin trashcan pictured isn’t DCI’s, but rather the work of Hung Ming Chen. Either that can looks a lot like DCI’s or DCI’s looks a lot like that one, or we have a case of parallel evolution on our hands. Which is entirely possible.

Imagine you could pull any room from any house or flat and replace the same room in your house or flat with a snap of your fingers or the flip of a switch. Too bad life doesn’t work that way, but it sure is fun to design a whole new house in your head! My current dream house boasts a lot of white, bright colors, and a baby pink clawfoot tub, mmmm.

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Now, if you have a minute or two to spare for little ol’ me, post a link to a pic of your dream rooms!

I take back all the suggestions I made a few weeks ago with regard to bathroom vanities. In the void left behind, I’d like to fill everyone’s bathroom with a delicious vanity from Eurolegno. If you’re like me and love color, you’re going to love it when you wake up to find a brilliantly-hued bathroom vanity where your boring or at least normal one used to be. Of course, if you’re not so much about the color, you’re going to hate my guts.

Just the right mix of color, modernity, and traditional curves, no?

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.