Express Yourself
I would like to think that with the beginning of any design project, the ultimate goal is to express your specific design tastes and aesthetic. Sometimes the end result might not be exactly what you had imagined due to outside influences (budgetary restraints, out-of-stock items, etc.) but it is generally a win when you're happy with the end result. When it comes to my clients that come to Source Interior Designs with a blank slate project, I like to have fun with the design, but also make design choices that are going to be easy to live with for the foreseeable future. There is one exception to this rule when it comes to making safe(ish) design choices: powder rooms. A powder room is truly one of my favorite rooms to design because you can make a truly bold statement in a very small space and you don't necessarily have to live with it every single day. It's a space that your guests will see and where you really get to explore whimsy and your specific design aesthetic. I wanted to share a few powder rooms that really get to this point:
Now this powder room definitely has A LOT going on, but it's incorporating some really interesting design choices. As you might have noticed, the combination of Lucite with brass is really hot these days with a number of different designers incorporating this mixed media trend into their collections (Jonathan Adler, Bernhardt, etc.). I wouldn't necessarily put an entire etagere in a powder room, especially one loaded with coffee table books, as I find those are best perused in the living room. This Thibaut South Seas pattern comes in a variety of different colors and looks fantastic in almost any room. I love a strong pattern like this in a powder room because, like I mentioned, it's something that you don't have to live with everyday, but you love anyway.
As you may have noticed from earlier posts, we are huge Chinoiserie fans over here at Source Interior Designs. This is such a beautiful and classic Scalamandre pattern and it is really stunning in this application. I adore the gold bamboo mirror, the roll-up blinds, the simple pedestal sink. This is a perfect example of using a bold patterned wallpaper and combining it with simple elements to make a really stunning statement.
I absolutely adore this image here and what they've done with this powder room. This is black and white done so right. Combining different shades and textures of the same color is an excellent way to play with tonal shift and to make a very subtle statement. Here with the high gloss black mixed with the gray/black wallpaper is a chic way to do dark in a small space.
Here is one of my all-time favorite patterns: the banana leaf. This pattern came to popularity for its use in the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel. It can be used in a variety of different ways, from powder rooms to sun rooms to even hotel hallways. Using a pattern like this for the walls of a powder room gives you the chance to have a very bold and busy pattern, but to not have to commit to giant swaths for larger rooms in your home. Here it's used by the founder and CEO of MyDomaine, showing how effortless and classic a pattern like this can be.
I hope this can give you some ideas for when it's time to put your personal stamp on the powder room in your own home.
Until next time,
Evie
