Style cues from The Breakers

I admit. It's hard to relate to this.


Photo from Gardenvisit.com

I was too busy gawking to take many photos. My jaw ached from dropping so many times.

The Breakers, the Vanderbilts' 1895 summer "cottage," sits on 13 perfectly groomed acres in Newport, RI. Its 138,000 square feet encompass one room whose walls are clad in perfectly bookmatched Italian Cippolino marble slabs. The morning room walls are gilt in platinum leaf.

Just the idea of a morning room appeals to me. With or without platinum gilding. Imagine. A room designated for one's mornings. It sounds so peaceful.

The upstairs interior layout allowed female servants to invisibly deliver clothes to one's closet. Yes. The Vanderbilts actually had house elves! Or the very best Muggle approximation. The next time I ask my children if they expect laundry elves to pick up their scattered dirty clothes, I'll have to add, "Remember. You're not a Vanderbilt."

Interestingly, The Breakers' kitchen had a more accessible aesthetic. After all, the kitchen was an actual working space. Not there to be admired, but to serve a function. And my eye, trained by what the New York Times calls the "vaguely prewar aesthetic" of Christopher Peacock and the vintage stylings of Restoration Hardware, found much that could be incorporated into a modern-day kitchen.

Sorry. No interior photographs were allowed in The Breakers.

The kitchen and butler's pantry both featured inset cabinetry. Not painted as in the Peacock style, but in a warm, fairly dark wood. Plain white tiles, perhaps six inches square and now very slightly crackled with age, covered most of the kitchen walls. Set tightly in a running bond pattern, the look echoed currently trendy subway tiles, but with a nice twist. The tile edges were square, not pillowed. Slight differences in height where tiles met created a lovely, subtle texture. A sophisticated, perfectly vintage look. Especially in a larger kitchen where the scale of the larger tile would be appropriate. The reddish square floor tiles were a similar size to the wall tiles and also set in a running bond.

In the middle of the kitchen stood a very large island with a zinc counter. I love zinc. It's soft. It scratches. It reacts with materials. It looked beautiful. Similar to stainless, but warmer. Another appropriate choice for a vintage-inspired kitchen.

The spacious baths (the house had 20 in total!) housed beautiful console sinks. They were reminiscent of these Catchpole & Rye basins. The tubs had four taps. Two (hot and cold) were for regular water. Two more (hot and cold) were for saltwater. Quaint, but probably not where the modern homeowner would spend his or her budget.



Even more ornate details spark inspiration. The Trikeenan tiles we'd bought for our master bath floor are reminiscent of a herringbone ceiling at The Breakers. (The clear tape covering the Trikeenan tiles make them appear glossy.)



But perhaps the best style cue from The Breakers. The one item that many of us would love to have.



The view.

It works!

It works! It really works!

After months of work, we finally have a working basement bathroom again! When your only other bathroom for the lower two floors is dollhouse-sized, this is really cause for celebration. We haven't passed inspection, and we still have a few remaining things to do. So no full reveal yet. But here are some photos of our work in progress.







I'm so pleased with my IKEA Lillangen sink. It's incredible that you can get such a stylish piece at the price. To accentuate its farmhouse feel, I paired it with this Price Pfister Ashfield faucet that's reminiscent of an old-fashioned outdoor water pump. Beadboard (painted in the ever-popular Benjamin Moore White Dove), white-and-black dot octagon tile, and a barn-style lighting fixture complete the vintage, farmhouse look. I would have preferred the Lillangen's metal-framed glass doors over the solid white mdf door, but unfortunately, our plumbing came in from the side wall and would have been very visible through the frosted glass. Sometimes you have to accommodate what's there.

Just a few details to finish up, and this DIY remodel can be checked off the "to do" list.

Must-know advice for do-it-yourselfers

Now that we're less than a week away from having a working basement bathroom, I wanted to share what we've learned. I hope these tips will help.

1. Be aware of the additional costs (in both money and effort) of the little add-on projects.

In our case, it was the wainscoting. I wanted to echo the beautiful powder room wainscoting in our basement bath. It turns out that the powder room wainscoting was not stock, but built up from many different pieces. Just cutting and installing a simplified version took many evenings. Painting all of its three-dimensional edges and curves took four hours per coat.

