Bathroom: Can't take my eyes of subway tiles

A beautiful mix of three different shapes of white tiles, separated by a thin border of black tiles and finished with a pastell mint wall paint - I am impressed by this composition ! 

Not sure via which blog I found the above picture, but the photo below is from another blog and it shows the the same bathroom! So, I proudly present both pics together in one blog :

I just can't take my eyes of subway tiles

Subway tiles (on walls) are often combines with hexagon tiles on the floor. Here above with tiny, mosaic type hexa tiles.

But you can do it easier and cheaper, but not less interesting with square tiles :

Just another bathroom of ours ...

Rectangular subway tiles on the walls and square tiles, diagonally layed on the floor

Since we had not made any further specifications than "green" wall colour, our son (7 y.) actual favorite colour, Angelo used the leftover paint from downstairs and added a border of his choice. I think it looks super good, especially when you see the "matching" green leaves through the bathroom window and ....

.... a bit of sea view

More about this bathroom later with before & after pics.

More Green in the Green Bath

Remember the green bathroom with the beautiful ceiling? Now the walls and floor are finished too and worth to post about. We have chosen a green mosaic for the "wet" areas - sink, shower, toilet and bidet - the latter not yet installed.

Actually, CC had chosen the mosaic after one of my Internet finds. And Angelo has chosen a matching colour and stucco border. And it was CC's idea to repeat a bit of green mosaic in the terracotta flooring.

Initially, I wanted two single sinks as I did not wanted to queue for hand washing when coming home from the beach. Also I thought of using one as a utility sink to rinse swim wear. However, at the end, to safe space and reduce interruptions, we agreed on one long sink with two faucets. I just learned that this solution was probably more expensive then two sinks.

I like our idea to have a stucco border to finish the mosaic area and to paint the other wall parts below the stucco border in a darker green. Similar like in the original green room.

Above you see on the left that the shower is installed - and a bit of the restored ceiling.

In this green painted corner (above) we will install a washing machine. I know..., but it has to be somewhere in the house. (If it does not look nice, I will have built a wooden frame.)

Above picture (without flash) shows again the nice floor - and walls ! 

Above: floor in the making

Below: floor finished (terra cotta con mosaico)

Here some BEFORE pictures:

Above: Splitting the "green room" to gain a bathroom. One old niche, on the left, where the sink of the old bathroom used to be (however in reverse direction) remained and now is hosting the shower in the new bathroom.

I wanted to keep that "green room subject": a two colour wall with stucco border.

Below: my "inspiration sheet" for the bathroom - we pretty much kept the theme.

But at the end, the ceiling turned out much better than planned, thanks to Angelo's artistic talent:

Above: ceiling BEFORE restoration

Above: ceiling AFTER restoration

November 26th update

Harbour: Soon the water will be blue, soon there will be little boats ...

Green bathroom: terra cotta flooring mixed with green mosaic from walls

In about one hour my husband, CC will land in Lamezia. Angelo probably is already on his way to the airport to pick up his son. I am so curious to hear from CC how it looks on site and get more pictures - from his point of view !!! He only has this weekend. I hope it will not rain all the time. I wish I could be there too.

Parquet installation and shift in direction

I found these pics via Swedish emmas designblog and all what I can do is looking at the parquet installation. Here I am impressed how good a shift in direction looks. It underlines the change of a room funtion: living room / bedroom and dining / corridor.

At the moment, if I look at pictures of design blogs, enter a home or a restaurant, all I see is parquet installations.

I like all your comments and emails and votes. Thank you very much. The voting on the right side, on the blogroll, shows right now, that all the proposed versions A, B and C are equally accepted.

But I have to tell you something, the longer I think, the more I like Version C.

This is the 'mixed' version first our friendly architect came up with.

Now, I am checking with Angelo, our best and only worker (on the parquet side) if he thinks a smooth transition is feasible as we do not have these long, long 'one-piece-wall-to-wall' panels. Our panels are around 190 cm long, they will be offset and I would like to have the transition without a door sill.

Your comments and votes are still welcome !

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Photo source: Fantastic Frank, a real estate agent selling above apartment in Stockholm, Sweden

How to lay the parquet ? - Please advise & vote !

In our primo piano we are going to lay parquet into two rooms and the corridor.
Angelo already has ordered the amount of parquet, natural oak (rovere naturalizzato). The planks we will use are quiete large and long: 18,9 cm wide and 186 and 190 cm long.

second last: rovere naturalizzato

The only thing we are not yet sure about is the laying direction.

Angelo has send me the following drawings of version A and B:

There are two bedrooms and one corridor in an 'L'-shape. One part of the 'L' is very narrow (about 100cm). There are three balcony doors  from where the light comes in. Before asking my dear readers for advise and comments, I researched a bit the www and found the following about how to lay parquet in a home:

• usually the direction of the wooden panels follow (parallel) the direction of the light incidence. That means it starts in an 45 degree angle from the window (is this clearly described?) - in our case this would be Version A
• some say simply: from the door to the light, which is not often fisable as the window is not always opposite the door.
• others say, if you lay it across the light incidence (parallel to the window) you could make appear the room wider - in our case Version B could do that to the upper bedroom 
• another specialist was saying that you cannot always follow the 'light incidence direction method'. You should consider the dynamic of the room, walking directions and shape of the room.

I understand the last answer. But what is the dynamic of my rooms ? I am thousands of miles away to feel the dynamic. We never lived inside and we have not yet dicided where to put the beds.

And then we became another interesting advise from our archtiect, a Version C, which would be a mix of A and B - and does not make the decision finding easier:

• parquet layout in rooms Version A
• parquet layout in corridor Version B

For a better understanding of the premises, here some pictures:

this is one of the rooms and its balcony door

this is the balcony door in the corridor

When you come up the stairs - and turn left to furhter go up -  it would look better to have the panels parallel to the window, across the light incidence, in the same direction as you walk, I think.

one more part of the corridor in the primo piano

Dear Readers, come along with your suggestions !

Here is a visual summary for you:

Version A - classic - direction follows the incoming light

Version B - parallel to the windows, this layout underlines that both rooms are connected via the corridor

(I think, this is the better solution for the corridor and the upper bedroom as it could look a bit wider in its slimmer part where we cut away space for a bathroom)

Version C - a mixture

So please vote on the blogroll, or leave a comment !! GRAZIE !!!

At the end I found another hint, I am sure, my experienced worker on site, Angelo, knows it already:

When the parquet is delivered, wait 48 hours to let the wood acclimatise. The ideal condition would be a temperature above 17 degree (which we have for sure) and below 70% humidity (which I do not know). Not sure from which latitude this hint came from, but waiting 48 hours seeems to make sense.

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UPDATE May 2012:

This post got a mention in the NYTimes.com and International Herald Tribune!

Unfortunately, I never saved the voting chart, but the winner was Version C !
It got a few more votes, and we were finally convinced to use Version C, the mixture of A and B. - Thanks for all your valuable comments!

And here are some pics of the result, taken in 2011:

A change of laying direction is perfectly fine!