Our IKEA Cottage

In order to get the bathroom ready for sheetrock, Kevin and I had to remove the plastic panels. Jim Kleinkoff had to remove the pipes, the shower, the sink and the toilet. Pat Testa had to do all of the preliminary wiring. Matt Meeker had to install the windows. And Kevin had to remove the old clapboard from one wall. He used a saws-all and cut through the clapboard. We kept several pieces of clapboard for future use. Also, we hired Kim and Jay Spanier of Everything Under the Roof to sheetrock the walls in the bathroom. Jay had to rebuild the partition to house the shower. Once we’re ready for him to sheetrock, he’s going to rebuild a closet that was once in the bathroom as well. But we want to store a canister vacuum in the closet so we won’t have room for the closet to have a door. I’ve decided to just make a curtain to hide the contents of the closet.

I’m still trying to determine colors schemes. I’m leaning toward a very pink and white bathroom. I discovered long ago that finding affordable rugs in fun colors is next to impossible. It was then that I realized that the best way to determine your color scheme when decorating is to pick the rug first. It’s a whole lot easier to match fabric and paint to a rug that it is to find a rug that matches your fabric and paint. I like this plaid rug (below) a lot – it’s called Tattersal – from Dash & Albert. I thought I’d pair the rug with these curtains (below) from Pine Cone Hill – called Chit Chat. If I stick with this pink and white color scheme, then I may just make a shower curtain out of this Pine Cone Hill curtain (below) called Daisy Mae.

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I plan to create some art for the bathroom… but nothing has come to me just yet. I’m not sure if I’ll frame one of my photographs or if I’ll paint something… or if I’ll make a print of some kind. Too many options to chose from… I can’t decide which medium just yet. I may use the photo of tulips (above) some where in the bathroom. I took that photo in New York City in 2002 with a 4 megapixel camera but it still looks good.

We already purchased drawer pulls for the Vattern sink cabinet. We didn’t buy them at IKEA. I like so many of the drawer pulls at Anthropologie that it was a tough decision. But I settled on the Sea Blossom knob (above). We ordered two of them but we won’t receive them until sometime in late June.

While visiting Apartment Therapy, I found a great slide show of lanterns for when we decorate the porch. I haven’t settled on a color scheme for the deck just yet but I’m leaning toward yellow. The cottage is grey with white shutters so yellow would be a nice color. And lately, orange is such a hot color. Yellow and orange might be the way to go.

Anyway, take a look at this slide show of lanterns from the New York Times Personal Shopper. The prices run the gamut from $780 at Gandia Blasco to $4.95 at – where else – IKEA. I like the recycled bottle lanterns from Anthropologie. But they only come in green and amber. Makes me re-think my yellow color scheme because so much fun outdoor decor comes in lime green. But then I see the recycled tin lanterns from CB2 that come in yellow and I’m back to planning a yellow deck. Oh, the possibilities. So many choices, it’s hard to decide… especially when it’s not my money! Just kidding. Kevin knows that I’m decorating on a shoe-string. And I like the fact that both of my favorites from the slideshow are recycled. Think green!