Seriously, this goes down in history as longest-drawn-out-room-redo-series EVAR. Sorry about that. But my mom sent me final after photos recently, so I’m going to get things wrapped up. Today I’ll show you the process of choosing the finish materials, and then next week – the reveal! woohoo!

If you want to get caught up on what we’re doing here (remodelling my parents’ Master Bathroom), read the intro, the design inspiration, how we modified the plan, see some rad demolition photos, and learn about the fixtures that were chosen. For a quick visual recap of the fixtures and larger items, here’s the concept board we put together for those elements.

After the big stuff was chosen and incorporated, it was time to move on to the fun stuff – the finishes. This is where color and texture start to make their appearance and you get to think more about how the space will look and feel. To start with, we knew that we liked the general colors that I had imported into the preliminary sketchup model, which I compiled based on our design inspiration photos. Darkish floor to keep things grounded, tile wainscoting for cleaning and durability, overall neutral tones for flexibility of design (and sellability) down the road. But, obviously we needed to find actual products to fit this very basic vision.

So, I started putzing about the internet and through some design catalogs at work. Also, my mom and I spent many (many) hours at some local tile shops including Daltile, Oregon Tile & Marble, Pental, Art Tile, Tile For Less, and more. These are some of the preliminary materials we bookmarked, but we still weren’t quite finding the right thing.

With these as a basis, we kept on our search. The first material that my mom zero’d in on that she really liked was “Spring Cloud” Travertine Marble for the counter top (#5 below).Its a little hard to tell in a digital image, but this is a creamy travertine with subtle veins of gray, brown, and even a little blue. It was in keeping with the elegant yet natural vibe that we were trying to set for the room. After this the rest of the tile and wood finishes started to slowly fall in line.

Another important thing for us to incorporate was a variety of scale among the surfaces in order to break up some of the simpler colors we were choosing. For example, we chose the same color tile (Daltile Skyline gray) in two different tile patterns in order to create a little visual interest. My mom was able to talk my dad into a river rock pebble floor in order to bring in some of the “Pacific Northwest” feel that is very important to my parents’ every day lives.

[1] Novabell Emporio Moka (Purchased in 2 sizes from Tile For Less, photoshopped to show actual pattern) [2] Daltile CityView Brick Mosaic: Skyline Gray [3] Daltile City View 12×12 Field Tile: Skyline Gray [4] Jeffrey Court Emperador River Rock Mosaic [5] New Spring Cloud Marble: Available at multiple fabricators [6] Espresso Stain on Maple Vanity [7] Bathroom Paint Behr: River Rock [8] New Paint for Adjacent Master Bedroom Martha Stewart Paint: Sharkey Gray [9] Verdigris Marble Chair and Pencil Rail trim for tile (Purchased at Art Tile in Seattle where D and I have shopped previously). The chair and pencil rail are natural stone and were definitely the splurge piece, but we had a hard time finding something that complemented the colors of both tile and this fit the bill PERFECTLY.

Tile can range HUGELY in price. I think we balanced out some steals with some splurges. The floor tile, for example, was around $4/sf which is AWESOME. The field tile for the shower (Daltile 12×12) was equally affordable, about $6/sf. The mosaic wainscot and the natural stone trims were more, so overall we came out mid-range. If you’re looking for budget priced tile, know that you can go to places beyond Home Depot and still find options in the same price range. Also, like we did with the Novabell floor tile, remember that you can buy a variety of sizes and create your own pattern without an expensive pre-mixed product.

The paint was chosen to bring in some subtle color to the space as well as to bring out the best in the marble. Unfortunately, we had some fiascos later with Spring Cloud marble being out of production (of course, right?) But I think as you’ll see in the final photos we found something just as great!

Here is a photo of some of the materials put together as we were choosing paints so you can get idea of the variety of textures we’re talking about.

Can’t wait to show you the final product!!!! Until then, here are a couple install photos to give you a sneak peek. Its coming together!

[Update: If you view this post in a reader, you may only see the first image because it got all wonky - my office insists on staying with IE7 - so click over to the actual post to see all the wonderful prints!]

Oh lord, I have so many posts drafted but last night I was too pinstracted to get ‘er done. (ha! lets see that new catch phrase picked up on twitter).

Anyway, its FRIDAY and I’m so happy about it because this week was long and required me to get up at 5 am or earlier 3 out of 5 days. Also I had to take my car to the dealership for some recall fixes this morning and i HATE that place with a burning passion. So to keep things happy and TGIF-like I wanted to share some eye candy and I stumbled upon these super gorgeous vintage prints from etsy seller shavingkitsupplies.

