Bathroom jewelry: Lighting and hardware. Week 4 of the One Room Challenge
Some almost-final touches have been going up... our beautiful new updated classic/modern traditional light fixtures and towel bars/vanity faucet/hardware!
This post is part of my series of 6 posts about the 5-week One Room Challenge. You can see all my posts about this project here or listed below:
- Week 1: "Before," design, and demo!
- Week 2: How to Lay Mosaic Tile Flooring
- Week 3: How to phase a bathroom reno, tons of wall tile, and painting tips
- Week 4: Lighting and hardware choices
- Week 5: How to replace a shower (wall, tile, doors)
- Week 6: Modern traditional 100% DIY full bathroom reno REVEAL and budget
First, here's the bathroom progress to date. Still lots of grouting to do, and we need to install the ceiling trim (and finish the shower, which is currently ready for tile and just has the emerald green waterproofing on). Okay, with that caveat, let's focus on the pretty details that are in!
Choosing Modern Traditional Bathroom Lighting
I reeeally puzzled over the lighting for this room. Bathroom light fixtures are hard to shop for! The standard two-or-more light vanity lights that go on the wall above a mirror in a new build or apartment are easy to find but are not usually very cute. We were replacing one of those, plus a ceiling light. It's extra hard to find a matching set in the style I wanted!
The original door knobs in our bathrooms and kitchen are polished chrome. This was used in older homes in rooms with steam/water as it holds up better to moisture than brass. We're definitely keeping our original door hardware, so I wanted most of the new metals to match--but of course I'm also into mixing metals!
I stuck with polished chrome as the primary metal, but used black for the vanity drawer pulls and the mirror frame. I looked for vanity lighting in chrome.
I found the perfect classic, but still modern-feeling, light fixture from Hudson Valley Lighting. Its pretty curves and round base almost match the plumbing fixtures I was looking at, too!
Hudson Valley Lighting has modern, midcentury-inspired, and classic options... I used their Stella sconce and semi-flush mount in my last One Room Challenge bathroom project! I am so happy to work with them again and use one of their really beautiful quality pieces. The Edison Collection 2-light sconce I chose has the perfect not-too-cool chrome metal base and I love the milk glass shades. I was sure I wanted to use this vanity light!
That left the ceiling light. I went super basic with the ceiling light fixture... it's nothing special and nowhere near as pretty as our vanity light, but it ties in with the black. Ordinarily I would use the same color of metal for both light fixtures, but in this case I think it works! You can see both in this pic.
With the lighting selected, my mood board really started to take shape. (I'll share it again below.)
When I first started designing this bathroom, inspired by lots of contemporary bathroom designs I love, I was going for a very sleek, modern faucet and hardware style. I like the contrast between traditional tile and soft colors and straight-lined plumbing fixtures. But I strayed from this for a couple reasons... first, I realized that a lot of the modern faucets I liked were brass or black, not chrome--chrome plus modern shape was a little too modern. Then I also decided that with the straight lines of the vanity we chose, a more classic fixture provided some great balance on the vanity.
I played around with sleek and curved plumbing fixtures as I chose the lighting. The straight lines of the modern faucets just didn't look right. (Plus, they reminded me of some of the weird modern metal pieces that had been in our bathroom before... the 50's/early 90's/early 2000's mashup of styles!)
So I settled on the Restoration line from Kingston Brass. They have modern fixtures as well but I love their classic pieces. They have a ton of options and lines--Victorian, Georgian, "metropolitan," "Concord"... I really love how once you know what the faucet you like is called, you can look at ALL their other products in that line, too--like, here are all the Restoration line towel bars I chose from.
I chose this faucet, this towel bar/hardware set (I love that it comes with a double towel bar!!!), and an extra one of these robe hooks. Their pieces are so affordable and are solid, high quality brass. They are just beautiful!
