WHITE + GOLD: vanity

This house is my favorite of the two because it has these wood grid windows that are beautiful and would be SO expensive to recreate (one of the pluses of owning a home built in 1901). It also has a European feel to it. It's just a charming home.

I hope I did this house justice :)

457 C STREET

Do you see those great windows? And how sad that they had dry walled over the fireplace - so bizarre.


I decided to make this a more traditional home than the other home. We chose oak floors with a dark stain and did wainscot on the walls. The sconces are Robert Abbey and the fireplace surround is a crema marfil marble remnant.


Again, we removed the radiant heat (although I thought these heaters were super cool and underneath the silver paint they were a beautiful brass color).


This was the dining room just off the main room. We tore out the wall and made the dining room the new kitchen. I love those doors leading to the deck!

The beautiful windows in the dining area.

The old kitchen that became the new dining room.

The new kitchen! The cabinets are painted BM Dove White and the hardware is a brushed brass. The island light is the Axis Double Light from Robert Abbey (ignore the plastic still on it). The countertops are quartz countertops made by Cambria, (the color is Torquay) that I mentioned in this post. I was happy with the way they turned out, but they definitely aren't the same as marble.

I love the little square cabinets above the window - perfect for storing the pretty plates and bowls.

I did the same tile from Emser in both houses for the laundry/1/2 bath room.

Same carpet on these stairs as the other home. I like that this staircase has the wainscot on the side.


The upstairs 3/4 bath has the same configuration as the other home. Nothing too exciting to work with.

I did the same 3x6 Desert Gray subway tile from Dal Tile but the flooring is different - it's the octagon and dot in Desert Gray from Dal.

This close-up is a better representation of the true color of the tiles.

The master bedroom was similar to the other home in that it was long and narrow so we divided it up and made one half of the room the master bath.

I LOVE this bathroom. The vanity turned out so great. We had a narrow space between the vanity and the shower wall so I didn't want to do lower cabinets and we did a shelf for storage instead. All of the drawers are functional, but we also added a tall storage cabinet on the side for extra storage.

The sconces are from Circa Lighting and the floor tile is this limestone from Dal Tile that I am obsessed with. It is by far my favorite bathroom floor tile. Another client put it in her home and it looks great there too.

The storage cabinet we added. These cabinets were also painted BM Dove White and have the Cambria Torquay countertops that are in the kitchen.

The master shower. I had spent most of my tile budget for this bathroom on the limestone floor tile so I needed to do white subway in the shower. My original plan was to do chair rail squares to mimic wainscotting but to save money we just decided to break up the subway tile with bands of tile going vertical instead of horizontal. Plan A would have looked better, but I'm liking Plan B.

For some unknown reason I didn't take as many pictures of this house for the before or after - sorry no pics of the bedrooms (although unfurnished bedrooms aren't ever very exciting).

Overall I am happy with the way both of these homes turned out, but I'm also excited to take what I learned on this project and do it even better on the next one. I think one thing is for sure - I have learned how to stretch a dollar and get a lot of style out of a small budget.

On to the next one...!

We've all seen this done in bathrooms, but what do you really think about installing a mirror over a window?

I personally love how the light shines in behind the mirror and I'm guessing it's great light to apply make-up, etc. since it's natural light. It might not be as flattering, but you know how it is - you think you look great before you leave the house and then you check the rear-view mirror when you're driving and you look totally different.

It sometimes also allows for a better layout of a bathroom. Instead of trying to lay it out to avoid the window, you can use the window area as part of the bathroom.

Anyway, would love to hear your thoughts on this....would you do it in your own home?

AND it has to be done right, I don't love this application of the mirror over the window...it looks like there is too much going on with the shade behind it and the oval shape with the dark wood.