Monday, July 16, 2012

Susie Q in Your Bathroom

Tasteful thurday is a while off yet, but maybe we can make this a Malleable Monday.  This time around, I went with a two bedroom apartment.  I'm still not sure why I made this decision, but I did.  Maybe a part of it was that my original one bedroom apartment was so large that it was impossible to find anything in this new town that size without going to the two bedroom format.  But while that second bedroom would make an awesome study, instead I'm going to treat it as a bedroom.  That means I need to furnish it, and it's full bathroom, and find places to put my old furniture that simply do not fit in my now much smaller living room.

One major problem with the new apartment is the tremendous lack of space and the seriously questionable design considerations.  For example, there is a fantastic wall in the living room where my bookcase could go.  But right in the middle of this wall, the electricians installed my thermostat.  That should have been placed on the side of the wall, now the entire wall is ruined and I have to move it myself.  And yes I'm going to actually try moving it and the wires myself.  There are just so many things like this, little things, that add up and it just makes the whole layout entirely questionable and head scratching.

However, rather than nitpick, I want to talk about shower curtains.  In my opinion they are very important.  Basically they are like an extra wall that you're trying to decorate in full.  They're these big rectangular pieces that have decorations.  And I have some concerns with them.  For example, in smaller bathrooms, I feel shower curtains can really enclose the space and make it feel even tighter.  This is because they do act like a wall of sorts and if the bath tub is let's say a foot and a half wide, that brings the wall a foot and a half closer.  While inside the tub, if there is not an overhead light in the tub, shower curtains will block a certain amount of light from the bathroom lights.  So if a dark material is chosen the bathing area will be dark, and some people, like me, may not like this atmosphere.  I like things bright.  Also a dark material will make the entire bathroom darker when you're not in the tub.  However, a shower curtain does not have to be pulled out when it's not in use.  So this can fix both the darkened bathroom on the outside of the tub and the enclosed space problem.  But they usually come with a decoration and just having it pulled in may look weird or be dissapointing if the design is meant to be showed off.  For me, I like designs that are simple and light.  Here are the two I considered and I wound up getting the second one for the guest bathroom.  In my own bathroom I just have a simple vinyl liner with some leaves on it.  It's great but apparently no longer made, so I had to get something new for the guest bathroom.  The light blue is my contrast against the toupe walls and brown mirror frame.





The rings are also important.  If you get a shower curtain you may also need to get a vinyl liner.  But clipping both in the rings is a huge bother.  And maybe the rings don't nicely glide along the curtain rod.  Fortunately there is a solution to both these problems which was solved by Moen.
Look at those little guys; they look like a popular ladies hairstyle in the 50s.  But they're amazing.  Finally and maybe most importantly, while some may not like your choice in shower curtains, everyone will most certainly be put off by unclean shower curtains.  Mold can grow, both on the vinyl liners and the curtains.  Most are treated nowadays to prevent mold from growing, but that doesn't mean mold grow over the years.  So when you see it, throw it in the wash. 

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