Bathroom sink

How do we feel about wall-mount sinks? This one's pretty and petite, and goes with my theme nicely - but you'll see the plumbing underneath, won't you? Then again I'm probably changing the exposed plumbing anyway, and don't they make decorative traps?

Appliances

Opportunism reigns (I figure I have all summer to troll the floor-model specials) but here are my tentative picks for the other appliances:

Microwave:

 

GE Profile over-the-range convection microwave (ignore the MSRP). This is the mini-Advantium, smaller and cheaper than the wall oven but with all the features - it bakes and microwaves at the same time, if you want it to, for super-quick space-age cooking; and it's said to be a good enough oven for cookie making. Originally I wanted a double-oven range, and this seems like a graceful compromise. I'd be happy to take it in white if I end up with a non-stainless stove.

Range:

Fisher & Paykel, 5 burners, convection, no digital controls, and as little stainless steel as possible for a "pro-style" range.

Dishwasher:

Sigh. I'm still torn between the cheaper GE Spacemaker with great reviews, and the Bosch with better resale value. Maybe there's a third, happier option out there.

Countertop collywobbles ...

I went back to a store today that has Caesarstone Misty Carrera installed on a large kitchen island - to see a large expanse of it - and all I can say is, eh. It's kind of dull, in every sense - greyish and matte and boring. And it would look dingy next to a bright white farmhouse sink. The Caesarstone Rosemary (which they had a large sample of, but no installation) wasn't grabbing me either.

Maybe it's time to look again at natural stone. I wandered into their back lot and - aha! - a green serpentine hissed at me from a nearby tree - "here, take this apple" - no, wait, wrong story; but it was that seductive.

I don't think I want that piece of serpentine - for one thing it's foreign-sourced (if I use stone, I want it to be mined in Vermont, not Taiwan), for another because they wanted to charge me an awful lot of money for it (I think they added an extra $500 as soon as I mentioned Manhattan).

But why not serpentine? Sure it's kind of loud and outré - but I only have 17 sq. ft. total counterspace, and it'll be horizontal (I don't want a stone backsplash). And I swoon over the green-on-green. (The only other granites I've liked at all have been green - though more in the smushed-peas range.)

Serpentine is technically a marble, not a granite - but its chemical composition means that it doesn't react to acid the way marble does. It's pretty much impervious, I believe it doesn't get sealed, and it stays shiny even on the outside of buildings. It has a rich, mysterious, Versailles or Hermitage look to me.

Of course my tiling plan is all boulversé now - after much experimentation in the store, I discovered that you can't really use any field tile next to it except a light zen-tea green (not that I mind tea green, in fact it's one of my favorite decorating colors) ... which means what, exactly, for the deco tiles? Hmmm.

Here are some pictures of Vermont-sourced serpentine. It seems less wildly veiny than the Taiwan stuff I saw, which is probably a good thing:

What do you think?

Tweaking the cabinets ...

So my last layout was perfect till I tried to put doors on it. Then the patchworkiness started to clash with the door styles and it all got to be too much.

So I switched the leftmost top cabinets to put them in line with the rest .. and came up with a few door ideas. (As always, click to make the pictures bigger, and use your imagination to make the cabinets on the window wall match the others.)

Here it is, with lots of glass:

Airy, but not very practical - glass cabinets are nice for dishes, but you've got to have someplace to hide the pasta boxes and the Fantastic bottle too.

Another version, with less glass:

Eh. And then there's the over-the-top (but surprisingly not over-the-budget) repro Stickley inlay concept. [Before you look at the next picture, keep in mind that the cabinets will actually be stained a medium-brown color, and that the inlay panels will match, not contrast with, the stiles around them, like so.]

There would be an inlay panel on the door of the blind corner cabinet under the window, too.

What do we think?

Playing with colors ...

Still on the kitchen. I just found out that there's a Daltile showroom in Manhattan, where I can see the field tiles (I hope) in person.

Meanwhile, noodling with the color samples online .... the big squares are field tile colors, the little inserts are deco tile colors (ignore the designs) - I probably want to use only two or three colors altogether, and I don't want the field tiles too dark. See any combos you like? (Click to make the images bigger.)

