“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

its loveliness increases; it will never

pass into nothingness….”

-John Keats, Endymion

So reads my bathroom wall now, and yes, it is a joy! (Forever, though? Maybe not.) I’ve struggled a great deal with bathroom decor. Two of the bathrooms I’ve had to decorate have been teeny tiny; the other was enormous; none was easy to prettify.  Our current bathroom has been through a couple transformations (here and here) but hasn’t been completely right until now.

The elements I’ve tried to unify this entire time have finally coalesced in this scheme, which boasts: a color palette that doesn’t draw too much attention to the white toilet/ivory counter clash and the dated wood cabinets; decor items that don’t feel too fancy for a room with such a humble purpose; and an overall effect that, while understated, is nonetheless pleasant to look at.

It all started with this bottle.  I saved it from the recycling bin, sure I could find a use for it.  I scraped off the label and stuck in the branch, then walked around the apartment looking for a place to set it.  Every place I thought of had eye-poke issues or interfered with the freedom of movement in seating areas.  No good.  “If only I had a shelf above this towel hook,” I thought as I stood pondering the branch’s potential in the bathroom.  Then crazy-me said, “Why do you need a shelf?”

With one long piece of ribbon (which I received as part of a present’s wrapping last fall) I tied a loop “behind” the bottle neck and wrapped the rest into a bow in the “front.”  I hung the loop over a nail and called it good.  Then Lovey came home.

He liked the look but suggested that the trifecta of glass, satin, and shower-generated humidity might be a slippery combo, and right he was!  The original solution we agreed on was to dab hot glue between ribbon and glass, but after the first morning shower the glue dislodged and I found the bottleneck a fraction of an inch from sliding free of its satin noose.  So I removed the ribbon and put a wide rubberband around the bottleneck, then added glue and ribbon the same way as before–except before tying the bow I wrapped the ribbon around the bottle twice instead of once.  That’s holding well a week later.

I can’t promise this is the last picture of my bathroom you’ll see, but we’re probably getting close.  I just have to figure out what, if anything, I want to hang over the towel racks on the opposite wall.  For now, though, I’m pleased.  This update involved just one purchase: the candle and candleholder–$6 at T.J. Maxx! A year ago I was drooling over similar candleholders at Ten Thousand Villages but they were just too expensive for me.  When I saw this one I went for it, knowing I’d find it a happy place.

Everything else:

-frames—already had (see previous bathroom pictures)

-quotation and botanical print—from oversized art books purchased at the library book sale (see other pages here)

-pinecones—local park

-silver dish—wedding gift (it’s a bread dish)

-wine bottle—okay, technically this was purchased (Pink Moscato!) but the container would have been recycled if not redeemed for this purpose

-branch—local park, gathered on a walk with Lovey (We set set out after dark, with a small flashlight, because I had to have a branch likerightnow for decorating the living room last year.)

So I guess you could say we’ll find ourselves enjoying nature when nature calls.  Do you harvest bits of wild this-and-that for your home decor projects, or am I the only weird one?  I drew the line at bringing home a bird’s nest this week, just so you know.  It was lying empty on the sidewalk in front of me, and it had probably been at or below freezing for several days, but I still couldn’t hush the doubting voice that warned, “Parasites!” so I walked around it. Sticks, though, are totally okay in my book.