It never ceases to amaze me how much a nice minimal palette in a bathroom works, especially when I’m so often distracted by the use of more and more exotic stones, borders, and tilemania in general. Look at how good black and white looks, especially when styled so well. The Componibili is this icing on the cake. Thanks to flickr member Laurana for posting this!

P.S. Laurana has a great blog, Life Thru a Lens. I can’t read it (I think it’s in Finnish), but the great pictures mean I don’t really need to!

Santa brought me a creature from the deep blue sea this year, and yesterday I gave my bathroom a great makeover in about 20 minutes (hanging a shower curtain is a real pain; I highly recommend dragging out the stepladder for this task or your arms will feel like they are going to fall off by the time you are done!).

Whoopsie, looks like I need to paint the side of the door black (see right side of photo above). Isn’t it funny how you don’t notice these things in person but they show up in a photo? Looks like I could have moved the toilet brush and the bathroom scale to style this a little better. Oh well, at least I remembered to put the toilet seat down!

Santa also brought me some tea towels, which I’ve decided to use as bathroom hand towels. My bathroom doesn’t have a towel bar, and I’m not crazy about them, so I used over-the-door hooks instead.

I’m not too big on too much matchy-matchy, so I’ll probably move the lacquer box to another room, but I thought I’d try out being matchy-matchy for a few weeks and see if it sticks! This box is great for stashing all of my everyday makeup in one place.

I’ve been wanting to show you my good friend Richard’s economic and fabulous bathroom redo for quite sometime, but I’ve been holding back because the pictures are terrible and don’t do it justice. However, bad as my photography skills are, it’s still worth showing. Most of the fixtures including Richard’s dream Murano-esque light chandy came from a big box store, the tiles came from Floor Decor and More, and the vintage clawfoot tub was simply reglazed. So here’s the makeover!

The “Before”: A crumbly moldy bungalow bathroom with a fabulous clawfoot tub that was painted with peeling pink paint, linoleum peel-and-stick tile, a painting covering up a window and old fixtures.

The After:

Simple square white porcelain tiles and decorative black border tiles from discount chain Floor Decor and More:

A simple vanity and mirror from Lowe’s:

A re-enameling of the original tub, and a new shower curtain:

Oh too hard to see, but a fabulous black chandy from Lowe’s replaces the hideous original one, as well as a black paint job from Richard and his parents!

O.K. so I am a HORRENDOUS photographer and in my defense, this bathroom was too small to be able to get good shots of and all I had was my iPhone, but it’s a great example of how to completely redo a full bath with under $5,000 in your budget. In this case, the total elements were floor tile, wall tile, re-enameling of the tub, a new vanity, mirror and fixtures, shower curtain, light fixtures and a splurge on the border tile. Oh, and yes, a father that knows how to tile and plumb, and the sweat equity put in by Richard and his father!

Travel suggestion: if you ever find yourself in Ireland book a couple of nights at the Bellinter House about a half hour outside of Dublin. I just came back from a jaunt in the land of the green/cable knit sweaters and this “house” (aka mansion) was incredible. Every room was styled with such an eye, color and detail. I’m ready to paint my walls fern green, my ceilings celadon and my bathroom midnight blue all while drinking a few pints of guinness. A few of our photos from our time there (oh, and make sure you eat lots of scones…also incredible!).

When it comes to blogging, I’m not too big on giveaways, unless it’s something I really believe in and would want to win myself. This is one of those times. The folks over at Simplify 101 were so pleased to see their e-course mentioned this week, that they are offering FREE enrollment in a week long e-seminar to two lucky Hatch readers! Because it starts in a week, the deadline for entering will be at noon on Wednesday, May 19. Just leave us a comment telling us you need help getting organized and you’d like to participate and we’ll pick new names at random on Wednesday. If you want to give any of the details about your mess, PLEASE SHARE! I’d love to hear it, because it makes me feel better about my own organizational stumbling blocks. You’ll need to have some time cleared each day to dedicate to getting organized. Here are some details and links:

Whether the state of clutter in your home has you overwhelmed to the point of not knowing where to start, or you’re ready to turbo-charge your organizing efforts—the simplify 101 “Help! I Don’t Know Where to Begin!” workshop, beginning Thursday, May 20, 2010, is for you! This workshop is designed to give new users a taste of simplify 101’s online workshops. Best yet, this workshop includes a coupon code good for $5 off your next workshop purchase! There’s a whole new way to get organized!

I cannot tell you how much I’ve accomplished since starting another Simplify 101 workshop;  it’s been very motivating. It literally makes you feel lighter and more free. If you are ready to start getting organized but don’t know where to start, leave a comment before noon (that’s east coast time) on Wednesday May 19. We’ll contact the winners that afternoon.

• image by Bosworth Hodemaker, via Houzz