This simple change added at least three weeks to our project. The wood alone cost over $200, a sizeable chunk of our $1,000 budget.

2. Invest in good tools.

Yes, there are some drips on the final wall I painted. Exhaustion will do that. But I can't imagine how much worse it would have looked without my wonderful Corona brushes with Chinex bristles. They held and applied paint smoothly, and made my job much easier. Fantastic!

3. This actually might be the most important. Throw a party in your old space. Yes, I know. You're ashamed of it. That's why you're renovating it. But if no one has seen the before, no one can appreciate the after. And if you're doing it yourself, surely you want to show off your handiwork. Just a little bit.

In our case, the basement bathroom was so hideous that really, you had to see it to appreciate how much it had changed. I really, really should have had an "Adios, Basement Bathroom" party. Nothing says festive like margaritas in the bathroom!

4. Appreciate the domino effect.

We left our old shower alone. We thought with a thorough cleaning and a new showerhead, it would be fine. Now surrounded by bright new paint and tile, the old shower looks beyond tired. I thought the acrylic surround was white, but it turns out that it's an odd shade of biscuit. Your older pieces will look even older in your newly renovated space.

5. Beware of that last five percent.

I said we're less than a week from a functioning bathroom. But we still have little projects to finish up. Finding and installing a marble threshold. Putting beadboard on and painting the existing wall cabinet. I'm fairly certain that these little projects will linger incomplete well into 2011. It will nag at the corners of my mind and slowly drive me insane.

At least I'll have a renovated bathroom with lovely custom wainscoting to enjoy in my insanity. Happy do-it-yourselfing!

Field trip: Trikeenan Tileworks

One afternoon during our recent ski weekend, we drove to the charming town of Keene, New Hampshire, to visit the showroom of Trikeenan Tileworks. We'd seen their work in a local tile store, and wanted to see more of their colorful, beautifully glazed tiles. An added incentive for the visit: we'd read that their showroom offered seconds (tiles that were overages or very slightly flawed) at a substantial discount.

The store was bustling on this particular spring-like afternoon. It's a welcoming place with several comfortable chairs where the non-shoppers (children, spouse, or other tile-weary fellow traveller) can relax. The folks at Trikeenan were friendly and very helpful, answering questions and suggesting tiles to suit one's ideas.





I knew I loved their Basics line (especially combined into blends), but I was surprised by their new Reclamation Collection. This collection of 12 colors uses 100% reclaimed glaze to reduce waste in their factories. The colors are subtle and much more beautiful than Trikeenan's online images suggest.

As for the seconds, I was happy (and overwhelmed) to see that they had a number of tiles available. The selection was good, especially if you were tiling a small area like an accent over a range. There were also a few tiles available in larger quantities.



We needed a fairly large amount of tile for our kitchen backsplash. We were also hoping to find tile for our master bathroom floor and shower. We were lucky enough to find this for our kitchen backsplash. The combination of white, cream, pale gray, and mossy greens works perfectly in our space. (The green reads more neutral in the photo than in reality.)



They didn't have quite enough square footage. However, we were able to buy enough tiles that comprise this blend that we'll be able to build what we need. In buying seconds, you may be saving money, but you need to be flexible and/or creative.

I highly recommend visiting the Trikeenan showroom. Call ahead to make sure that Trikeenan will be open and to hear what quantities of seconds are available. And while you're in Keene, enjoy a brewed-on-the-premises beer at Elm City Brewing Company. A very satisfying day trip.

Sneak peek: basement bathroom

Here's a sneak peek at our basement bathroom. We have more to do. There are many benefits to doing it yourself, but a big drawback is how slowly it can go when wedged between job, children, and other real life distractions. Big round of applause goes to Will, first-time tiler extraordinaire.

Sketch

Here's our master vanity concept. The sink has to be off-center in the vanity in order to be centered under the existing medicine cabinet. There's something that disturbs me about the asymmetry, especially because the backsplash/shelf treatment is so pretty. I wonder if it feels forced. We could redo that entire wall, but it would be pretty costly.

