etsy finds for the bedroom

Sorry for the dearth of posts recently; my consulting plate continues to be very full. I'm slowly but surely working my way back toward a normal schedule, though, so hopefully you'll see more of me here again soon!

Meanwhile, I took a break this evening to browse Etsy to see if I could find any interesting options for a duvet cover for our bedroom. I didn't find anything I thought would work well, but during my search, I came across a few items I thought were particularly handsome and/or charming...

Headboards by Holley & Gill

Bedding by NikkiDesigns

Blanket by Verbena Encantos

Pillow by Raw Edges Studio

birthday on the town

And speaking of art and gift wrap, yesterday was my birthday -- and what a delightful day I had! I worked into the wee hours the night before so that I could take the day off and spend it with Bob. We had a lovely morning walk through Richmond's Fan District, a late breakfast at CanCan (a charming French brasserie-style restaurant), and then spent the afternoon at the newly renovated and expanded Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

We stopped mid-afternoon for a late lunch / early dinner at a new restaurant inside the museum. With its light-filled modernist interior and a tea / small plates menu that had me craving every item on the list, it was an utter treat for the senses. In addition to a celebratory bottle of prosecco (for the keys to selecting a great bottle, read this recent Wall Street Journal article), we also shared: a delicious salad of local greens with dried cherries, glazed pecans, and goat cheese; some "polenta fries" with a rich and smoky tomato dipping sauce; and a cheese plate that was itself a work of art.

The one disappointment of the day was that no where in the museum could I find a display discussing the recent renovations or providing insight into the architectural decisions that have resulted in a building of compelling contrasts: old and new, light and dark, spacious and cave-like. I had to head online to learn more about the project, which was designed by London-based firm, Rick Mather Architects.

Here are a couple photos I snapped while we were at the museum -- one of a section of the new Asian Art wing that I thought was particularly well done, and one of the beautifully integrated landscape architecture over and around the new parking deck. To read more and see a variety of great photos of the project, head over to the project page on the Rick Mather Architects website.

more cheap art

Y'all probably know by now that I'm a little fixated on this topic. Even if I don't end up using any of the various ideas I've come across for inexpensive art, I'm still delighted by the creativity in taking everyday objects and transforming them into unexpected decorative touches for your home.

Here's one more great idea that I came across on Holly Mathis' blog: wrapping paper. She shared recently about a source (Cavallini & Co.) for high-quality, poster-like wrapping paper that works just as beautifully in a frame as on a gift. Here are a few of their papers that particularly delighted me:

good breakfast and good neighbors

Hooray for kind neighbors who leave home grown blueberries on your doorstep!

That's exactly what happened last Friday, and so the next morning we had this glorious breakfast of Scottish Oatmeal with toasted walnuts, blueberries, honey, and cream. Yum! We enjoyed it so much, we decided to do a repeat this morning before heading out for a fun weekend in Baltimore/Annapolis to kick off my birthday celebration.

Unlike last week, the blueberries consumed today arrived in person. Tom stopped by with tubs of both blueberries and raspberries, and stayed a while for a friendly chat. We're not sure if he's this generous with all his neighbors, or if he feels a special gratitude to Bob (who looks after his house and cat whenever he travels), but either way we feel lucky to have such a kind neighbor, with such a fabulous green thumb!

tiny turtle

Turned up this little critter while working in the garden recently...

Our local garden center is changing ownership and is selling off all their stock at a big discount. Except for the fact that it's been scorching hot here recently, the timing couldn't have been better. Prior to our renovations, we ripped out the landscaping around the front of our house to make way for the construction and the new decks/trellises. And things have been looking pretty incomplete outside ever since -- until now. Many of the things we bought are still sitting in pots (and requiring daily watering!), but it already looks much more welcoming seeing the beginnings of some landscaping out there.

This tiny turtle turned up when I was preparing a new bed near our mazel tov tree for some yellow baptisia and fiber optic grass to go into. The flowers and grasses are now in, but I'm still working on finishing the bed, which will be anchored on one end with a couple little juniper bushes that eventually will become decent-sized foundation plantings. Will post a picture when the whole thing is done.

barn renovation

When I was at the 16 Hands Studio Tour earlier this Spring, potter Stacy Snyder -- who shares my love of barns and barn-inspired architecture -- tipped me off about a cool remodeling project that her architect husband had worked on earlier in his career.

Here are a few photos of the Bank Barn Renovation completed by Christopher Jeffrey Architects, turning an old barn into a handsome contemporary residence. I love the soaring spaces and how smoothly traditional and modern elements are integrated in this project...

If you love barn-like architecture as much as I do, take a look at some of my other posts tagged with the barns label.

art in the bathroom

After living for a number of years with the wallpaper our home's previous owner installed on the bathroom ceiling, I'm keenly aware of the disastrous things that bathroom humidity can do to paper. So I'm reluctant to put nice prints, drawings, photos, etc., into that kind of environment.

