Installing Bathroom stuff -- Finishing Touches

Your finished bathroom is ultimately the result of your decisions about both design and style. While the basic design determines the layout and establishes the lines and scale of the room, your choices of materials, accessories, finishes, and personal belongings set the tone.

In this rectangular bathroom one major design decision—to install the large window at the end of the room—totally alters the look of the bathroom. Opening up the rear wall and ceiling, the window floods the room with natural light and lends a dramatic touch to its plain contours. Pale blue walls set the color scheme, which is carried out with deep blue tiles and bright blue towels.

Then style steps in. The old-fashioned shower fitting immediately establishes that this bathroom combines both the old and the new. This theme is carried out by the unusual wall piece over the vanity. Constructed of molding, panels, and turned-wood trimmings, the structure has a turn-of-the-Century air appropriate to the shower fitting. The curved basin fittings echo the line of the shower as well. These elaborate shapes along with the intricately patterned Oriental rug, soften the severity of the rectilinear room.

Finally, the room is personalized by the belongings of the person who uses it: flowers and plants, which contribute a bit of color, a collection of seashells, and straw hats, which add a touch of whimsy. Some bathrooms are so sleek in their structural design that finishing touches may consist primarily of close attention to the details of essential accessories and hardware. Others, like the one pictured on these two pages, might look barren without the addition of personal belongings. The important point is that your bathroom remodeling is actually complete only when you’ve focused your attention on these last details -- details that can finish (or undo) all the work that has preceded them. When your new bathroom finally reflects your personal touch, in whatever form that might take, your design actually comes to life.

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