Bathroom

Between gardening, home needs, dentist, shopping and the reading of a book much recommended by my daughter, which is proving a little annoying, I’ve managed to shoehorn in some thought on the room box which I deliver for your perusal.  Apologies, my language is being influenced by the reading of aformentioned somewhat ‘over written’ book.

So, without more ado, wend this way for the viewing of the bathroom works.

The information and photos on Arts and Crafts interiors tends to be a bit short on detail regarding both kitchens and bathrooms.  Thankfully, there are many images of both covering general late Victorian cooking spaces and ‘powder’ rooms.

Also I’ve a firm memory of visiting a number of Victorian created bathrooms, both in large stately homes and in my grandparents’ house.  Some of rooms were huge and echoingly high and some so narrow you smashed your elbow if you moved too fast. There were plain white procelain items, much patterned lavatory bowls inside and out, wash handbasins big enough to swallow you whole and baths so narrow someone was going to get stuck. I once fell off the step upon which the lavatory was raised and was too embarassed to explain how I’d managed to bang my head while visiting the bathroom.

Very broadly bathrooms seem to fall roughly into two categories:  all boxed in with plenty of woodwork not a pipe in sight with the possibility of a raised bath and/or toilet, or every pipe available on show with the latest contraption looking more like an instrument of torture as a main feature of the room.  I came across Vivacious Victorian, a site with some delightful examples of both types and lots more plus historical details and publications which I found very entertaining.

I tend to lean towards the steampunk idea of a Victorian bathroom though not so dark and with a definite tilt in the direction of Heath Robinson with cogs, pipes and possibly an elastic band thrown in for good measure.  (Heath Robinson Museum)

Unfortunately I lack the skill and wit to carry out any of the above so have gone for a compromise between the two styles to which I’ve reduced my choices.  I’ve boxed in the toilet cistern and put it on a plinth plus crammed in a number of copper looking things in the very small space I’ve left to build it in.

Plain decoration, steam staining at top of off-white wall
White cistern with gold chain and bath with fancy feet

Replaced chain, added old lever mechanism and boxed in the cistern, raised toilet on step

Threw in random water heater and even more random plumbing and gas pipe with stop tap

Oil bottle cap shower head, lots of wire and painted wiring cover

Drainer spoon shower head and more of the wiring cover painted up

I need to clear up a bit, perhaps re the oil bottle stopper shower head.

Have you ever opened a bottle of olive oil or similar, usually while in the middle of cooking and needing the oil urgently?  They tend to have a plastic ring-pull which your hands, too slippery with adding ingredients to the pan, just won’t manage to grip.  When you’ve finally get it out of the bottle neck you may have in your hand a plastic ring attached by a short stem to a slightly domed cap.  I hacked off the ring and stem, painted the cap copper and glued it to the similarly hacked off head end of a copper draining spoon.  I made a hole in the center of both (before gluing together) and inserted a length of real copper wire through them, hammering back the drainer spoon end of the wire to hopefully make it stay in place.  One shower head.

Off to see what seeds may have germinated today in the trays of basil, marigolds and nasturtiums and then I’d best go check to see if that shower has fallen off the wall yet.

 

 

Books in a bottle

This week I found some time to work on that bedroom fireplace.  Looks a bit dusty and mauled with sticky fingers but might well do the job.

Morris tiles around a small plaster fireplace, painted up

You can just about see how narrow that mantel shelf is and I fancied some books to go on it.  Being too lazy to try to make any that small as I wouldn’t have got them neat enough, I searched and I found some 1:24 with beautifully detailed covers …

 

in a bottle; from here

And they were just right!

The maker advises that they can be removed with tweezers so no books were harmed in the removing process, and they are now back in their bottle for safe keeping until the room gets dressed.

The whole idea of ‘Books in a bottle’ set me off down the rabbit hole of information.  I knew about a bottle of hay, for which there are many references.  For example Pepys and Shakespeare, to name a couple.  And, apparently, there’s a current book too entitled “The Book in the Bottle“.

But I kept sliding down and down the hole as I tried to find a single image of what I thought the original bottle of hay might look like — a small to moderate amount of hay in a net or bundle that might be hung up for an animal to browse.    I tried to search without using the word ‘net’ or ‘bundle’ in the wording, just using the original phrase only, and failed miserably.  Have I totally got it wrong?

Books and bed

I’ve cheated with the books.  I’ve bought in a few sets and have made false spine views of some of the books on our shelves.

From photo of an old Enc Britannia set

A mix and almost match going on over the bed

Gave coffer to an old furniture look, replaced wardrobe with drawers etc

Closer view. Chest of drawers instead of wardrobe and painted over blanket chest to look like old polished wood

As bedroom is now a basic Victorian style I pondered a little on it and made more rugs

Bedding and carpet chosen

Don’t ask. One minute it was a bed and the next he was there

Some bedside necessities – an Arts and Crafts look with jug perhaps

View along bed from bathroom

Some homemade faux book spines were made on the corrugated card and some have slivers of wood in.  One set has a wood support behind it and the others are a more or less self-supporting false wall of spines as they’re wedged and glued in place.  As long as nobody sneezes, they should stay glued.

I’ve promised myself that next up is the fireplace and hopefully things should flow on from there.

Had some bright sunny days, but they all had appointements booked in and now we’re back to cold, windy and wet.  So still not much gardening done …  On the upside, I’ve quite a few tomato plants on the go – spindly but still growing.

Messing around on a windy day

Vamping till ready, or rather keep on playing until I can fix on a full colour scheme in the bedroom box so that I can move on with it.

First – the outer edge of that bookcase done

Still pushing that chest – may redress it to look more carved than painted

Messed with tapestry upholstery fabric – all far too big

Deer eating top of chest?

More usefully, made mock quilted spread

Too big but quite like it

All the tapestry has been put away as all too invasive.  I turned instead to making iron-on transfers from photos taken, working on a new carpet, the bedspread and some fabric I might use for upholstery.

The mock quilt is based on Wm Morris’s Daisy wallpaper.  I took a section of three sets of plants in three rows, trimming off the bits I didn’t want, made the middle row smaller so it wouldn’t overlap the others, and then moved it to be more central again.  In my old photo editing prog I coloured up an A4 page to match the background of the Morris motif and the added a quilt patterned photo I found, fading it out over the top.  After a whole load of adjustments to colour and percentage of image layers I tried it out on one of the few remaining iron transfer pages I’ve got and pressed it on to a piece of old cotton pillow case.  Downside is that because it’s a transfer it is shiny, but, oversized as it is, I’ll still keep working on it to see if it can be made to look acceptable.

So much gardening to do.  When will the wind drop just a little bit?