Designing A Small Guest Bathroom To Look Grande!

Source: adoreyourplace.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

Sometimes when we have a very small bathroom we think we can't make it pretty  or for that matter do anything exciting with it's decor.

We will tend to try and make it look more spacious, and the reality is, if you can stand in the middle of the room, spread your arms and touch each side of the room, you know it is small.

I have two favorite rooms to design and decorate, children's rooms and bathrooms.

Source: adoreyourplace.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

  

My theory about designing a small bathroom is, you can’t make it look larger, but you can make it look grande. Not grande in size but grande in feeling.

I say make it look like a jewel box. Make it so wonderfully appointed that people will not want to leave.

Source: houzz.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

Once they come out your guest bath the first thing they say to you is, “Wow! you really have a beautiful bathroom, or that is the nicest bathroom I have ever been in!”

I am going to show you some beautifully appointed bathrooms, and maybe you will see that a very small bathroom, or powder room can be a beautiful little jewel box! 

Source: traditionalhome.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

This room is exactly what I was referring to as small enough that you can touch each side of the walls. It is a very small powder room, and yet the owner spared no expense on the amenities.

An amazing open legged sink, lovely wainscoting. Oversized scenic wallpaper is the perfect choice for this room.

Check out the sconces, beautiful, and unusual design. A lovely traditional style black framed mirror is the finishing touch.

A lot of beauty in such a small space.

Source: julienightingaledesign.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

The wallpaper in this bathroom really sets the mood for this small space. All the other details are kept sleek and contemporary. Since there is so much white they chose to use a dark tile floor in a brick pattern to ground the room.

 

Source: designspiration.net via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

 This small bathroom fascinates me. Black walls become the backdrop to art covered walls. This room has  a lot of Wow factor.

One of the prettiest bathrooms I have ever been in was literally 4’X4’ and all the walls were painted black with dark cabinetry and brass fixtures, including the sink. The sconces were black with brass bases. I saw this thirty years ago and have never forgotten it.

That one little bathroom taught me to go all out in designing my own personal bathrooms.

Source: houseofturquoise.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

Nothing was spared in this pretty bathroom, wallpaper, beautiful vanity, even a chandelier.

Source: houseofturquoise.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

Beautiful soft blue vanity, simple, yet elegant at the same time, this is my kind of bathroom. Notice the little bun feet to make the vanity more like a piece of furniture. A small touch but add something extra to a stack of drawers.

All bathrooms require the same elements so why not choose your elements a little more carefully and add an elegance to them.

MY SMALL BUT SPA-LIKE BATHROOM

Source: goodlifeofdesign.blogspot.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

It does not have to be expensive to look well appointed, you just need to put thought into each element that you are choosing to come up with a beautiful and cohesive design.

Source: goodlifeofdesign.blogspot.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

I have a very small master bathroom. The sink area is in a little alcove only 42” wide.

We saved money by purchasing kitchen cupboards and designing our own vanity. This cabinetry is made by Thomasville for Home Depot.

The vessel sink was also purchased at Home Depot for under $200.

You will notice the whole wall is tiled in an iridescent mosaic tile.

Source: goodlifeofdesign.blogspot.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

Behind the mirror we did not place any tile. Why waste pretty tile where it will never be seen. The mirror was an inexpensive mirror from Lowes, that looks exactly the same as its twin at Restoration Hardware, back in the silver sage days.

We saved $150 on the tile by not using it behind the mirror.

Source: goodlifeofdesign.blogspot.com via Kathy Sue Perdue on Pinterest

The shower area is through a sliding door right off the vanity area. It is only a 6ft.X 6ft. room and the shower measures 3ft.X6ft.

Even though it is a small area I treated it as if it were a much larger bath area.

We have a bench, a niche for shampoos, tile wainscoting around the room.

I have heated tile floors too. Are you still with me?

Don’t let the size of a space make you skimp on what you put in that space. Get the best that you can afford.

It might not be the time in your life that you can afford what you want exactly, but by being creative and making a good plan of attack you can still have a beautiful bathroom

I hope you get a little inspired by some of the above images. If you would like to see more you can go HERE.

Now I need to do some real planning and thinking about our new home's verrrry small guest bathroom.

 (it is so small it is hard to get a good picture of it from the door)

It is only 5 ft. wide by 7ft. 8in. deep and 3 ft of that depth is a shower, so basically it is a 5ft x almost 5ft. square space. This is going to a lot of planning on my part.

I kept the base nice and neutral in hopes that it will be a bit easier to design a pretty space. We shall see?!

 

 

Planning A Fall Mantel In 10 Steps

   

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I know it is just a tad bit early for some of us to start bringing in a little Fall into our homes, but it is definitely not to early to starting thinking and planning on what you might like to do.

 

So today we are going to talk about how to plan out your fall mantel, step by step..........

 

Do you want to make changes in your home for the Fall season, but have a hard time knowing where to start?

This post is just for you!

 

(WAY OVERBOARD IMHO)

I see so many mantels that are a bit over board in their decor ,and they would not fit into everyone’s home. 

Some home decorators like a more is more look as in the above image.

 

I tend to be a less is more girl and I am not big on thematic decor so I like to keep my decor a bit more neutral in feel.

I started looking for a mantel that was simple, balanced and well designed to use as an example for you all. Something that would fit into anyone's home.

Plus, I wanted it to be a mantel that any homeowner could personalize to their own design aesthetics on a budget.

via The Inspired Room Blog

In the above image you will see that the mantel   meets all of my criteria, simple, well designed, balanced, and I believe that the overall composition can be personalized to fit in most homes.

I also believe that most home decorators could duplicate this mantel if given the resources, and some guidance.

Not everyone is as clever as the designer, Melissa Michaels,  to come up with this composition on their own.