The top middle and rightmost drawers are dummies. The other four drawers are functional. There's a shelf underneath for a couple of short baskets. We were planning on paint grade maple topped with marble remnant. It would have pulls...just haven't put them in SketchUp.

So.

After all that work.

We had another thought.



We have this lovely dresser that Will inherited from his grandmother. Now it's not the fanciest piece of furniture. In fact, it is very, very plain, but well built out of solid pieces of wood. And despite lots of neglect, is relatively sturdy. Maybe. Just maybe, we turn over this dresser to a woodworker and have it rehabbed into a vanity. The top taken off. Reinforced so it would support marble. Drawers cut into to allow for plumbing. I think it just might be beautiful. Very unpretentious. And homey. And eco-friendly. Nothing greener than repurposing what you already own.



Then, I could put a tongue-and-groove wainscoting around the bathroom and add a 5" marble ledge at the top of the wainscoting along the sink wall. Similar to this photo here.


From the Kohler and Cottage Living 2007 Idea House in New Orleans

Pretty concept vanity or eco-friendly vintage vanity?

Review: Zinsser Perma-White Mold & Mildew-Proof Interior Paint

Reminds me of that old elementary school prank call:

Caller (muffling giggles): "Excuse me, but is your refrigerator running?"
Person who answered: "Yes?"
Caller (bursting into guffaws at own cleverness): "You'd better go catch it then!"

And that, in a nutshell, is how I feel about the Zinsser. Now I'm an old hand with a paint brush and roller, but I haven't done many ceilings. That said, I was stunned at how runny and thin the Zinsser was. I was caught between not having enough paint on the brush and having paint drip off the handle. I'd see paint drips down the walls when I'd barely coated the ceiling above. The coverage was also poor, possibly because I feared overloading the brush. This seemed to happen all too easily.

The guy at the paint store sold me this formulation because I was doing a bathroom ceiling. It's supposed to be great at resisting mildew. I hope so. It wasn't fun to apply.

Master

A snow day today so instead of the regularly scheduled errands and extracurriculars, I'm researching and designing. I've been hunting for the perfect master bath vanity for awhile now, from Restoration Hardware/Pottery Barn to Home Depot to Costco and a zillion online places. Nada. Nothing that makes me perk up and say, "That! That is the one!"

So we're designing our own. Here are our inspirations.



This lovely piece is from Provence et Fils. The mirrors are a bit much for me, but I absolutely love the encased backsplash with wood shelf and detailing.

It reminds me of this Pottery Barn piece that I also love: the Lucca single sink console. I don't particularly like the way that the sides come forward on the countertop. I think the Provence et Fils piece offers a similar feel with more usable space.



And because our master bath is very small and needs all the storage it can get, we're incorporating elements of this Pottery Barn classic single wide sink console.



I sketched out something freehand, and my husband translated my sketch to something more detailed on Google SketchUp. I love the result, but am also a bit nervous about it. After all, I'm not a trained interior decorator or a restoration historian. I'm very interested to discover what the responses and the bids to build out will be. We'll see.

Mutable onyx

I've never seen a natural stone change so much under different lighting. The tile salesperson did warn us when he checked out our sample.

In daylight, the Green Persian Pistachio onyx looks glorious. Hints of spring green. Smoky translucent depths. Subtle swirls. Though the sample we took home was much more muted than the spectacular display board, it was still lovely.

Under incandescent lights, the gorgeous green turns putrid and bilious. The smoky depths become murky and flat. It's like a Jekyll and Hyde stone.

I'd basically given up on the idea of using it (master bath floor) until I took these photos of it in daylight. See? So pretty!





Someone with a better lighting budget (or perhaps a bathroom that's flooded with daylight), please use this stone!

Blues

A quick run to the Benjamin Moore dealer and we're back home with a fistful of Affinity color chips. Ahhh...this isn't easy, even with the pared down Affinity color range. Imagine if I had the entire Benjamin Moore fandeck. Wait. I do. Two of them. I could stare at blues til I go blind.

