pink bathrooms

According to the New York Times, the pink bathroom is hot again.

That may very well be, but this is one trend I just can't jump onto. We kept the pink tile in our bathroom during our recent renovations only when other aspects of the project ran over budget and we needed to reallocate funds. Granted, it looks a lot better than it did previously. (We gave it a little makeover instead of full-fledged reconstructive surgery.) But I'd still be a lot happier with natural slate instead of retro Pepto-Bismol colored ceramic tile.

If you're a fan of pink bathrooms, however, check out the blog mentioned in the above Times article: Save the Pink Bathrooms.

Meanwhile, here are a few before and after photos of our own pink bathroom:

Before: Dingy texturized walls. Plastic faux brass medicine cabinet and light fixtures. And way too much pink tile for my taste. The only thing I really liked here was the sink, which I myself installed a year after we moved into the house. It replaced a tan faux-marble sink that sat atop a large, dark, composite-board cabinet.

Before: Don't ya love the blue, green, and red sailboat-themed wallpaper trim? We always thought it was an interesting choice to go with the pink and grey tile. And the wallpaper on the ceiling wasn't the smoothest move either. You can't see it in this photo, but it was curling away from the ceiling along each seam -- not surprising in a steamy bathroom environment.

After (almost): The almost-complete pink bathroom, post-makeover. (Just waiting on a little touch-up paint, as you can see by the post-it note in the corner.) We did our best to distract from the pink with the yellow paint, the grey accent wall, the gold towels and accessories, and the patterned shower curtain that incorporates pink without dwelling on it. But it's still a pink bathroom.

After: We removed one whole wall of pink tiles. This we actually had no choice about, as the contractor had to knock holes in the wall to put in supports for the new upstairs. But we were quite happy to replace them with this accent wall instead. With a lighter paint, it would have looked like something was missing here (it is! a bunch of pink tile!), but because of its visual weight, the grey accent wall helps ground the whole room and make a focal point of the sink and new Restoration Hardware inset medicine cabinet.

a modern gingerbread house

This gem was designed by Kristina Hahn. (Thanks to The Improvised Life for the tip!) Click here for more photos.

Happy holidays!

flowers by bella

The latest issue of Garden Design included a small feature on flower designer Bella Meyer, the granddaughter of artist Marc Chagall. Their descriptions of some of her arrangements sent me racing to her website to see some actual photos. And what innovative designs I found there! It's a different medium, but she is definitely continuing what her grandfather started...

 

intentions and flowers

 

Recently a dear friend and I moved our standing morning journaling date to Monday mornings to better accommodate our crazy work schedules. The new timing has prompted me to start using the ritual as an opportunity to set intentions for the week. Last Monday, one of those intentions had to do with savoring simple moments of beauty amidst a week full of meetings and other obligations.

All week, a phrase I had written came back to me. It was a reminder to myself to "breathe into the spaces" between my various work activities. Leaving a meeting on Tuesday, I reminded myself to stop and breathe, to use my eyes to look around and see the explosion of fall colors surrounding me. To savor that moment of beauty.

Next on my list was a quick stop at the grocery store before heading back home to reply to a heap of emails and ready myself for my next meeting. It would have been easy to let the weight of my to do list crush me, but that moment on Tuesday morning imbued the day with a feeling of expansiveness and gratitude, and instead of rushing through my grocery store chores, I took an extra five minutes to select some flowers to bring home with me. They went into water in my kitchen sink, where they cheerfully waited until the end of the day for me to scatter them through the house.

A week later, and I'm still enjoying the sight of flowers in my bedroom, kitchen, and office. Each time I see them, it's another reminder to "breathe into the spaces" in my day and to notice the abundant beauty all around me.

autumn recipe: Dutch apple pancake

This one officially ranks as my favorite new recipe for Fall.

Photo via Carter Mountain Orchard's Facebook Page

A friend and I took a field trip last weekend to Carter Mountain, where we picked three giant canvas bags full of Pink Lady apples. This variety stores well, so I'm planning to pack them away to have on hand all winter. It's no surprise, though, that I was dying to start cooking with them right away. We got home from the Charlottesville area Saturday night, and I almost immediately went online searching for an apple-related breakfast recipe for the next morning. I found this tasty recipe for a Dutch Apple Pancake online at Epicurious, and by 9 a.m. we were feasting on the fruits of our labor (plus some great raspberries we had scored at our farmer's market on Saturday morning).

Photo Courtesy of Alice Q. Foodie

Based on my limited experience and on the many comments from Epicurious readers, I'd say this is a pretty flexible recipe. Use different fruit. Add an extra egg or two. Use a little less butter. Try different toppings. Or, like me, make it in a too-small dish, or make a rough guesstimate on proportions when you discover you have one egg too few in your fridge. It seems pretty hard to mess this up.

Here's my slight adaptation of the recipe from Epicurious...

Dutch Apple Pancake
1 cup milk
4 eggs
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup all purpose flour
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 med. Pink Lady apples
3 Tbsp (packed) brown sugar
Lemon wedges
Powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Put butter in 9x13" glass baking dish and heat in oven until butter melts, about 5 minutes.
2. While butter is heating, core apples and slice thinly. (No need to peel them.)
3. Place apple slices on top of melted butter, layering to cover the bottom of the baking dish.
4. Return dish to oven and bake until apples soften slightly and butter is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.
5. While apples bake, make batter: Whisk eggs in large bowl. Add milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon and whisk until well blended. Add flour and whisk until batter is smooth.
6. When apples are ready, pour batter into the baking dish over top of them.
7. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar and return to the oven.
8. Bake pancake until puffed and brown, about 20 minutes.
9. Serve warm with lemon wedges and powdered sugar.

The recipe says it serves four, but Bob and I easily polished off a 3/4 batch in one sitting and could happily have eaten still more. Yum!

