Itty-Bitty Bathroom
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Learn how to frost your windows
young children? small space? bring it!It's 7:30 a.m. on a school day, and as 6-year-old Max finishes brushing his teeth, he switches spots with his sister Ruby, 9, who hangs her towel on the rack, adjusts the mirror to her height, and grabs her toothbrush from the little bucket mounted on the wall. The kids are moving quickly -- they've got to dress, eat, and be out the door by 8 -- but despite the snug space (6 by 7½ feet, with a third of that taken up by a claw foot tub) the family bathroom scene is no demolition derby. It's more like an intricate dance routine.
"There are no variables," says mom Anne Murdock, for whom a wall blasting renovation to the 100-year-old home was not an option. "Everything has its place, so there's no 'Where s my toothbrush?' panic. The kids know where to find things and where to put them back." All the blasting in the world won't get you that.
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"there are no variables"hung out to dry Swivel towel bars (Grundtal, $15, ikea.com) balance the kids' need for access with Anne's need for order. (similar towels, in blue and peel bamboo/cotton, $8 to $25, cb2.com)
do the two-step Two rugs are cheaper than a runner and fit more easily in the washer -- particularly helpful when a boy is learning to aim. Nonstick pads underneath keep them aligned and you off your keister. (similar, Dash and Albert ticking rugs, in Tortola, $28 each, classicchic.com)
visionary A tilting mirror pivots for ever-changing heights. (Sloan rectangular mirror, $199, potterybarn.com) Medicines are out of reach of small children in a built-in cabinet above the tub.
brushing up Forget being organized. Having separate pails (with plastic cups inside to prevent rust) for each toothbrush is a matter of hygiene, says self-described germophobe Anne: "This way the brushes are not commingling." (6½-inch tin pails, in lime, $3 each, galvanizedpail.com)
stowaways Open shelves with bins hold fresh towels, while cabinet drawers store toilet paper and other essentials. (similar, but modern, modular storage cubes with open or closed shelving, $60 to $190, westelm.com; similar, large fabric storage bins, in green, $10, target.com, fit perfectly inside) Wrapping paper under glass that's cut to fit on top gives a stylish look.
door prize Like the swivel towel bars, these over-the-door hooks utilize limited space -- and no screws required. (similar, Openhiemer door hooks, $16, urbanoutfitters.com)
liquid refreshment Never grab a slippery bar of soap again. (similar, Signature 1 shower soap dispenser, $25, homestorageconcepts.com)
Seeing the Light: Frost Your Windows
Graphic designer Anne Murdock could deal with a small bathroom. But a dark bathroom? "I hated it,"says the mother of two, recalling the days before she refurbished her family's busy bathroom — the one with the shade perpetually pulled down. "It's a bathroom, so you need your privacy. And I wasn't about to pull the shade up and down every time one of us walked in or out."So the shade stayed down, and the room stayed dark.
Anne's initial solution was to get rid of the shade and affix a sheet of filmy, translucent vinyl to the window. That brought in more sunlight, she says, "but it looked obviously fake."Which is to say it was not up to her stylish standards, especially once the corners started coming up.
So she peeled the whole thing off and turned to Krylon Frosted Glass Finish ($8, allartsupplies .com), which is essentially a can of instant window treatment. In one afternoon, she'd given her bathroom a whole lot of sunlight without sacrificing privacy, simply by following a few easy steps.
Instructions:
- Apply round stickers, the kind you'd use as tags at a garage sale, such as Avery 1/2-inch removable dot labels ($3, buyonlinenow.com). Where you place them depends on the size of your window; Anne placed hers 4 inches apart.
- Spray the glass with a thin, even coat.
- Step out of the room for 15 minutes while the frosting dries.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your window has the translucence you desire.
- Once the window is thoroughly dry, peel off the stickers.
These holes are too small for the neighborhood to see in, but plenty big enough to peek out and spot who's coming up the driveway. "The kids love standing by the holes and peering outside," says Anne. "And I think the dots make the window visually interesting."
What more can you ask of a window than to be visually interesting?