Colors for the kitchen

This is the color (and look) I'm aiming for on the cabinets:

These are the color choices for the L'Esperance dogwood and daylily tiles:

The L'Esperance field tiles are too expensive, so I'm using Daltile's "Rittenhouse Square" subway tiles - here are the colors available:

Which colors do I want to use for the field and deco tiles? I'm thinking a blue, green, and gold theme.


The countertops will be either Caesarstone Misty Carrera:

or Caesarstone Rosemary:

What else has color in the room? The sink is white; the exposed appliances will be white or stainless (unless the floor-model fairy blesses me again, with a mint-julep Viking stove or something), the ceiling will be white, the floors are oak and will probably be light rather than dark.

Details, details ...

Topic of the day: shower curtains vs. shower doors.

Curiously, the previous tenant must not have taken showers - or he must not have cared about getting water on the floor. There's no shower curtain rod or door arrangement at all. (No showerhead either - just a pipe stem jutting out of the wall.)

First what I can't have: no swinging frameless glass shower door for me. There's no place for it to swing to. One expensive purchase averted.

My glass door choices come down to sliding or folding. Sliding doors would need to be supported on the open end somehow (it's a corner tub, not set in an alcove), probably by at least a short wall. That would make my tiny bath tinier. Folding doors, which are really cool (they fold up like an accordion), don't need another support. But they get mixed reviews on actually keeping the water in, and they'd need somewhere to fold into - e.g. it would be a lot of bulk at the head of the tub, more decorative maybe when you're not using it, but interfering with taking a comfortable tub bath. And either way, you'd be putting your elbow through the glass whenever you used the loo .. and the room would look chopped-up and small.

So it's back to the shower curtain. Sigh. I've lived all my life with shower curtains. I wanted to try something different. Shower curtains blow in and stick to you rather than the to the tub wall. They can't be cleaned except by actually taking them down and washing them. And with a tub that has more than one open side and a high ceiling, you need an L-shaped bar, at least two curtains (sometimes three sewn together), the standard length comes out too short, and then you've got all this bulky curtain at both the head and foot of the tub ...

 But wait! They've come out with a better mousetrap (or at least a better L-shaped shower curtain rod). You know how some draperies hang on rods with tracks? They've imported that concept into shower world -

Another version - which can be mounted to the ceiling (though that might look too hospital) -

The great thing about designing the bathroom from scratch is that the L-shaped curtain rod can actually be hung low enough to accommodate a standard-length curtain (instead of hanging it slightly too high and creating a problem).

If the curtain can flow freely around the corner, it can be bundled at the foot of the tub - next to the vanity - and not up by the window and toilet.

And they're an awful lot cheaper than shower doors. Better living through technology!

Solving the kitchen again ...

Now that the contractor has tentatively blessed my rearrangement of appliances, I had to redo the top cabinets. It wasn't so easy, because my rhythmic frieze of 24"x18" cabinets along the top looked dumb with the doors below. Here's what I came up with:

The bit by the fridge still isn't right - the fridge will really be built-in, with no gap between it and the next cabinet; and the storage above it will be as deep as the fridge, e.g. 24".

Here's a quick mock-up of my cabinet doors with this design. I know it looks amateurish - I'm using a freeware paint program to paste on the doors, that's why I can't do the ones under the window: I can't get it to do perspective. In real life they'll match the others of course.

I'm afraid it's getting too busy. I don't know if I should still mix the door styles - e.g. notice that the bottom cabinets on either side of the stove are different from all the other cabinet doors. I've discarded the third style in my mix completely now. But I do like the puzzle patchwork way in which the door sizes and shapes are arranged.

The world is my oyster ....

One thing the contractor explained to me is that I can’t put a slipper tub up against the wall. If a tub is designed to be freestanding, it must clear the wall, and you have to curtain the wall side as well or you’ll have water problems.

So much for that idea. It’s freeing, in a way, because now the bathroom style doesn’t have to be retro. It can be modern – or mod, which is retro in a different way.

I’ll choose the tub purely on parameters: as narrow (<30”) yet deep (water level to the overflow) as can be had. It will be more or less traditional and boxy, with a straight edge on the long exposed side (all of the tubs designed to go against a wall I’ve seen so far do), so I can have a shower door. I’m mighty tempted to use a glass door that folds away like an accordion – it would make the room much less cluttered than either a traditional door or a curtain – but I’d still need some space for it to fold into (must check the specs) and it’s pricy.

