Come see my bathroom

Come see my bathroom.

"When you come to lunch you must see her bathroom!" This is what my friend Karmala said to her friend Sally when they were here a fortnight ago. The bathroom renovations were done quite a few years ago but still a talking point when I invite people over for dinner.

I think I will introduce the rooms according to the stages they were renovated.
The toilet was the first one I renovated so that if this did not come out right, it will not cause me too much or be too hard to fix.

After a week of blood sweat and tears, literally, I managed to get the 70s tiles out of the toilet. The tiler was my plumber's friend, a Slovenian guy who was rough on the edge but a decent bloke.

The toilet wall is a two tone bright yellow which is also featured along the long corridor of my unit. I needed some warm colours. I think the whole of Canberra need their houses painted in warm colours seeing that we only experience real warm weather like four months in the year! I was inpired by how places looked so cozy in Spain by just how the walls were painted.

I also glazed the tiles that were used in the toilet.

The postcards stuck on the wall provided quick flashes of my past trips when I am in there. Even the tattered pink curtain made from recycled saree fabric is a piece of India.

The guest bathroom was next and I wanted an unconventional bathroom with no storage space. I joked with the blacksmith that I didn't want the guests to feel too comfortable as they might decide to build their nests at my place.

Our sketches went backwards and forwards and I was getting frustrated as I could see that his mind was locked into having a box. No! Not a box, whether its a mesh or with different materials its still a box. "How about a bra?" I said to him. He looked up and laughed.
When I finished sketching he got really excited. "Ya, I can do that."

But he needed a mould of sort. It was unfortunate that my bosoms did not match the size of the wash basin so it came out the way it did. On hindsight I should have asked someone more well endowed than myself to give him a mould.

Initially I asked for a lacy bra but he said it will cost alot more so I went for a simpler design. As always, beer budget with champagne taste. I sketched the face for the mirror for someone who designs mirrors in the market to make one for me and it turned out good and twisted some glass bits to make the earrings.

The most difficult task was finding the two glass beads for the taps of that colour , shape and size to fit the top. Funnily I found them
at a most unlikely stall - a fairy stall.

I used the remaining bits of the saree from the toilet to dress my belly dancer. I also made a pair of ceramic feet complete with red nail polish but unfortunately my brother-in-law stepped on it and the toes broke so sadly I had to remove them. I hope to replace them one day. Hmm.. when I find the time...

My hubby and I actually used this bathroom instead of the one in our ensuite. I wished the partitions in the bra were closer so that the toothpaste did not slide. But apart from that I am really pleased with the outcome. It is so easy to clean as the saree is held by clothes pegs and when it gets dirty, in it goes into the washing machine and ironed and it's as good as new. My belly dancer could do with a few extra sarees but I have yet to find some that I like.

Moorish bathroom

The second bathroom had another story to it. The tiles were direct from Turkey. All ten kilos of that. I went on a round the world trip just after September 11 and when I brought the tiles home, the people at Sydney customs were wary to see a dark box when they scanned it at the airport. I sheepishly said that they were tiles. The officer present radioed someone to have a look and slowly unzipped the bag and looked at me in disbelief.

Fortunately only one tile broke and my tiler who became a friend renovated the bathroom for me. Initially I wanted to renovate this bathroom for myself as I have always loved Moorish designs. I went to the bathroom places to look for a basin to match the tiles and as I was looking at the basins, the assistant asked if I needed help. I asked if they come in other colours apart from the white that was on display, she said,"Yup....We have cream."

I know these days the choices are endless but in some way I was glad that I did not have those choices because I decided to design one myself. Ya. Here comes the bull charging again. Ha ha.I have glazed quite a few tiles before but never a wash basin. But one of the potterers I knew gave me a contact where someone could make me a basin to glaze, so off I went and paid $400 for it and if I stuffed it up but of course at that time I was so excited of the prospect that it never occured to me that I may.

I picked up bits of the patterns from the tiles (see above) to put on the basin. I had a round paper which I cut using a plate as a template.. Oh yes that's how professionally it was done. The I folded the paper to make sure the pattern was well distributed and spent a whole day glazing that.

Ta da.

The taps also took on some of the designs of the tiles and I also designed some fittings to match the overall look-the toilet roll holder and the towel rack.

As for the mirror I picked it up from a shop in Bondi and my hubby who was then my friend helped drive it back to Canberra. It costs a fair bit and I am such a tight ass but for this one I had to say yes and the mirror just completed the whole look in the bathroom for me.

The basin had to be semi circular in shape or we weren't be able to get to the toilet and my hubby was very proud of his contribution to the problem solving task we had with Hanns of how the stand should be shaped.

Hanns had some offers for my wash basin and stand when he sat it in the market before he came over to install it so I was rather pleased with myself.

The whole experience was exhilarating. I have moved on to working on putting tiles as feature walls of a garden using motifs of Torajan designs and may explore other aspects of using tiles in designs in the future if I can find an empty house !!!