It’s hard to believe, but we’ve lived here for a couple of years now. A home is never finished, of course, but we’re still fine-tuning some aspects of the original plan that didn’t quite work.
We took the same approach to the powder room that we did to the other bathrooms in the house — we decorated rather than remodeled. That is, we kept the tiles and fixtures, and, apart from the doors and lighting (which we changed throughout the loft), we limited ourselves to paint, paper and accessories.
In the powder room, this was a good start, but a couple things weren’t quite right.
The original nickel fixtures seemed oddly small. (And that mirror was pretty uninspiring.)
And the towel bars were in an odd place, which, as an astute reader commented, really called out for a large mirror.
So I found gold-tone faucets at Kohler, which fit the existing plumbing. David installed them himself, along with a matching drain cover and toilet tank lever. (Impressed!) I never thought I’d have gold bathroom fixtures, but I like these, and a little Liberace in the powder room isn’t such a bad thing. David also found a great vintage French midcentury mirror that reflects the octagonal pattern in the wallpaper.
Another issue was that there wasn’t anywhere to put down anything like a handbag or glass, so I worked with my friends at Modern Living Supplies in New York to design a tall, narrow console made of brushed brass and black marble. We also installed this (kind of crazy) python skin mirror that we happened to have lying around — good for making sure everything’s in place before you return to the party.
And here’s one little detail that probably nobody’s noticed: On the advice of my friend Jill Pilaroscia at Colour Studio, I painted the door frame charcoal gray and filled the reveal between it and the wallpaper with metallic gold paint.
Now, for a small rug. Any ideas? Chocolate brown woven leather? A pattern? Is the room too matchy — do we need a color?
