I grew up in a flyover state (Ohio), and they must be on my mind this week. Yesterday I was thinking about midwestern Seed Bombs, and today I’m taking a virtual house tour in Kansas:

Kirstie Alley was on Oprah the other day, talking about how her first job was being a housekeeper at a wealthy family’s home (she recommends cleaning bathrooms with gallons of cheap vodka), and her second job was at an interior decorator who was high on cocaine a lot of the time. She talked about dreaming of owning this house in her hometown of Wichita Kansas, which was the headquarters of the historical society at the time. She decorated it herself, and there is a fun tour of it over at Oprah.com. Personally, I love the bedroom below, and I love that Kirstie is not afraid of loud, bold wallpaper. The kitchen is beautiful, but because it wasn’t all that large, Kirstie bought the house next door, transformed the entire downstairs into a kitchen, and built a bridge between the two houses. You can see a lot of nods to traditional design and a few moves that seem kinda eighties, but who cares? Kirstie is hilarious and my dad and I sat and watched the segments of her and cracked up the entire time.

all images from Oprah.com

This past Labor Day I proposed the question to my significant other, “Signifcant other, what would you like to do this holiday weekend?” His answer: “Complete our bathroom makeover.” So we did. ***disclaimer: we like the color white.

Our bathroom had been quite a sore sight…pea green walls, a sink that was cracked and looked a bit like a urinal, a tub with chipped paint, no storage…overall blahness. The ultimate low was storing our bathroom goodies in tupperware containers or plastic bags on the floor under the sink.

So, starting with the sink area we redesigned the space to provide maximum storage within a small corner of the room. The walls were painted white, a new towel hanger was installed and the tub was painted black (this part was done some time ago).

Finally, all of our orphaned toiletries have a home and I can brush my teeth with a peaceful state of mind.

Today I’m enamored with these clean white spaces on flickr. Here’s one from flickr member ivy style33:

I love how the white base has allowed her to do what she wants with accessories – you can mix and match a little more liberally with that white base. Also, I noticed how white is working out for Ivy in the bathroom – so nice and clean, yet it still has warmth. Hygienic yet sterile…ha, just kidding, I’m going to stop with the goofy words now and let the picture speak for itself!

Last night I found myself marking “add to faves” on almost every single one of laurasmera’s pictures. I’m a HUGE fan of clawfoot tubs, especially black and white, and this bathroom knocked me out. At first I was not digging the green tile floors, but they are growing on me:

Here is another clawfoot in a much more minimal bathroom (from laurasmera as well):

Speaking of clawfoot tubs, I have been failing miserably to enlist many members in a clawfoot tub Flickr group. If you have any clawfoot tub pictures, please add them to the group pool!

Thanks to laurasmera for adding so many great shots to Fresh New Spaces.

My boyfriend might kick me in the shins for posting this, but I have to share our most recent bathroom before and after project. We have a very very small bathroom with an old old clawfoot tub. I love the vintage look of our tub but without a doubt it needed a little tlc. So, we patched some holes and brought out the black paint…

Here is the before:

The transformation process:

The after!

Amazing the difference a little dab of black paint can make. She’s a beauty again!

I was leafing through a 1958 H&G and this ad cracked me up:

The entire theme of the magazine was all about how to be modern, yet it was still very family-oriented and full of features about picnics. It was so very Mad Men; I can picture the readers just leaving their trash on the ground when they were done picnicking. Obviously the modern part only regarded aethetics, as this girl is still wearing a poodle skirt and Bobby socks. It’s an interesting ad; clearly people were desperate to be considered modern, yet are grasping desperately to the past. The very transitional time is clear in the aesthetics down to the smallest detail.

A few other gems from this issue:

As usual, this is probably going to cover more than a week, as I have been catching up with all of my favorite design blogs from the last six weeks.

My IDOL Nicole of Making It Lovely has organized the most amazing closet in the world. It was really fun to get a peak at all of her amazing clothes and accessories. You can tell she uses her amazing graphic sense to style herself just as well as she styles her blog and her Pink Loves Brown lines! Here’s a little peak, click here to see the whole thing. (ADDED LATER: PLEASE SEE COMMENTS ABOUT HOW LAME MY CHOICE OF ADJECTIVES IS).

Love the best of ‘08 work spaces curated by Emma’s Design Blog:

I’m awed by The house that floats on a Great Lake over at Inhabitat:

I’m gleaning inspiration from An Art Arrangement Round Up over at Style Court(be sure to click on the articles posted prior to this link for even more artful arrangments):

I’m cracking up over these flower urinals over at urban grace interiors!:

photo credits:

1) from Making It Lovely

2)from Emma’s Design Blog

3) via Inhabitat

4) from  Michael Bastian’s apartment, photographed by Melanie Acevedo for domino, September, 2008, courtesy Mrs. Blandings via Style Court

5) By Clark Sorenson via urban grace interiors

I love to peek in on Thom Filicia’s website and see what’s new from time to time. The white toilet with the black seat and lid jumped out at me. I like it. It has a crisp 1920’s look to it:

I’ve been seeing this white bowl/black lid trend lately. I first noticed one in my bathroom at The Standard on Sunset*, which tries hard to look like a no-tell motel with its tongue in its cheek. The lidless bowl is bad feng shui and has a deliberate institutional vibe. I guess they don’t want anyone to stay too long, so they make you feel like you are tinkling  in a  a mental hospital:

Last month I spied one in Rita Konig’s redo of Deborah Needleman’s guest bath in Domino:

The look is part retro and masculine. Perhaps this is the same toilet they have at some Old Boys Cigar and Scotch Club. What do you think of it?

*Ah, in my usual cruddy  and skill-less point and shooting technique, complete with the CVS bag full of stuff we forgot to bring with us is on the bathroom floor.

1st and last photos from Dominomag.com and Domino Magazine, respectively. photographer unknown; if you know, please comment so I can add it – I can’t seem to find it in the article. AHA! THANK  YOU ANG WHO COMMENTED: The photographer is a fabulous Australian chap by the name of Justin Bernhaut. Check out justinbernhaut.com!

photo two from Thomfilicia.com