Finnish barn-inspired house

Dwell recently featured this house by Lassila Hirvilammi Architects in their "Houses We Love" section. With its clean, barn-inspired lines, its distinct yet harmonious finishes, and the pastoral setting, I love it too!

RSOL designer house favs

My recent volunteer adventures at the Richmond Symphony Orchestra League's 2010 Designer House gave me a free peek inside this huge house that showcased the work of many talented designers, artists, and craftspeople.

While Kelly Brown's garden room was most definitely my favorite space in the house, two adjacent rooms were also high up there for me. These spaces, and a few other details that caught my eye, are featured below...

Butler's Pantry by Leslie Stephens: A pretty traditional space, which I don't typically go for. But this one featured some innovative ideas and updated materials -- and a gorgeous and soothing color palette that I completely flipped for. (Unfortunately, the photos don't accurately depict the colors.) And what pottery lover wouldn't love a butler's pantry of her own? What completely sold me, though, were the roman blinds made from burlap. I had just recently bought many yards of the stuff myself to make some curtains for our spare room upstairs, so of course I thought this was a brilliant idea on Leslie's part!

Kitchen by John Goerge: I was only able to dig up one photo of this space online (courtesy of Kandrac & Kole Interior Designs), and unfortunately it doesn't do it justice. (But hey, it's way better than what I have, which is nothing!) This warm and personality-filled kitchen was a fabulous blend of old and new, incorporating salvaged fixtures and materials from other settings (courtesy of Caravati's Architectural Salvage -- a fun place to spend an afternoon!) while also using clever approaches for updating the existing cabinetry.

Other Details: I was quite keen on this Fromental "Willow" wallpaper that served as an Art Deco inspired backdrop for the lady's dressing room designed by Kate Oliver. (For those of us who are not fans of the pink family, it also comes in a variety of other great color schemes.) I also fell for the painted ceiling in the home office designed by Ellen Norris. And Alyson Stinson and Carmela Wengraitis designed a gentleman's bath that incorporated some Asian-inspired elements I really enjoyed, but unfortunately I can't find a single photo online.

Kelly Brown garden room

Now that the Richmond Symphony Orchestra League's 2010 Designer House tours are over, it's possible to dig up photos of the spaces online. Here are a few shots of my favorite room -- a "garden room" just off the kitchen, designed by Kelly Brown. (Photos courtesy of Kelly's Facebook page.)

Yes, that's a living wall installation flanking the door into the kitchen. And the gorgeous table was designed and hand crafted by Christopher Hildebrand of Tektonics Design Group -- a really nice guy who I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with in this very room. He told me all about the huge old tree from which the table was made, how the design was inspired by the traditional picnic table form, and how the bronze legs were made from recycled plumbing fittings.

Monday field trip

Here's where I'm spending much of my day today...

Yes, it's a more traditional look than what typically shows up on this blog, but it's for a good cause! I'm volunteering today at the 2010 Richmond Symphony Orchestra League's Designer House. This biennial event is the largest fund raiser for the league. This year, "Rothesay" is the featured house. The home of George and Anne Anderson, it is a large Tudor sited on eight acres overlooking the James River. Both the house and garden have been transformed by notable designers from across the country. The tours have been running since mid-September and will continue through October 11.

As a volunteer, I'll be assigned to one room to share information, manage visitor traffic flow, etc. Not sure I'll have a whole lot to do on a rainy Monday, but it'll be interesting to be involved nonetheless. I'm told I'll also get a chance to tour the house myself afterward. No photos are allowed, though, so I'm afraid I can't share any images here. But I'm sure I'll still have some interesting things to report back...

featured architect: Tina Govan

I was poking around online recently, looking for photos of meditation spaces, and I came across this familiar image:

I recognized it from a magazine article I had read a number of years ago about a new home designed for a retired couple in North Carolina. I remember being really impressed with the sophisticated efficiency of the home, which seemed to borrow from Japanese design both in its aesthetics and in the way the home makes so much of each small space.

This one photo led me to the website of Raleigh, NC, architect Tina Govan, who designed this and a number of other equally compelling new and renovated homes.

Poke through her online portfolio yourself, and you'll discover homes in a variety of different styles that speak well to the personalities of her clients and the unique features of the building sites and existing structures. As varied as the homes are, though, all of them feature efficient and thoughtful use of space, interesting interior sight lines, and great indoor-outdoor connections, including pleasing outdoor living spaces. Many of the homes also incorporate environmentally friendly materials and design elements, as well as subtle -- or not so subtle -- Japanese design touches.

My favorite out of all her designs is the Eich Residence in Tennessee. On the exterior, I love the barn-like collection of structures sited to create a sheltered courtyard, as well as the colors, the handsome metal roof, and the Japanese elements such as the rain chains and the decorative slatted walls along the garage. Inside, I love the open plan, the floor-to-ceiling windows, and all the warm wood tones.

Here are a few more great photos from other projects in Govan's portfolio. To see more images, or to read about these and other projects, click on over to her website.

 

little box with a big window

How cool is this?

This "cabin" designed by Olson Kundig Architects features a giant wall of glass that can be cranked open to completely remove any barrier between the indoors and outdoors in this lakeside setting.

Head over to their website to view more photos of this project and videos showing the window being opened.

fun and practical cafe wall decor

Reward Wall (photo via Flickr, courtesy of Melissa Mongiat)

Ran across a reference to this while poking around on IDEO's website. This London cafe -- charmingly named "Tina, We Salute You" -- uses the wall by their coffee machine to keep track of how many coffees their loyal customers have bought. Buy 10, get one free.

In addition to serving a useful (and loyalty-promoting) function, it also strikes me as a cool, evolving work of art. Kinda makes me want to write on my own walls!