STart your holiday shopping by picking up a few of these ($7-$10 a steal!!!) and popping  in a thrifted vintage frame or a simple modern ikea one. I’ve given vintage prints before and they’re super fun if you customize to the recipient in a quirkly way (For example my parents have a huge rhubarb plant so I bought my mom a chromolithograph of cut rhubarb to decorate the kitchen. Whimsical AND personal).

Perfect for Fall Decorating or a pop of color in a neutral room

More festive color. . .

Prickly pears for your quirkly friend with eclectic decor (Also an awesome conversation starter, because who can't resist saying Prickly Pear 5 times fast)

For a moody room, or as holiday decor

I think swans can go either feminine (swan lake) or masculine (adam sandler), so this print is a win-win

Swiss chard for the organic gardening crowd

Also Also, to my friend Jackie: Please note that I almost bought you this gnome from the shop, but I thought in the end his hot-pink jacket was a little too ridiculous. But, he’s still up for grabs if I was wrong. . .

We’ve mentioned a couple times recently that our etsy shop is sponsoring one of our favorite blogs, Little Gray Pixel. Well, exciting news. This month she is celebrating three years of blogging with a month full of giveaways. That’s right – there are 3-4 giveaways every week and they are staying open through 11/29 so you have lots of time to go back through and enter. Plus, Vanessa is great and she gives you tons of entries (comments, twitter, blog following, etc.), so there’s a good chance you’ll snag one of these items.

Even though it Is our vintage shop that is officially sponsoring Little Gray Pixel, we first met Vanessa when she purchased some vintage map bookmarks from our original Handmade Shop. We thought that would be fitting for our first giveaway over there.

So if you’ve ever wanted a set of six of our map bookmarks, made with vintage sailing charts of Puget Sound, hop over to Vanessa’s blog and enter away (make sure you look at all the giveaways, there are some real goodies!)

I woke up this morning so excited to upload my set from yesterday. Yesterday I had a perfect opportunity to showcase images from a day of travel from the west coast to the east coast and I got some great shots showing that story. Colorful airport images, serene out-the-airplane window shots. But for some reason only 4 of the 15 or so photos I took saved to my memory card – its so sad! Gone were all the mountain and cloud vistas from 30,000 ft. It did however save this shot above of our fall dining room tablescape, which perfectly captured the glowing happy mood of the day, so theres that.

So, a quick snap shot of left coast to right coast – my bags ready to go, the tram at SeaTac, and Erik picking me up in the Norfolk Parking garage.

I’ll let you know if the photos come back from oblivion, or maybe I’ll share a travel set coming back the other way next week. . .

Friends, I have a conundrum.

Its that time in life. You know the one – five years out from college, ten years out from high school. You start running into old acquaintances at reunions, restaurants, baby showers, parties. And inevitably the first thing out of their mouths is “So, how are you?!”

Back when I was just a couple years removed from these people, it was easy to fill in the gaps of how things have been going with a couple small trinkets of information and move on. This could be my college major, finding my job, or the start of our etsy business. But now I find myself saying things like ”Great, things are going great, I’m just… you know… hanging out”. I run into a total roadblock of what to say – its like I need an elevator speech for my own life.

Truth is, life IS great and I have so much to be thankful for. I have a gratifying career at a firm that makes me happy. We’ve bought a wonderful house that provides us lots of projects and a bountiful backyard that we can grow lots of our own food. I’m in a loving relationship and have an awesome network of family and friends that keep my life fulfilled on a daily basis. All of this is very satisying, and it has all built up slowly over the past 5-10 years to get me to the point where I am now.

Thats where the problem comes in, everything has built up upon each other in equal parts to create what I have. I guess when I get put on the spot, nothing jumps out as the amazing tidbit of information I should tell this person who doesn’t know squat about what I’ve been up to. I feel like if I start with “I’m here in Seattle working at the same firm since the last time we talked”, it sounds like I’m stuck in a rut. But if I start with “Oh! I bought a house!” its bragging in these tough times. Its hard to identify how to separate “I have a wonderful blessed life” into fragments of information that make interesting conversation.

How do you tell your story? What do you say in similar situations to quickly summarize whats been going on in a way that doesn’t sound boastful nor ungrateful? I find it a hard line to walk and yet one I am stumbling upon more frequently.

The last thing I ever want is to take my life for granted, even if it just sounds that way as I’m telling it to others. I thought it fitting this Thanksgiving season that I not only figure out what to be thankful for, but also how to show that thanks to those around me.

[Photo quote via, Printable Poster via Jenny at Hank and Hunt]