As you can see we are still a construction zone over here but getting the walls painted and toilet paper holder and hand towel ring up is really making this bathroom feel closer to done. So civilized! ;)
Thought I'd share the moodboard for this room once more... it's changed a little since Week 1 and I'm still trying to figure out almost all of the accessories! Only a couple more weeks to do that, yikes! But I hope you can see here how the traditional touches make this modern bathroom work in our home. I'm so excited to have this clean, fresh, glamorous space!
Thanks to Kingston Brass and Hudson Valley Lighting for providing me their excellent products for this project!
Stay tuned for next week when we share about our shower--I cannot wait to have that done!!!
You can also check out the ORC blog for the rest of the 6-week challenges happening now! There are 20 featured designers plus tons of other guests like me!
The original door knobs in our bathrooms and kitchen are polished chrome. This was used in older homes in rooms with steam/water as it holds up better to moisture than brass. We're definitely keeping our original door hardware, so I wanted most of the new metals to match--but of course I'm also into mixing metals!
I stuck with polished chrome as the primary metal, but used black for the vanity drawer pulls and the mirror frame. I looked for vanity lighting in chrome.
I found the perfect classic, but still modern-feeling, light fixture from Hudson Valley Lighting. Its pretty curves and round base almost match the plumbing fixtures I was looking at, too!
Hudson Valley Lighting has modern, midcentury-inspired, and classic options... I used their Stella sconce and semi-flush mount in my last One Room Challenge bathroom project! I am so happy to work with them again and use one of their really beautiful quality pieces. The Edison Collection 2-light sconce I chose has the perfect not-too-cool chrome metal base and I love the milk glass shades. I was sure I wanted to use this vanity light!
That left the ceiling light. I went super basic with the ceiling light fixture... it's nothing special and nowhere near as pretty as our vanity light, but it ties in with the black. Ordinarily I would use the same color of metal for both light fixtures, but in this case I think it works! You can see both in this pic.
With the lighting selected, my mood board really started to take shape. (I'll share it again below.)
Choosing Towel Bars and Plumbing Fixtures
When I first started designing this bathroom, inspired by lots of contemporary bathroom designs I love, I was going for a very sleek, modern faucet and hardware style. I like the contrast between traditional tile and soft colors and straight-lined plumbing fixtures. But I strayed from this for a couple reasons... first, I realized that a lot of the modern faucets I liked were brass or black, not chrome--chrome plus modern shape was a little too modern. Then I also decided that with the straight lines of the vanity we chose, a more classic fixture provided some great balance on the vanity.
I played around with sleek and curved plumbing fixtures as I chose the lighting. The straight lines of the modern faucets just didn't look right. (Plus, they reminded me of some of the weird modern metal pieces that had been in our bathroom before... the 50's/early 90's/early 2000's mashup of styles!)
So I settled on the Restoration line from Kingston Brass. They have modern fixtures as well but I love their classic pieces. They have a ton of options and lines--Victorian, Georgian, "metropolitan," "Concord"... I really love how once you know what the faucet you like is called, you can look at ALL their other products in that line, too--like, here are all the Restoration line towel bars I chose from.
I chose this faucet, this towel bar/hardware set (I love that it comes with a double towel bar!!!), and an extra one of these robe hooks. Their pieces are so affordable and are solid, high quality brass. They are just beautiful!
As you can see we are still a construction zone over here but getting the walls painted and toilet paper holder and hand towel ring up is really making this bathroom feel closer to done. So civilized! ;)
Thought I'd share the moodboard for this room once more... it's changed a little since Week 1 and I'm still trying to figure out almost all of the accessories! Only a couple more weeks to do that, yikes! But I hope you can see here how the traditional touches make this modern bathroom work in our home. I'm so excited to have this clean, fresh, glamorous space!
Thanks to Kingston Brass and Hudson Valley Lighting for providing me their excellent products for this project!
Stay tuned for next week when we share about our shower--I cannot wait to have that done!!!
You can also check out the ORC blog for the rest of the 6-week challenges happening now! There are 20 featured designers plus tons of other guests like me!
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