But, on the other hand, I've developed a pretty strong belief that life without art is depressing. (Although I'm defining art here in the broadest terms.) And when I saw artist Vicki Bruner's bathroom on the downtown Richmond loft tour this Spring, I really flipped for the innovative ways she had incorporated art into the space.

The "art" in our new bathroom currently consists only of some pottery and a couple wooden birds from West Elm. But I have in mind a couple other things I'd like to add. One idea is creating my own framed versions of Chinese characters, done with a brush and ink. I can always recreate them quickly when the humidity starts getting to them.

Our other plan is to get 16 Hands artist Brad Warstler to make us a large carved wooden disk to go on the wall over our tub. When we were visiting his studio this Spring (where his wife, potter Ellen Shankin, also lives and works), he showed us a beautiful piece he had turned and carved for their own living room. (See below. It's a horrible picture taken in a rush with my cell phone, but it gives you the idea.) We'd want something in a much lighter wood for our bathroom, but we love the look of the carving.

Here are a few more photos courtesy of Houzz (as is the first photo above) illustrating some more ideas for "durable" art in the bathroom. (Or, in the last photo, the art isn't so durable. But putting it on a shelf allows you to more easily change it out periodically.)

contemporary bathroom design by san francisco interior designer Ashfield Hansen Design

modern bathroom design by chicago interior designer Morava Glass Studio

contemporary bathroom design by new york architect Chelsea Atelier Architect, PC

asian bathroom design by other metros interior designer C H Paquette

modern bathroom design by san francisco architect Mark Brand Architecture

natural additions to your bath

I enjoy a good bath. And it doesn't take much to make me happy: put me in plain old hot water up to my neck, and I'm as happy as a pig. But all the extra use my soaking tub had recently prompted me to think about simple ways to potentially jazz up the experience. Here are a few ideas I found online...

Make Your Own Bath Salts
Combine a few drops of essential oil (e.g., lavender) with epsom salts for a bath to sooth your aching muscles while enjoying the benefits of aromatherapy.

Take a Milk Bath
Milk baths are supposedly good for your skin. A simple way to pull this off is to add dried milk to the tub when its filling. Add a little almond oil, and it might smell so good you'll be tempted to drink it!

Brew Some Bath Tea
Relax, revitalize, or renew with your own custom combination of fresh or dried herbs. Steep the herbs in hot water for 15 minutes, then strain and add the brew to your bath. Click here for some recipe ideas.

tile shop outing

Since we did our own giant remodeling project, it feels that everywhere I look, other people are remodeling too. We now have neighbors on two sides of us who are also putting additions on their homes, and a third addition project across the street that's slated to start soon. We wonder if it was seeing our house transformed that gave these folks the remodeling itch.

And now our dear friends Ann and Cathie are getting ready to remodel their bathroom too. In their case, though, it wasn't that we inspired them -- they surely heard too much moaning and groaning from us to feel inspired! -- but rather it was a case of turning lemons into lemonade.

One day, when we were in the midst of our own remodeling hell, Ann informed me that their kitchen ceiling had collapsed. The pipes in their upstairs bathroom had sprung a leak, and in addition to damaging the kitchen ceiling (which has long since been fixed) it caused a crack in their bathroom floor. The insurance company gave them the funds to fix both the ceiling and the floor, so they decided rather than just putting the same old-fashioned floor back in, now was the time to consider remodeling the bathroom.

So I've made a couple of field trips with the two of them to help in the planning. (Yes, this is indeed my idea of fun.) Our first one was to a plumbing fixtures showroom. And the most recent one was to the Tile Shop (where we got our own slate tile for our new bathroom).

And what a great experience we had at the Tile Shop! It's always refreshing and surprising these days to have such a positive customer service experience. But that's exactly what we got from Delvon (call him "D.", please) Clark, the Assistant Manager at the Broad Street store here in Richmond. He spent probably close to an hour with us, opening countless boxes and spreading things out all over the floor to help us visualize the different possibilities we were considering.

Ultimately, Ann and Cathie selected some beautiful travertine tile for inside their shower (see below), including an inset section in the center of the back wall that will serve as a lovely focal point visible through the glass shower door when you first step into the bathroom. And they picked larger, slightly darker travertine tiles (not shown) for the floor. What a beautiful bathroom it will be! Of course, I've made them promise to let me post photos here when the project is complete.

One of the things I love about the Tile Shop is how many lovely examples they have installed around the edges of the showroom. Here are some photos I snapped of bathroom vignettes in the Broad Street store, some of which were quite helpful to us in thinking about possibilities for Ann and Cathie's bathroom project...

