In the Northern Neck of Virginia lies a little village called Montross.  A place I’d never heard of until I was invited to create some murals as part of the tow revitalization.  Well, I just fell in love with the place, the people, and the idea of being able to return.  My husband after visiting just a few short days and seeing how much I enjoyed it, fell in love as well.  So, we bought a little Cape Cod as a second home and studio with a plan to open it up as an artist retreat several times a year.

This little cape cod is right in town, with a cute little red door, shutters on the windows, and two Japanese maples out front. Sounds cute, right?  Well, inside was anything but cute.  A total mess, but just the project we were happy to get our hands on.

The biggest issue was the upstairs bedroom and bathroom.  It was a really large space but it didn’t have a door.  It had a stand up shower that wasn’t up to code because it was tucked into the corner of the room with the sloped roof.  And it was all pretty gross.

The first things we did was demo everything.  Thank you hubby!  Knowing that we wanted to open up the studio, and house, to students, the upstairs would serve as the guest quarters so it had to be clean, bright, and accomodating.  My first thought was a cool clawfoot tub to the left of the large window.  There was definitely plenty of space and who doesn’t love an old clawfoot.  Unfortunately, that sloped ceiling got in the way.  So the only place to add the shower was right smack dab in the center of the back wall, which meant, unfortunately, taking out the large window. We ended up choosing a shower stall with bronze fixtures.  It went well with the new sink and left us plenty of room for a laundry area in the bathroom.  The only bummer is that the contractor sealed up the area to the left of the new shower before we had the opportunity to protest. It would have made an amazing little storage nook.  Especially being that there is not a closet upstairs, and it’s just a huge waste of square footage.  Amending this is definitely on my to do list!!

Even though the chimney had an odd placement in the room, I wanted to preserve it as much as possible and left it raw…painting the rest of the room a soft turquoise.  Keeping with the rustic style of the brick, I chose a dark wood vanity with bowl sink and bronze faucet.

A new Mirror that just happened to match my paint color and some red accessories finish it off.

Once all the floors were finished, plumbing hooked up, and everything was working properly, it was time to finish with details. The final touches are always fun because it’s like icing a cake…time to make everything pretty and picture perfect.

One of my favorite little areas of the bathroom is this little white cabinet I found at Target. super clean and simple, with a vintage flair. We stocked it with extra white towels, cotton balls, Q-tips, mouthwash for each guest.  Instead of going for a your standard soap, I found these lovely floral scented bars and lotions.  They are wrapped in beautifully illustrated paper, very baroque, to make your guests feel extra special.

 

Here is a list of hospitality items we have available in the guest bathroom.

• 6 sets of freshly laundered towels in Coral and White.
• Liquid Hand Soap
• Scented bar of soap and lotion set for each guest
• Travel soap container for each guest. This is especially nice when a guest is only staying a few days and sharing a shower.
• Cotton Balls & Q-tips
• Packaged toothbrushes
• Travel toothpaste
• Mouthwash for each guest
• Hair Dryer
• Toilette paper (always extra)
• 2 boxes of tissue
• Family size bottles of shampoo and conditioner
• Disposable razors
• A mini fan
• Laundry Basket
• Laundry Detergent pods
• Extra trash bags
• First Aide kit
• Bath Matt