Mamalicious in the City

Yesterday we (accidentally) visited both The Brass Knob and the Back Doors Warehouse, an architectural salvage store and warehouse in DC.  These are both fun places to poke around in when you have a lot of time, which we didn’t, but neither are exactly a bargain hunter’s paradise.  The store on 18th has lots of cool odds and ends like this:

and this:

We had meant to go to the warehouse, but accidentally snagged the address to the shop.  So we saw both shop and warehouse locations.  The shop has some great finds, including antique sets of tile, unique bathroom fixtures and fireplace mantels.  All incredibly expensive, of course.  I would love to get one of the chrome soap dishes for the bathroom.

So then we went to the Warehouse.

We found rows and rows of bathtubs, sinks, toilets, doors and assorted hardware. 

Those tubs run around $800.  The pedestal sinks start around $400.  We didn’t price the doors, but there are plenty. Clearly this is not www.communityforklift.com, where we found a tub for $150 and a sink for ten bucks. Then again, most of the inventory is in mint condition.

I think once we get closer to the finish line, I might return to the shop to look for a few touches. Some of the lighting fixtures and odds and ends for the bathroom are amazing.

After all that work, everyone needed a nap.

So this little blogger is busy.  In addition to the day to day responsibilities of being a mom slash lawyer slash fianceeeeee, I’m also planning a wedding and remodeling the man’s house (together with the man) to make it habitable for a small child and a me.  It’s busy, people.  Very busy.

The man’s house is a rowhouse off of H Street NE.  I recently discovered that there is a name for the style we’re going for: vintage industrial.  On the one hand, this is an exciting discovery.  It’s helpful when looking for inspiration on the interweb to have something to plug into google search.  On the other hand, I feel sad that I’m not a special snowflake.  I can only dream of being like Alex and Simon, the housewife and husband on Real Housewives of NYC at whom I love to direct my hatred.  They wanted granite and stainless steel in their last kitchen before it became really trendy.  But now…well, you don’t want your kitchen to look like everyone else’s do you?  They also dream of talking about going to the Strand and buying all the classics so their children will enjoy reading.  Well, sure, but only if they’re from the Strand.  Who wants kids reading books from Barnes & Noble, or gasp, Books A Million! 

Ahem, but I digress.

So right now the state of the remodel is a bathroom with no floor or walls or anything else inside.   The kitchen floor has also been removed.

About all we have to show for this remodel right now is a clawfoot tub that we scored at Community Forklift.  I painted it white a couple of weekends ago. I had grand plans of painting it midnight blue, but soon realized that it looked kind of scruffy in its current state.  We weren’t going to have it sanded with a metal sander, so I needed to embrace the worn look.  I felt like white paint would work better with the less than perfectness of it all.  And it came out nicely.  I’ll take a few pictures this weekend and post them. 

We also have hex tile for the floor that we bought at The Tile Shop. It’s a great store if you want to do really contemporary stuff like this…

Not so much traditional rowhouse, but we did find our white hex tile.  Who knew finding plain, white 2 inch hexagon tile would be so tough?  No, Home Depot, I do not want those little black polka dots, thank you very much. 

We also have a sink but it’s still sitting at Community Forklift, and it’s chipped.  So we’re going to head to The Brass Knob Warehouse tomorrow at some point and look for a faucet for the sink, or maybe a faucet and a sink. And a medicine cabinet.

Lighting.  So I’m not feeling the chandelier in the bathroom look.  I mean, do I want want my bathroom to look like everyone else’s?  Wait a minute…No, maybe it would be fabulous, but I keep thinking we’ll bonk our heads on it or something.  It’s not a particularly large bathroom. 

And I want something more…vintage industrial!  See, no special snowflake here (yes, I know I’ve used that expression twice, but I’ve just fallen in love with it). 

So we got the fixture pictured below but in chrome.

I like it a lot, primarily because it resembles a breast, which is really the sine qua non of the bathroom lighting fixture. 

So now that the bathtub is white, with white floors and white everything else, what should we do for the walls?  I was going to do pale blue with the midnight-almost-navy tub, but now that the tub is white, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t go with something else.  Tick tock.  I need color inspiration, people!

In conclusion, busy busy busy.  Alex McCord can suck it.  I need color inspiration.