Hi!

Well, my bathroom is finally available for all to see.  The spring issue of Beautiful Kitchens and Baths hit the newsstands yesterday and I quickly scooped up several copies for family and clients.

I mentioned in previous posts that the incredibly talented Tria Giovan photographed both the kitchen and the master bath.  While I thought the kitchen photos were lovely, the master bath photos were stunning.  I am going to give you a quick peek at one photo today, but you should go and buy the magazine to see and read more.

Thank you so much, Samantha Hart and Linda Eggers for the opportunity to appear in the magazine.  Of course, I am also grateful to Bonnie Broten, regional editor for Meredith Corporation, for her efforts to get the bath and kitchen published and for her styling wizardry.

And for those of you who can’t buy the magazine, fear not, I will post the rest of the photos soon.   I just want to be sure to support the magazine that did so much to support me.  If you can pick up the magazine, you really should.  There are some truly stunning kitchens and baths featured, including a piece on Tuscan design for kitchens.  I have to say that I thought that this trend was long over, but perhaps it is seeing a resurgence, maybe in a backlash against all the white kitchens we have been seeing.  When I did my Tuscan/Old World inspired kitchen in 1992, it was because it was very much in keeping with my Tudor home, but it was also sort of my desire to swim against the crowd who were all doing beautiful white kitchens in Short Hills, New Jersey.  If you haven’t noticed, I do like to be different….

I did wonder how long it would be before I ate my words about Louis XVI and it wasn’t very long at all.  I was online at Tara Shaw Maison, looking for a sconce for a client when I found this reproduction mirror attributed to Louis XVI.  It is lovely.

So sorry the image is so small, but if I enlarge it, it becomes too fuzzy.  This is much simpler than the style that one typically attributes to the Louis.  I also love the finish, but that is something that Tara Shaw really excels at.  Speaking of Texans, I do want to give a shout out to Lisa Luby Ryan.  Many of you saw her work in the previous issue of Veranda, but you may not be aware that she has designed some great pieces for Arteriors.  Here is a sneak peek at a few of my favorites.

This is a reproduction of an antique architectural fragment, mounted on lucite and topped with a sumptuous linen shade.  The finish on this looks wonderful, too.

This stationery box is just lovely.  As you know, I am always on the hunt for beautiful and different accessories and this scores on both counts.

This bench looks very similar to those we see in Pam Pierce’s work featured on Joni’s blog, although it lacks the double gathering on the skirt.  I do like it very, very much.  Arteriors sells its product through retails stores, so be on the lookout for some of these pieces to hit your favorite home goods store.  They will also sell through interior designers, so if you see something that you can’t live without, e-mail me, and I can price it and purchase it for you, if you like.

This has been a rather random post, and I do apologize.  All the snow swirling outside of my window seems to be a distraction!  We are on our 5th snow day in the last two weeks, with prospects for another tomorrow.  You see in Dallas, we like to have a nice thick layer of ice on all of our roads before we get to the business of actually accumulating snow, which makes getting kids to school a treacherous endeavor.  Even though I drove a lot in snow when I lived in New Jersey, I do not fool myself into believing that I can drive on ice.  So, we are definitely experiencing a bit of cabin fever at Maison Mullen.

If you do pick up the Beautiful Kitchens and Baths, let me know.  I’d love to hear what you think about the issue.

Kristin

Hello!

I just got an e-mail from the editor of Beautiful Kitchens and Baths that my master bath will be featured in the Spring issue of the magazine, available in early February.  Hooray!  I am so happy that these pictures will finally be out there.  Joni did a very thoughtful post about old photos appearing in magazines.  If you haven’t read it already, go and read it here.  I have chosen to err on the side of caution and show no images of my bathroom- before now.  But  I can feel good about it as they look nothing like the amazing shots that were taken.  These shots were taken about two years ago and my bathroom has changed a good bit.

The zebra rug was the inspiration behind the master suite.  I wanted to do a Hemingway-esque,  Out of Africa type feeling in the area.  It’s pretty unorthodox to put a zebra rug in the bathroom, I recognize that.  As a matter of fact, we moved the rug during the shoot so that only a tiny bit of it was visible.  Apparently magazines get all kinds of complaints if they show zebra rugs, animal trophies, and the like.  I choose to believe that my guy died a peaceful death at the zoo.  Please do not disabuse me of that notion!  The other big design element are the vintage mahogany shutters which I found on 1st dibs.  They are from Louisiana and, oh my goodness, they weigh a TON.  The canvas is something that I picked up at a gift show in London and it’s really fun.  It now lives in my bedroom and it has been replaced with a wonderful grouping of fern shadowboxes.

