11 Creative Ways to Hang Your Towels

We are gearing up for new round of guests at the beach house pretty soon, so I have been exploring new way to hang towels.  The original builder grade towel rods fell off the wall of the main guest bath within the first six months, and I am just SO TIRED of rehanging them.

Here are some super creative ideas I've found around the web for hanging towels --  maybe one of these solutions will be perfect for you (or me)!


Not Just A Housewife uses lovely old crystal doorknobs!

I love this idea from Martha Stewart! Simply wooden pegs spaced evenly along a rail. Something like this would be great at the b each house, where we sometimes need to hang a dozen or so different towels!

No time for a DIY project? No problem! Find darling handmade towel holders with built-in canning jar toothbrush holder on Etsy.

I think this idea for using vintage office clips at Life by Lufe is pure genius!

I am Momma Hear Me Roar created this cute surfboard towel hanger!  

These towel hangers from The Polka Dot Closet is sooooooo sweet! What a great idea to use re-purposed drawer pulls attached to a piece of architectural salvage!

Stephanie Lynn used round hand towel holders attached to a rail.

What a great idea to use picture frames with vintage hardware! I found this idea at Worthing Court Blog.

Donna, at Funky Junk Interiors always has such creative ideas!

Check out these towel racks (or coat racks) made from crocheted granny squares! To cute!

I found this fun idea at Itsy Bits and Pieces blog. What a clever reuse of a vintage wooden dress hanger!

Do your builder grade towel rods give you headaches?  They drive me cuh-razy!  All this great ideas have inspired me to think outside the box when it comes to hanging towels -- how about you?

Why You Should Shop at Habitat for Humanity Re-Stores!

I don't hide the fact that I am a fan of shopping second hand.  I love craigslist and garage sales and thrift stores and architectural salvage yards.

Maybe this is why I love Habitat for Humanity Thrift Stores and Re-Stores so much!  You can find great used stuff, AND architectural salvage.

Decorating with Colored Bathroom Fixtures

What do you do if you inherit a bathroom with colored fixtures?  I love a beautiful vintage bath as much as the next person, but sometimes vintage bathrooms are ugly. How many times have you moved into a rental or bought a new home, only to be stuck with an avocado bathtub. And toilet. And sink?

Not everybody gets to inherit a perfectly preserved period bath like this one from Kohler's 1928 catalogue.

Our Flagstone Floors

It's been a while since I talked about the floors at our beach house.  Some of you may remember that we bought a beach house about three years ago that was full of rot and mold and rat poo.  Because, everybody wants those things, right? I know you're going to be feeling jealous when you see this picture, but don't hate me, okay?  Not everybody can have all this....

It had been a foreclosure that sat empty, then someone had tried to renovate and flip it, but had only gotten as far as taking a sledge hammer to much of the drywall.  Rats had moved in. Moisture was taking it's toll. This house was a big mess. At the time, I thought the floors were kind of terrible, too.

Our Newest Make-Over Project

We signed our closing documents today for our newest project!    It's another condo in our building -- right in the middle of a big city, but right on the edge of a lake and wetlands.  The seller signs tomorrow, and hopefully the rest of the closing will go smoothly. (closings are different here -- sellers and buyers don't sit down together, and you usually sign a day or so before the actual closing)

I was waiting to share more on this project till the closing was completely finished, but I was too excited, so here is a peak of the views from the new condo.

Shower Tile Ideas

I'm still here!  My posts have been a bit farther apart than I like, lately, as we continue our moves into the new city condo, and the beach house.  This transition involves a condo, an apartment, a beach house, two renovations, and four storage lockers in two different states.  It made me tired just to type that....

Our big urgent project this weekend is to finish tiling the condo shower.  I won't share a picture of that, yet, as it's just a big ugly mess.  Instead, I will share some inspiration images from Pinterest (are you just loving Pinterest)?

This tile design stops. my. heart.  

I love how cheery and unpredictable this colorful shower is!

I'm loving the play on rhythm in this elegant bathroom -- from the quatrefoil tiles, to the running bond pattern on the ceiling, to the herringbone parquetry on the floor.  Understated, without being boring....

Basket-weave floor tile and white subway tile in a running bond pattern.  It doesn't get more classic than this.

Does this shower conjure images of mermaids for you?

The dark grout in this shower lends a rustic, casual feel....

Clever use of space....