I leaned the little papers against the wall. Solitude and Exhale were immediately struck off as too dark. Serenata may be too blue. Tranquility (the leftmost sample) is a possibility. It's a nice blue-gray with the slightest hint of red to warm it. Crystalline and Constellation are also contenders. Both are very, very pale. Perhaps too pale? Crystalline goes a bit green like sea glass. Constellation leans a bit lavender. Decisions. Decisions. A couple of photos. Almost impossible to catch the true color in the dingy bathroom light. The eye perceives something between those two photos.


without flash


with flash

I also love Farrow & Ball's Skylight. A very pretty grayed blue. The thought of spending Farrow & Ball dollars on a basement bathroom most used by the ten and under crowd...well...this doesn't excite me.

Don't you love color names? Would we buy these colors if they were named Very Light Blue Green and Very Light Blue Purple?

Nemesis

This morning I spent half an hour battling my nemesis to a not very satisfactory conclusion. I'm so annoyed by this that I'm blogging about it, instead of teaching the little girls how to write their letters.

Here's my nemesis.



Pretty innocuous, yes? Sure. A shower. Albeit a very small shower. So what, you think?

Well...this shower...this aged shower...this not-very-well-maintained shower...has permanently embedded mildew/mold/ucky gruck in its tile grout. This requires liberal use (and breathing in) of Soft Scrub with Bleach. In the three months I've lived in the house, I've gone through more Soft Scrub with Bleach than we used in a year in the old house. (Granted, we had a housekeeper then, but I didn't buy that much Soft Scrub). This ucky gruck is so ensconced that a dousing with Tilex doesn't work. Not at all. One must douse it with Soft Scrub and scrub, scrub, scrub. The gruck on the lowest tiles cannot ever really be removed because one must get on one's hands and knees to get enough leverage. The shower is too small to get on one's hands and knees in it.

At one point, someone decided to paint the gray floor grout with white grout paint. Now it is peeling off so it looks perennially filthy. Not intentional like gray grout, but like very, very dirty white grout.

After all of this, this scrubbing and cursing and kneeling (on the bath rug reaching into the shower), one would think the shower would gleam. No. Not really. It just doesn't look disgusting anymore. We really, really, really need to talk to a contractor.

For anyone worried about an upcoming visit, the children's/guest bath has been renovated by the previous owner and is gorgeous...green marble and white subway tile and unlacquered brass fixtures from England. It's just my bath that is the yuck.

The world's tiniest powder room

We're the proud owners of the world's tiniest powder room. Previous owners had cleverly turned it into a sheltering nook of a potty with black slate floor, black painted wainscoting, and a dark wallpaper. It holds a miniscule toilet and equally petite sink. My hand could probably span most of the sink. Here's a photo of said sink. Note the bar of soap. It's a smaller than standard bar of soap on a tiny soap dish. I particularly like the old-fashioned faucet with separate spigots for hot and cold water.



Yesterday, I was enjoying some bathroom cleaning time. (On a related note: Why did I pay for both a housekeeper and a gym membership when cleaning one's house by oneself provides a darned good workout? Lugging a vacuum cleaner up and down four stories is especially effective.) I was polishing my brass faucets, feeling somewhat like a parlor maid in an Agatha Christie novel ("Rose was polishing Colonel and Mrs. Luscombe's brasses...")

I noted that my mini-powder faucet was labeled "Barber Wilsons...London 1905." The children's bath upstairs also has this brand of faucet as well as a particularly elaborate bath/shower contraption. The faucets had quite a bit of tarnish which I attacked with Brasso and a rag. Brasso, by the way, provides enormous satisfaction. Rub and the tarnish comes right off. Then polish to a warm luster. Was this unlacquered brass? Intrigued, I googled the manufacturer. This is what I found.

"Manufacturers of exquisite kitchen and bathroom faucets and mixers for over 100 years, the traditional and contemporary designs of Barber & Wilson's carry the Royal Warrant of the royal family of England by appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Located in the United Kingdom, Barber Wilsons offers a custom manufacturing service and a wide range of commercial and in-home bath and kitchen faucets and fittings such as drains, pipes, and valves."

Oooh. So our house has posh faucets. Don't think the rest of the house meets this standard. Note the previous entry with its crumbling pegboard pantry and dilapidated countertops. Quite an interesting mix.