Build Bath & Shower

It’s not exactly news that white vinegar is a great safe and natural cleaner for all kinds of surfaces. But today I wanted to talk about one place that vinegar is particularly useful – the bathroom! Bathrooms are a gathering place for all sorts of hard-to-clean messes, but you can tackle almost all of them with the help of vinegar! The high acidity level of vinegar helps loosen mineral deposits (such as lime & rust) and dissolve soap scum , making it perfect for bathroom cleaning ! And because it is so acidic, it creates a “hostile” environment for many microorganisms, making it a powerful disinfect as well. A 1997 study in the Journal of Environmental Health showed that undiluted vinegar was just as effective as bleach in eliminating E. coli from surfaces and sponges. It’s also incredibly effective at deodorizing  and cutting grease . Now that’s cleaning POWER! Here are 8 of my very favorite ways to use vinegar in the bathroom. 8 Ways To Use Vinegar In Your Bathroom Clean ...

Yesterday I shared all about installing our new bathroom fixtures !  We installed a new sink, a new robe hook, hand towel holder , grab bar with towel bar and a new toilet paper holder !  Our last step in updating our fixtures was to install a new shower head and bathtub faucet! All went well…until we came to the last step:  installing the bathtub faucet.  You see, there are two different ways that bathtub faucets can attach to the plumbing.  Our old faucet was screwed into place at the bottom of the faucet.  But our new faucet needed to be twisted onto the existing plumbing. In other words, our existing plumbing was not compatible with our new bathtub faucet.  So today I am going to show you How To Install a New Bathtub Faucet When it is Incompatible with your Existing Faucet! Thankfully, we were able to remedy our little situation.  With a blow torch.  (And a few other items of course 🙂 Essentially what we needed to do was to make our existing pipe a little longer and attach an end ...

When I moved in, my bathroom was outfitted with basic builder grade components that never really went together and to top it all off, they never really worked properly. I just made do with what I had, but over time, I knew I’d have to renovate this space and make it my own. To make the bathroom magic happen , we’ve partnered with TOTO, the Japanese manufacturer  behind those infamous toilets that do everything for you, and to help bring it all together we’ve brought in online interior design platform , Decorilla, specifically, designer Joyce Elizabeth Tranchida . It’s embarrassing to show these but here’s what I’ve been living with… (sad, I know): I hate the glass hand towel light fixture so much I haven’t even replaced the bulb that’s out! The toilet is so basic it doesn’t even have a brand. My basic, boring bathroom needed some modernization, and a brand-new cohesive look as it’s the only bathroom in my home. If you’ve ever looked around at finished bathrooms, you know just how mu...

When designing a bathroom, the key is to look beyond this space. Does the style blend with the rest of your house? Now, keep in mind, you don’t have to be matchy-matchy and blending doesn’t have to be boring. But if your door knobs and hardware throughout the home are oil-rubbed bronze and you choose nickel for a hall bathroom, the change in finish could be distracting to the eye. Same goes for color scheme, except for the powder room, where drama reigns. If the master bedroom walls are painted a cheery yellow and you go for a burgundy wine colored bathroom , the jarring contrast will create a choppy feel, not the smooth transition you’re after. Unless you plan on renovating the bedroom and changing the colors there, you want an adjacent bathroom design to go with the flow. “If the bathroom is part of a master bedroom, it needs to tie in with color or texture—something,” says Eileen Kollias, designer/owner, Eileen Kollias Design , Boston, Mass. “If the bathroom is in the hallway a...

Ted Marules' new bathroom is neither subtle nor cheap. "We had visions of grandeur," he says of the $20,000 renovation to his Houston-area home. "We planned to have some wonderful moments in there." Marules and his wife sprung for all the frills: special- order Spanish tile , marble floors, gold faucets and the Texas- sized whirlpool bathtub . "We got some really nice, fancy stuff, and we spent the damned money for it," says the 53-year-old accident reconstruction expert . "Looks like a Roman whorehouse, but it's beautiful." The centerpiece of Marules' marble palace is the hourglass tub, a 10- jet Jacuzzi mounted like an acrylic altar at one end of the room. It set him back $1,897.70. In its promotional materials, Jacuzzi says the tub Marules bought , the Real model, "surrounds the bather in sumptuous curves for an exceptional bathing experience ." Through the Magic Touch controls and PowerPro jet system , it promises ...