And finally, how about some heat sensitive shower tiles?  I think it would be fun to have these in a guest bath -- and not tell your guests they were heat sensitive, so they could experience the surprise.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!  I have move-out cleaning and tiling a shower on my agenda :)

Fixer-Upper City Condo Gets a Toilet

Well, we did it.  We really bought the condo.  The fixer-upper in the city.  The one with NO WORKING bathroom.  Are you detecting a pattern here?   We were at least able to put in a toilet last weekend....

Of course, nothing is ever easy, is it?  This is our condo bathroom.   The previous owner bought the condo to renovate and flip.  Unfortunately, his only experience consisted of watching people fix houses on TV.

He decided to remove the tub and put in a huge custom shower. 

Clearly, he had no idea what he was doing.  When he enlarged the shower, he needed to move the rough-in for the toilet.   I am a huge fan of DIY, but if you don't know what you're doing, SEEK INFORMATION, do some research, go to the library, search the internet, ask for advice at the hardware store.  The information you need is out there. 

This poor man did none of those things.  He moved the rough-in for the toilet too close to the wall, too close to the lavatory plumbing, and too far from the water line for the toilet (which is now on the wrong side for most American toilets).  Basically, he made a big mess.  We were able to find a small toilet that just squeaked into place, and we cobbled together a longer water line, but....

... first we had to remove this, rotate it slightly, and replace it.  Bless his heart, the previous owner didn't quite understand that the toilet would sit at an odd angle to the wall, the way he had it rotated.

There is still a ton of stuff to do to make the condo even remotely livable, so having a working toilet will be nice.  And there's a sink in the kitchen.... 

On a really off-beat note, we found out the story behind the boat that was parked in our boat slip.

As you may know, there is a marina under our building, and our condo comes with a boat slip. 

Since the unit was a foreclosure, and sat empty for several months, an enterprising boater who owns a different slip in the same marina decided to lease our slip out.  We honestly don't know whether to laugh or be shocked.  Of course, the other boat slip owner is in a bit of a pickle, now that we own the slip that he is leasing out.  We have suggested that he "honor" his agreement to allow the boater to rent the slip through October, and donate all of his proceeds from renting out the slip to the Boat Owner's Association.  Do you think he'll take our suggestion?

Vintage Mirrors for the Master Bathroom

We finally had a moment to look for mirrors for the master bath.   I was really hoping to find something vintage, and had found a few mirrors that I liked, but the scale would be wrong, or there would only be one, or they would be attached to a dresser....  We found a substitute that would work, on clearance, at Lowes, but I wasn't crazy about the quality of the piece.

The frame was plastic, and the glass was thin.  We went ahead a bought two of the Lowes mirrors -- just in case we couldn't find anything better.  Well, that same afternoon, at the Habitat Store, we found two seventies vintage dresser mirrors.

The funny thing is that I had seen them before and thought they would be perfect, but they had been attached to a dresser.  Apparently someone bought the bedroom set, and re-donated the mirrors.  We decided to buy them, bring both styles of mirrors out to the beach house, then decide which we wanted to use.

Well, when we looked at the pieces side by side, we decided quality vintage trumped the newer trendier plastic version.   Of course, the vintage mirrors needed a little work to be wall worthy.....

They had metal bars attached to the back that needed to be removed.

And they needed to be cleaned and sanded....

... and primed.

I decided to try a different kind of primer than I usually use.  It's Zinsser, and so far I am really impressed.  I'll let you know how the finished project turned out, in part two of this post, in a couple of days.

This post is being linked to the following lovely places:

Coastal Charm

Drop In Bathtubs

We're adding a drop in tub to the master bathroom at the beach house.  Here are a few images of tubs that we found inspirational.

via Decor Pad

via Decor Pad

traditional bathroom design

traditional bathroom design

traditional other design by bhg.com

contemporary bathroom design by burlington architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

traditional bathroom design by chicago architect COOK ARCHITECTURAL Design Studio

This is how our tub alcove looked the first time we saw the place.  Not very inspirational.  The tub was pink and cracked, and the tile was pink, and the "step up" configuration was lethal  (this was built in the days before building codes stopped allowing "step up" tubs).

We were very happy the day that tub was demolished....

.... and ended up in a pile of rubble in the driveway.

Here is what our new tub looked like a couple of weeks ago.

It's nice and deep....

I can't wait for that first luxurious soak....

It won't be long, now!

This post is being linked to:

My Romantic Home