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The Afterthought
After all, the bathroom used to be
the afterthought of home building and design. Bathroom design kept
to the basics: A toilet, sink-cabinet combo, and perhaps some
tile. Add some color matching, a couple of wall hangings, and of
course, the mirror, and voila: your task was complete!
In hindsight, designing yesterday’s
bathroom was really a simple and efficient process. In hindsight,
creating such a bathroom was magnificently uninspiring,
unimaginative, and dull.
With limited choices, and
prohibitive pricing, vanities of distinction rarely entered the
equation for a homeowner without a numeral at the end of their
name. Even for those with limitless means, such a task usually
involved finding the right piece of furniture in the appropriate
size before hiring a carpenter (to cut a hole into the top) and a
plumber (to retrofit a sink and plumbing). It required
resourcefulness, planning, lots of time, and even more cash.
The Fine Furniture Revolution
The rethinking of bathroom designs
came with the increasing availability of reasonably-priced middle
and high-end vanity sink chests. With foreign imports driving down
the cost and increasing the availability of fine furniture for
every room in the home, builders and consumers began to consider
investing more design dollars in the room guests very often visit
-- the powder room. By choosing vanity styles to coincide with
their home's overall design genre, consumers have driven expansion
in the vanity/sink chest market that produced a bevy of elegant
and affordable products. Ball and Claw traditional vanities,
French Provincial style sink chests, and hand-painted and
hand-carved furniture sinks -- the vanity market has truly
embraced the realm of fine furniture. Never before have vanity
choices been so plentiful or bathroom sink design concepts so
broad. It's not the usual sink and cabinet combo anymore; it's a
whole new ball game.
A Statement Piece - A Statement
Place
Forget about Narcissus, and make
your vanity a virtue. Let your vanity make a statement about you.
Keep the New Yorker and Reader’s Digest, for sure, but let your
bathrooms tell more about you than just your literary preferences.
Make a gorgeous vanity the focal point of your bath, and with a
painted canvas work of art, some carefully contemplated
accessories, and perhaps even a beautiful chandelier, allow the
bathroom to complement your taste and your commitment to design
throughout your home.
Don’t reflect too long before
deciding it’s time for a beautiful furniture vanity in your fine
home. I promise you’ll love yourself for it!
Kimberly Lawn
- Kimberly Lawn is the founding partner
of 'Great Rooms', a retailer of unique home and garden decor and
furniture which began as a vision to offer distinctive,
high-quality home and garden decor to help you create style and
warmth at an affordable price. Starting with just a few products,
they have continued to grow and expand their product offering to
provide their clients with a varied collection of unique
decorative accessories for the Home and Garden.
Website:
Great Rooms
This article Copyright ©2005 -
Kimberly Lawn. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.
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