furniture from alex macarthur
Down to earth this Monday after an extremely busy but, the surface at least, glamorous week the like of which I have never had before. In short: a shoot for Habitat on Tuesday, a trip to Copenhagen on Wednesday and the book launch on Thursday. I know it sounds fabulous doesn’t it?
by Brent Darby for country living
And it was. Don’t get me wrong I did some really interesting things, the results of which you will see on the blog very soon. The flip side was very sore feet, very little sleep and a mountain of laundry waiting for me on Friday. Ah the glamour.
So I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has bought, read, blogged, tweeted or facebooked the book. I am thrilled to see it receive so much coverage (more is still to come) and I hope you are enjoying it and finding it helpful and useful.
Right then rooms. Beautiful ones. My love affair with the patterned tile continues and these ones above and below are from Fired Earth. My husband said to me in tones of deep foreboding yesterday that “We need to talk about the bathroom”.
This means tile hunting. Hurray. We currently have plain white metro tiles in the shower and I think it’s time for something more, shall we say, arresting. Metro tiles are classic but they don’t stop you in your tracks and I want something, to coin my usual phrase, that makes my heart sing.
I’m actually not thrilled that we are having to redo the bathroom, but it’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you buy cheap you buy twice. We bought two bathrooms from Bathstore five years ago and one has already had to be replaced and the second is on its way out.
The basins and the loo are fine. The showerhead, floorstanding taps and shower tray have not stayed the course. Perhaps when we rushed out of the shop crowing that we had fitted out two bathrooms for £3,000 we should have thought a bit more about what that might mean.
hexagon tiles from fired earth
So, for what it’s worth and many of you probably know this already – you need to spend more money on shower trays – the plastic ones can come detached on the base and sort of ripple when you stand on them. Taps, especially if you live in a hard water area where limescale is an issue, need to be well made from quality materials and yes, you gotta pay for that.
So now we have to buy a new shower and new taps for the bath as our floorstanding tap leaks and appears to have jammed on the shower attachment so you can only fill the bath with the shower head, which simultaneously leaks all over the floor. I tell you this, as I said in one of my very first blog posts, so you can learn from my mistakes.
In the meantime, this gorgeous bathroom from the home of designer Faye Toogood is definitely inspiring me. I love the shape of those tiles too. But also look at the hexagonal ones above – that’s just a question of layout and you could do something cool with metro tiles, which are very affordable, that would look just as impressive.
Sadly, tiles are the one thing that don’t need to be expensive but make all the difference to the overall look of the scheme and is often the place where you want to spaff all the money. Leaving nothing for the working bits like TAPS and SHOWER TRAYS. Bitter? Moi?
Finally, I thought you might like this rather splendid Clerkenwell apartment which has a steel box in the middle to house the media room and bathroom. I love the contrast of the raw materials and the undeniable softness and luxury of that sofa. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have room for a sofa that went in different directions?
And on that note I leave you for today. The moral of the Monday is don’t scrimp on the important bits. Have a lovely day and I’ll see you tomorrow.
from Mad About The House http://ift.tt/1Qf7gBP
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