Thursday, May 10, 2012

A Visit to the Water Closet

I know, you are asking what in the world is a water closet?! Well, I'm trying to sound Victorian here, so pretend with me. This is the smallest of our 3 bathrooms and the only one not to have a tub. So, I guess you could call it a powder room or something like that but today we will call it a water closet. ;-)

Since it is right off the hallway and  so small  I couldn't get a good angle to show very much at one time. But here is an angle from the kitchen. I want you to notice the color , it really isn't pink it is more of a peachy pink color and it matches the peachy color in the roses on the dining room wallpaper but sometimes it APPEARS to be really pink. But I just ignore that!
The theme of the room is roses and seashells.


And this rose bouquet was my inspiration piece.


When we bought the house the wall was painted a brown color, similar to the brown towel (pictured below). At the time I knew I wanted a seashell bathroom and since I did like the brown color I decided to go with it but add some color by adding white towels with embroidered light blue, brown and beige seashells (hanging from the white cabinet and just for looks) and light blue hand towels for using. Well, my kids really don't understand the concept of washing the dirt down the drain, so the dirt ended up all over my light blue towels which did not come out very well at all in the wash! I got tired of that and decided to change it up a bit and have brown towels instead of brown walls. So that's when my inspiration piece came into play, I then painted the walls this peachy pinkish color so it matched the roses and the seashells.
All's well that ends well, huh?
(The white linen towel is there ONLY for this photo, if you know what I mean?!)


The picture below is a hand painted watercolor and signed by a Nannie Phipps. I bought it at an antique shop in historic Boonville, MO. many years ago, I thought it was so pretty and liked the detail on the faces. Well a couple of years later I was at an auction and you wouldn't believe what I saw! The SAME picture but as a 16x20 print! It was titled "Anxious". I guess when you think about it the guy does look a little anxious as he is probably awaiting an answer to a marriage proposal. And if she says no, he'll hop back in his boat and row away into the sunset all by himself, just kidding. That really isn't the sunset, it is the reflection of the camera flash - isn't that funny that it ended up right there in the right spot to look like the sunset?!


This is the towel rack portion of the white cabinet that was here when we bought the house and I liked it there so we left it there. It has room to hold more "stuff"! Yay! And on the back of the commode is a basket of seashells.


These shells I personally collected on our family's first ever ocean trip! We went to Dauphin Island, Alabama back in 2003 and rented a little house right on the beach! It was so beautiful being there! I just love the ocean and I really got into this shell collecting business! I collected shells as a young girl but we always had to buy them somewhere, so to find them myself and for free was very exciting. But I got a little too carried away...I found that by the time we all got out to the beach all of the good shells were already collected by other people. So that forced me to get up really EARLY in the morning to have first pick. And it worked pretty well but by the end of the week I was so tired (from getting up every morning at 5 a.m.) and my neck hurt SO bad from always looking down that I was miserable! BUT! I had some shells! I know, call me crazy. My hubby did!
The little bottles are handpainted and have teeny tiny shells in them. So cute.


And here is the stuff I put in the cabinet...
I like wash set or chamber set pieces and housed in here are a few of those oddball pieces. A couple of shaving mugs, an old powder advertising tin, some little bottles, a silver plated soap holder with the name "Lucinda" engraved on the front, and the lady in back with the pink dress is a powder dish.


I keep this washbowl and pitcher on top of the cabinet because it is seashell themed and I don't have anywhere else for it. I thought it was so beautiful and got it for a good deal but it had a crack at the mouth of the pitcher that I had it repaired - paid more to have it repaired then I did for the set itself, but oh well. I really liked it. And the nice gentleman that repaired it has since passed so I feel lucky to have some of his handiwork to remember him by. Such a sweet man.


Okay, I have another "can you believe it" story! (To show you the two pieces side by side I took them out of the "water closet" to photograph them, sorry it's a little bright!) After having the washbowl and pitcher for probably 4 yrs. or so, and thinking I would NEVER find any matching pieces, I finally did!!!!!!!!!!!
I found the toothbrush holder in historic Hannibal, Missouri! In the picture it is hard to see the blue on the pitcher but it is there and they match in color exactly! So that was a very exciting find indeed!


Here is the border I put up (which was a pain) and I painted the ceiling  this cream color to match the color in my rose bouquet. I thought it softened it up a little and made it look not quite so pink.


This is the same wall color but it looks different because of the lighting. The true color isn't quite as peachy as the photos show it as. I thought it looked pretty with the seashell colors. This is a frame that I bought and hotglued the shells on that I had collected from my childhood. And put an antique trade card inside, with an ocean theme. There's that reflection again! But this time in the wrong place!


AND...guess what?! More postcards! These are my favorite seashell or water themed cards. Notice the postcard on the bottom, there are 3 Koi fish pulling the little girl in her seashell boat. Isn't that sweet?


And last, here is the slop jar that I use as a trash can. It matches the toothbrush holder that I have my rose bouquet in and the cup in the cabinet. I have a slop jar in each bathroom for the trash can. I like the old time look it gives.


Well that is all for today. Thankyou for visiting and coming along on our visit to the smallest room in the house. Let us be thankful for indoor plumbing and be glad we don't have to use a chamber pot or worse yet, go outside in the middle of the night to use an outhouse!!
Have a great Thursday and I'll see you next time when we move on upstairs.

I am joining SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY with Cindy at My Romantic Home, you just have to check out her beautiful blue and white bathroom "water closet"!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Gina: I love that color of the walls and you really have some beautiful things. That's eerie about the flash as the sunset, looks perfect. It is all very pretty..Happy Mother's Day..Judy

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  2. a beautiful bathroom. great idea with shells. will do the same. great

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  3. Hello Gina I hope you had a great Mother's Day! Great post this week!

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  4. I like your peach colored W/C. Very pretty border and am really liking your sea shell picture frame with card. Seashell collectiong is something I really enjoy doing. I am off to the shed to check on my shells and make something with them now after reading your post.
    Blessings
    Betsy

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  5. Your water closet is gorgeous!!! You are amazing at creating Victorian spaces:)!

    Blessings,

    Kim

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  6. What a pretty little bath. Love the collectibles. That's quite a shell collection. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week.

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