the bathroom disaster

for those of you who may not know, we are re-doing the bathroom this year.  usually every year we take a big trip abroad (2008: germany and turkey, 2009: paris, 2010: morocco and spain).  2011, however, will be a bit tamer.  we decided last year that rather than taking a big trip we would put that money into our upstairs bathroom, which desperately needs some updating.  here are a few shots of what the bathroom looked like in march last year, before we even closed.  keep in mind this is what we have been living with as our main bathroom until just last month!

no, that crap in the right corner wouldn't come off

bland tile. chipped, cracked and impossible to keep clean

taking up just enough space in the middle of the room. why??????

boring mirror and lights from home depot (mirror came free w/vanity purchase).

the weekend of my birthday, i was showering and i looked up at the bathroom ceiling.  what i saw made me want to vomit.  the previous owner, or whoever painted our bathroom stock-white, used cheap paint. i can tell this because when it gets wet, the latex base drips in the form of yellow streaks on the walls and build-up on the ceiling that literally looks like pee on the walls.  it's the worst.  i got out of the shower and told philip that we should start ripping it out.  and my ever-motivated husband went right into the bathroom with a hammer and started smashing :)

at the risk of giving my mother a heart attack i won't post any pictures of what the bathroom looked between that day and yesterday.  i will tell you that it wasn't pretty.  and for about two weeks it sat totally untouched because we were out of town, so that kind of put a kink in our plans.

here's a photo of the kind of look and feel i'm going for in the bathroom:

photo from domino, tile from emery & cie

really, in a perfect world, i would use tile like this (below) with that gorgeous mirror above and some really interesting lighting.

tile from home depot.com

but marriage is about compromise and those of you who know philip won't be surprised to hear he doesn't like this tile (or the cost).  so we are going a more neutral, man-friendly way.  so far we have tentatively picked brown glass tile with a white stone border. 

the look in our house is pretty original, i think.  it's pretty eclectic.  while i love italian and french designs, i've found that i'm most home around moroccan decor.  so i'm really hoping to put a bit of that middle eastern flavor into the bathroom with dark tile and differing and neutral glass tea lights around the room like these from elizabeth's embellishments (one of my new favorite stores!) in lafayette.

we haven't picked out a vanity, floor tiles, paint, light, etc... right now we are just focused on getting a bathtub up and running so we don't have to shower downstairs every day.  i want a bath tub... our old one was so yucky i never took a bath in it.  so now that we are getting close (tub is being delivered monday or tuesday!) i am literally dreaming of hot bubble baths with candles and a good book.

but for now... i guess i'll just have to live with this.  happy sunday everyone :)