And I include this last one just because I think it's such a clever idea. If I'm not mistaken, that's a wine rack holding the rolled up towels...

our new bathroom

I've been putting off sharing photos of our new bathroom because it's not quite done. I imagined a big reveal once the finishing touches went in -- art on the walls, real window treatments, etc. But it's becoming abundantly clear that it's going to be a while yet before everything's perfect, so I thought I'd go ahead and share what we have so far, since we're really actually quite pleased with "not quite done".

New Bathroom Tour

Our new upstairs bathroom is a Jack-and-Jill style bath that features two sinks, a soaking tub, and a walk-in shower. It sounds luxurious -- and it feels that way to us too! -- but it's actually a fairly efficient space that was squeezed along the back of the upstairs, behind the landing and a portion of the second bedroom. Let's start our tour at one end of the bathroom and work our way down its length...

At one end of the bath, adjacent to the door to the second upstairs bedroom, is the walk-in shower. The Mongolian slate is from The Tile Shop. We still have plans to eventually add a glass enclosure, but for now, this works.

We adore our new soaking tub! I saw a photo of it somewhere several years ago and never found anything that I liked better (that we could ever hope to afford). It has a seat and foot well inside that allows you to sit comfortably and soak in water up to your neck. We use an antique Chinese stool to climb in and out. When not in use, the stool fits neatly into a cubby under the counter.

A detail behind the soaking tub. The wooden bowl was a Christmas gift from my sister (sourced from Target), which I've filled with three natural sponges. (Tip: they're much cheaper at a home improvement or paint store than they are at places like Anthropologie or Restoration Hardware.)

A view along the length of the bathroom. We love the wall of windows and the cut-out between the tub and sinks. The original plan was to install glass shelves into the opening, but I actually like the drama of filling the space with a pottery vase full of dried grasses. (But ok, the real reason we nixed the shelves was cost.) Window treatments? Look closely at the blinds and you'll see that they're temporary paper ones. We're still trying to decide what we want to do as a permanent solution.

The Mongolian slate and the high-capacity tub were definitely not "green" moves, but we tried to compensate with a couple other choices in the bathroom. We added bamboo floors (see below) and Paperstone countertops, which are made from recycled paper. The sinks are from Kohler, as are the fixtures, which (like the tub) I fell in love with very early on in this process. After years of squeezing over one tiny sink together, it's a pleasure to have two sinks in our bathroom. That gorgeous soap dish is actually not officially a soap dish, but a porcelain bowl by 16 Hands potter Silvie Granatelli.

This storage area also creates a shallow wall that helps enclose the toilet. There's a cabinet on top, drawers on the bottom, and yes, that's an appliance barn in the middle. With an outlet installed in the back, the appliance barn is a nice way to hide electric toothbrushes, a beard trimmer, and other items that would otherwise clutter up the bathroom.

As I've said (and as you can see), we still have a little work left to do. But we're really pleased with the "bones" of the bathroom, and nine months after we've moved in, we're still feeling utterly pampered and really lucky to get to enjoy this small but sumptuous space everyday.

bathroom week

We've had a lot of activity in our bathroom recently, so I thought I'd let the blog reflect that and spend an entire week on one theme: bathrooms.

What kind of "activity" are we talking about, you may be wondering? Don't worry -- no one here has had a stomach bug or anything of that sort. :)

The first flurry of activity was the frequent use of our new soaking tub by a dear friend of ours in the final weeks of her pregnancy. The experience of weightlessness was a real relief to her during a time when her almost 10-lb. baby(!) was nearing his full size. And the midwife had also recommended  bathing as a way to reduce swelling in her hands and feet. It was such a pleasure to us to be able to share our new bathroom to provide much needed comfort to someone we care so much about.

The second flurry of activity was last week, when our contractor returned to repair an issue with the tile on the front of our tub and to deal with a few other punchlist items in the bathroom (and elsewhere throughout the house).

In recent weeks, I also spent some time with two other dear friends who are getting ready to renovate their bathroom. We made a field trip to The Tile Shop and picked out some beautiful travertine tile for their shower and floor.

So it's no wonder I have bathrooms on the brain!

Join me this week, then, as I feature our own new bathroom, my Tile Shop outing, and conversations about bathroom essentials, art in the bathroom, etc. It's all bathrooms all week here at the NestingBlog!

fun ping pong table

How cool is this? A chalkboard ping pong table!

Obviously very cool, since it was featured a few days ago on Cool Hunting. Just don't ask how much it costs...

Santa Barbara ranch

Bob and I are beginning to talk about possible summer travel plans. Doesn't this Santa Barbara ranch look like the perfect cottage getaway? Too bad we can't stay in this home. I'd love to swing on that porch for hours with a good book! Designed by architect Brian Tichenor and decorated by Madeline Stuart, the home features a relaxed blend of chunky antique furniture, cozy Navajo rugs, and various other vintage pieces.