After getting permission from Melissa I decided to do a step-by-step of how to create this mantel. 

FIRST STEP:

Find a picture of a mantel that you love, admire, and what will fit into your home, and your budget. You are going to use this image as your pattern.

I have already done the first step when I found Melissa’s mantel in the above image.

STEP TWO:

Label each design element on the mantel you have chosen.

 

Shall we dis-mantle the mantle piece by piece, and see what we can come up with?

 

STEP THREE:

Once you have identified all of the pieces it is time to make a list of what is needed.

1. Decorative objects (three golden apples)

2. Two picture frames with artwork in two different sizes.

3. Large vase for Fall branch with leaves.

4. A grouping of decorative vases.

STEP FOUR:

Study what each piece adds to the grouping.

For instance………

Three golden apples add balance, and a bit of shine to the grouping.

Two picture frames add a layered look, and height to the composition.

The Large vase with the Fall branch add height, theme(Fall), color and life.

The group of two vases add something solid next to something clear, and they also add texture.

AT THIS POINT IT IS

IMPORTANT TO NOTICE!

DECORATING TIP:

If you took a pencil, and drew a line from the top of each object to the next piece you would create an up, and down line, creating an undulating line. 

It is important to have your objects go up and down in height when creating a vignette on a shelf or mantel.

This line will create movement to the observer’s eye viewing the composition, and that is a very good thing.

STEP FIVE:

Now that you have your list of objects shop your own home first, and use whatever will work in your composition. 

Remember we are trying to work on a budget. If you are missing some pieces make a list and then the fun part….. 

SHOPPING!!

 

Since this post is to show you how you can do this on your own, and on a decent budget we will start from scratch for the purpose of this lesson.

Where to begin?

I am going to start with the large vase that will hold my Fall branch because I have decided I want to do a color instead of a clear vase. 

Since color can be a jumping off point it is wise to choose your larger more colorful pieces first.

This is where you get to use your own individual style and taste.

$24.48

I chose this blue/gray demijohn 21in. vase from Target. 

The reason I chose blue/gray is because it works in my home, and I love to use darker values of blues in the Fall/Winter months.

Now that I have my color jumping off point I start to think of the next object that will most likely have more color to add to the composition, and the next choice will be the artwork.

STEP SIX:

With blue as my base I make a trip to ETSY!

Etsy is such a wonderful resource of talented artisans and you can often find pieces at a reasonable price.

I typed in Fall watercolors in the search box, and here are a four of the beautiful images that I was attracted to.

I have them paired in two’s since we need two for our composition…………….

Pair #1

$20

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$20

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Pair #2

$20

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paired with………

$18

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At this point most people would think it was time to choose the picture frame. 

We are not going to do that next because we need to first choose our two decorative vases. 

The  decorative vases color, and texture will determine what direction we will go with the picture frames and matting.

STEP SEVEN:

Took a trip on line to Target! Target has great decorative pieces at a budget friendly price point. Plus, it is available to all on line.

Remember I am trying to make this budget friendly and accessible for all of my readers.

The first pair I chose resembles  what Melissa chose in her composition.

PAIR #1

                    $25                                $20

      

                   VIA                                         VIA

PAIR #2

                   $45.99                          $47.99

       

VIA

You will notice that the pair of vases vary in heights. This is important because as I previously said we want an undulating line to keep the eye moving from one object to the other in an up and down motion.

STEP EIGHT:

At this point I pull together the elements in a collage to see which pairings are pleasing to my eye, and it will also give me a clue to what picture frame finish and color I should be using.

FIRST PAIRING

In this pairing I have a nice color combination, and textural, and height differences. It is warm and looks very Fallish to me.

SECOND PAIRING

Since I tend to like lighter and brighter look when choosing elements for my own home, this particular pairing is more pleasing to my design aesthetics so I am going to choose pairing #2.

STEP NINE:

I bet you think we are going to pick out the picture frame don’t you? 

At this time we are going to choose the small objects that are represented in Melissa’s mantel by the golden apples. 

The apples give a bit of shine to the composition. I am going to do my own interpretation, and get some shine and textural difference by using votive candle holders.

In the Fall/Winter months I love to light candles so I always try to incorporate candles in my vignettes so that is why I have made this particular choice.

However YOU might choose the golden apples, pears, or even some other small decorative element that you enjoy using in your home.

Keep in mind, the lower height is what made me go with votives vs. a higher pillar candle

     $10.48

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STEP TEN:

NOW!!

We get to choose the picture frame!!

At this point I have all of my colors, textures, heights and elements.

I take a closer look at my artwork which has clearer and brighter colors, then I look at my votive holder which has just the right amount of black.

I think a black frame will be a nice contrast in this configuration. For those of you who tend to like a more subtle contrast a nice natural to medium tone wood frame would work equally as well.

For me, black is my choice, since black and white are used in the room with my fireplace.

You will need to choose two different sizes of frames to give height, and a layered effect. Take a look at Melissa’s composition and see the heights she used.

Both frames are a bit higher than the second largest element, (clear cylinder vase) in the composition. 

Keep that in mind when choosing your frames. You might have to layer matting in your frame to make the artwork fit with off the shelf frames. 

We are trying to keep this budget friendly so we don’t want to do a custom framing job which can tend to be very expensive.

Stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Target have a nice selection of frames, and matting that you can work with. Ikea is also another great resource for budget friendly frames.

Of course none of this is an exact science, and what I have shown you is my own personal design aesthetics.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER!

The important lesson to take away from this is to lay out an overall plan before taking the plunge, and make sure it is pleasing to your eye and your budget.

I hope this blog post has given you a new way to look at composing vignettes in your home, and that you now feel empowered to move forward.

 

ENJOY THE PROCESS!