Monday, April 25, 2011

Mondays @ my house: Master Bath

Ok ... so by the the time you read this it may not be Monday anymore. Sorry! I've been late to get online today, just trying to get things back in order after a lovely Easter weekend.  Will someone please come and remove all of the chocolate Easter eggs from my house ... please?

Anyway, today's Mondays @ My House is dedicated to our master bath, in part because I am excited about the new piece of art I just hung.



I'd been searching for just the right piece for awhile now.  My husband has always said he wanted a soothing ocean or sunrise scene. We quickly learned that most sunrise or sunset pictures tend to be horizontal.

I also kind of have a thing for vintage travel posters ... hmmm. Could we find one piece that satisfied us both?  I also struggled with the frame issue.  The space is sandwiched between two somewhat ornate framed mirrors. Another big frame would be too much.


Last week, I got an email from Art.com about a site wide 15% sale. Of course, that sucked me in and next thing I know I'm searching through their vintage travel posters. They have 15,326 of them! What I love though is that you can narrow down by region, then country and then specific places within that country. And with that many options, I knew I'd be able to find an uncommon one that everyone hasn't seen before.

Since the architecture of our bathroom has a lot of European influences with it's arched doorways and mosaic tile detail, I choose Europe then France and then narrowed it down from there. 

I loved this particular scene for the idyllic seaside town it portrays and the soothing spa-like colors. It makes me imagine my husband and I are on a little "French holiday" ... sleeping late, breathing in the ocean air, getting ready to walk down a cobblestone street to a little cafe for a chocolate croissant and cafe au lait. (Sigh ... a girl can dream can't she?) 

Plus I was able to pick my frame. I kept it simple so as not to compete with the mirrors and was able to match it almost exactly with the hardware of our faucets ... both are called "champagne."

Here are a few more shots of our bathroom ...





While I love color in all other rooms of the house, I think a master bath should be really light and natural. Like a spa, it's the one place you want to go to get away from it all. Visually and emotionally it should be uncluttered and relaxing, using clean colors like ivory and white or colors found in nature as your guide.

Use texture and small details to bring the room to life ...










I like to decorate with things like glass jars of sea salts, fluffy white towels, elegantly wrapped soaps or other favorite products in beautiful packaging, while still keeping things fairly minimalistic.



 I've tried to blend all of our favorite and decadent hotel bathrooms together into swoon worthy retreat. Calgon ... take me away.

(Talk about a memorable ad slogan ... Does anyone actually use Calgon anymore these days?  Is it still being made? )

ANYWAY ...what kinds of things do you do to add a little luxury to your bath?