Here’s one concept for the bathroom:

Brown emperador marble mosaic on the floor.

These are mini-bricks, 1/2 inch x 1 inch; they come on a backing sheet. The cool thing about this marble is that it’s so brown-and-white streaky, like white and milk and dark chocolate ice cream swirled together. I ordered a sample, and every little brick is different. It makes for a nice visual texture – and as for the tactile texture, it’s shiny but with enough grout to give traction. (Coffee grout or pearl grout?)

Second choice, ming green hexes on the floor.

Hexes are traditional for prewar bathrooms (though not green marble hexes). They’d give it a lighter, serener, more spa-like look. But I’m probably using green and blue tones in the kitchen.

Mother of pearl glass tiles on the wall. I’ve tried for better pictures:

It comes in both a 1/2 inch x 1 inch mini-brick pattern and a 1 inch square pattern. (At least I’m pretty sure those are the same tile; I’m ordering a sample of the mini-brick to be sure.) I’m tiling to the ceiling, and the contrast can be subtle – squares on the bottom and bricks on top, or squares by the sink and toilet and bricks by the tub and wall-opposite-the-sink …

And then there’s the ceiling. The contractor pointed out that, though he certainly could tile the bathroom ceiling for me, it would be a waste of money if my upstairs neighbors ever had water problems that affected the ceiling again. The ceiling is suspiciously lumpy as it is, and the hallway outside the bathroom has damage on the floor and had a gaping hole in the ceiling when I first saw the apartment. I have no idea how long ago that damage happened, why it happened, or whether the problem is permanently fixed (though there’s been no sign of trouble in the five months since I made my bid).

That’s a reason to put a ceiling fixture in. (I want to put a hard-wired lighted vanity mirror over the sink rather than a medicine chest – like so –

 
and I’ll need another light, either a sconce on the wall or a ceiling fixture; the right ceiling fixture might cast shadows that detract from the imperfect ceiling. Since there’s no wiring yet for either, I get to pick.)

What about a wood molding where the tile meets the uneven ceiling? Something ornate and Asiatic, maybe. Wood is trendy in bathrooms now (though I’m not sure how practical is – maybe okay up by the ceiling, if you choose the right variety of wood?). But that would make it more spa than mod – and I was saving the chinoiserie theme for the dining nook.

I really like this sink.

It’s not expensive (in fact it’s all over Home Depot) but it’s got something that only a few other (very expensive) pedestal sinks have: an integrated towel bar. When you have no wall space, putting a little towel under the sink is brilliant. Unfortunately it’s 24” wide, a little wider than I’d prefer. Also, a friend of mine has the same sink in his bath, and he says that the design of the towel bar is defective: the screws holding it up are anchored only in plastic expanders, they have no nuts on the other side, so the bar sags after a while. The guy in Home Depot thinks that there’s a hollow space behind the sink so that you could reach in and put nuts before you installed it. We’ll see.

 I love this faucet

but I'm afraid it may be a little too big for my sink (and my budget).

As for the toilet - it's a flushometer now, and the unit I saw for sale left it that way (but replaced the pedestrian flushometer hardware and bowl with stylish Toto stuff). The suburbanites among you may be saying "whaaaa ...?" right now. Flushometer means there's no tank, just a metal pipe behind the bowl and a handle for flushing; the water comes out at high pressure while you hold the handle. Like the toilets in schools and train stations. Prewar buildings also often have flushometer toilets, and some buildings don't let you switch to a tank. Dunno what my building's policy is, but even if I have the option, I might go flushometer again. It saves a couple of inches, and it goes with the character of the building. What do you think? Too horrifying, or suitably pre-war?

Quick new kitchen idea -

Thanks to the ever-helpful folks at ikeafans.com, I had an insight on the kitchen this morning. If the drains allow (gas hookups can be flexible within reason, can't they, since it's just a hose?) I think this might be a better arrangement for the appliances (didn't have time to fill in the top cabs yet, but they'll be like in the last design).

Meeting a contractor - who I hope will be mine - this afternoon.