This window and its treatment were a major issue during design and construction.  The window is actually a set of french doors, as we had originally designed the bathroom to lead out to the side yard.  My architect’s plans called for a garden courtyard, where John and I could relax at the beginning of the day with a steaming cup of coffee, courtesy of the built in coffee bar in our bedroom.  In the evening, we would be able to sip a glass of wine from a bottle nicely chilled in our minibar, also in our bedroom.  Kind of like a vacation at home, right?  WRONG!!!  How many ways did this idea change?  One: we did not account for the fact that the grade of the area was so much lower than the doors that we would have had to build a flight of steps, at least 6 of them, to reach the ground.  Two:  this would have created a preciously small courtyard.  Three:  it would have cost a lot of money in landscaping, which we wanted to use elsewhere.  Four: we would have constantly been pulling and drawing draperies for privacy.  Five:  coffee in the morning and wine in the evening in our our couple’s oasis.  With four children?  Who were we kidding!!!  Six: built in coffee makers are really expensive, and I mean really, really expensive.  Seven: what are we, legless?  John has a small bar in his office just next to our bedroom with a refrigerator and coffee maker.  Eight:  we have never, ever, ever sat down with  a cup of coffee in our bedroom.  Nine:  as for the wine, I am not telling.

For the photo shoot, we put a white slipcovered chair and ottoman at the window.  It looked so beautiful, but I worried that John would not want something in the way of his direct line from his closet ( it’s the open door to the left of the window ) and the shower, which you can’t see but is directly opposite the closet door.  What followed was something that we all need to remember.  John also liked how beautiful the chair looked, and he simply walked AROUND the chair on his way to and fro.  And sometimes, he even SITS in the chair to put on his socks or shoes. Amazing, no?  The moral of the story is that humans change our traffic patterns in a room without too much thought or difficulty.  Walking around something in a space is not always a bad thing, and just think about all those calories you burn with the extra steps!

I have spent a good bit of time with my girl lately and I decided to show you her bathroom.  Backstory below.

First of all, the tile in this bathroom really is this dreamy.  And it was eye-wincingly expensive.  Here is how I justified it.  My two youngest guys have standard white subway tiles in their shower enclosures up to a border.  Their floor was also a great tile that was very reasonably priced.  Their walls are wallpapered.  So, I saved a lot of money in my tile budget on their bathrooms and poured it into Darcy’s bathroom.  I will show you their bathrooms and you can be the judge as to whether they were poorly treated out of the deal…The tub has no glass shower enclosure or shower rod, as we have a huge drain in the floor for splashing.  Darcy likes to create her own waterpark in the bathroom.  Many patches of sheetrock later, we got smart and decided to put a huge drain in her new bath.  The mirror is Venetian and used to hang in our formal powder room, but I love it here, hanging over the Kohler sink.

Restoration Hardware sconces.  See, I didn’t go completely crazy!

The tile shelf next to the bathtub was intended to help her transition herself into and out of the bathtub. But it turns out that Darcy can easily swing her legs over the bathtub without anyone’s help, so it’s a great space for storing extra things.  And if you are thinking that calla lily and candle set up is there day to day, yeah, well, not so much.  The etagere is from Pottery Barn and it’s really great, but it’s a bit wobbly as it was delivered without a rubber bumper on one of it’s feet.  Three years later and it’s still on my to-do list.

This terry covered stool is also from Pottery Barn and it comes in so handy with bathing Darcy and just as another surface for putting things on.  Again, for those credulous few who don’t believe that I wouldn’t style this photo within an inch of its life,  its normal occupants are not really a vase of greenery.   If the bathroom seems really roomy, it’s because it is.  We designed it for wheelchair access, even though Darcy can walk with assistance anywhere in the bathroom.  The extra space is great for the extra body that needs to help Darcy with her grooming, etc.

When I was taking these pictures, I realized that I had not purchased a hanging fixture for this room.  I completely forgot that we were going to put one in until I saw the box in the ceiling, which is very high so it’s not noticeable.  That’s another to-do that’s been waiting a while.  All in good time….

And if you thought from the title that I would be posting pictures of Beautiful Kitchens and Baths instead of writing about the magazine,  I am sorry!  It’s just my bathrooms.  Hope you weren’t too disappointed.

Kristin