The master bathroom demo is underway and all floors and the privacy wall have been removed. The master bathroom previously had hex tiles and a very traditional look and feel with 1930’s style fixtures that will be kept.
The master bathroom floors and privacy wall are goneThe Perrin & Rowe fixtures will be updated to an unlacquered brass from WaterworksThe floors will be replaced with a custom Kelly Wearstler for Ann Sacks geometric design
All fixtures will be replaced with Waterworks unlacquered brass Highgate and Easton Classic fixtures.
Waterworks Highgate Faucet with White Porcelain Lever HandlesWaterworks Highgate Thermostatic Valve Trim
The hand shower will be removed and an in-wall shower head will be added. The fixtures have been delivered as we wait for the ceramic trim and baseboards to arrive with medicine cabinets, lighting, ceiling fan and geometric floor design to be ordered.
The master bathroom is all white subway and hex tiles, similar to the guest bathroom. While the subway walls will remain, we opened up the space by removing the privacy wall and will completely replace the hex floors. Here is the master bathroom today:
The master bathroom today has two sinks and hex floors that we will replaceThe privacy wall will be removed to give more space
The floors in process are a custom Ann Sacks, Kelly Wearstler Liason design. The pattern is part of the Liason Collection and called Hillcrest. The pattern looks like this:
Ann Sacks, Kelly Wearstler Hillcrest Tile
I’m working on custom color choices with the Chicago showroom and have begun to narrow down our choices. Initially we narrowed down to Chinese Verde Luna, Travertino Red, Calacatta Oro and Rubicon. When the lot samples arrived the Verde Luna was brighter than I expected so we went back to the drawing board to look at more samples.
Initial cast of colors for custom Ann Sacks / Kelly Wearstler Liason floor designInitial floorplan pattern sketch
There are three boards of colors to choose from for custom Kelly designs at Ann Sacks that give a broad array of options for different looks and styles. Here is the full spectrum of color choice – it is a great selection with some beautiful stones.
Neutral stone choices for Kelly Wearstler designs at Ann Sacks 1/3Neutral stone choices for Kelly Wearstler designs at Ann Sacks 2/3More colorful stone choices for Kelly Wearstler designs at Ann Sacks 3/3
Each stone can either be polished or honed, adding to the choices, but today we decided to lose the green stripe, pull in the Travertino Red stripe and incorporate the warm and neutral Zebrino stone into the design. The stones will be a mix of polished and honed.
We narrowed down to a more neutral palette, pulling in the Travertino Red stripeA more neutral palatte with a Travertino Red stripe resting on the Zebrino
These color selections have been sent back to the Ann Sacks team to be mocked up for production while the bathroom demo is underway!
The bathroom demo has begun and our crew is in the process of removing the sinks, toilets and floors from these tiny bathrooms so a bathtub can be installed and new floors can be put down. It is a bit messy for now, but progress is being made and I’m excited to share the results.
A pedestal graveyard in our guest room awaits new faucets.
The Duravit 1930’s pedestal sinks will be updated with new faucets and drains, and replaced back where they came from.
A new Kohler Underscore tub will be installed and the hex floors will be replaced.
This tiny bathroom will receive a new Kohler Underscore tub, 60″x30″Â that will be tiled up the front and across the floor with a herringbone 3″x12″ Ming Green custom cut polished stone from Ann Sacks. The tile will compliment the Bird & Thistle wallpaper in the adjacent guest bedroom. Since Grohe fixtures were already installed, we will save the expense of updating the entire system by sticking with the Grohe brand for the guest bath, with the exception of the hand shower which will be a more traditional Brizo piece.
Brizo Traditional Hand ShowerGrohe Seabury Volume ControlGrohe Seabury Valve TrimGrohe Seabury Tub FillerGrohe Seabury faucet
All of the fixtures were purchased in the chrome finish. I found a perfect match for the subway tile and will install ceramic pencil tile and chair rail in addition to ceramic baseboard.
After reviewing a few different lots I chose Ming Green from Ann Sacks to be cut into 3×12 bricks.
The floors will be tiled in a chevron Ming Green stone that will continue up the front of the bath. I am most excited about these floors!
The plan for paint has evolved slightly since Julie came to visit. When we last parted ways we agreed to continue to think through the wallpaper choices and the color of the dining room, which will be high gloss. While we have decided on Bird and Thistle wallpaper for the guest room, the front entry and the back console are still to be determined and the dining room is still on hold. However, we have some options to consider. Here is the updated floorplan:
Wallpaper choices for the entry from Farrow & Ball
We found the perfect grass cloth from Brunschwig & Fils that we will use in the back console and purchased the Bird and Thistle for the guest as well. The front entrance choice changes every day, but we are getting closer to final decisions as the work continues to progress.
Grasscloth with a dark background for the back console, from Brunschwig & Fils, ties the Farrow & Ball Railings den together with the Wimborne White master bedroom.Continuing to consider which paper we select for front entry. Here is a Kelly Wearstler design.
I always keep the entire home in mind when selecting colors so that everything flows, even when using a lot of pattern, colors and texture.
We are planning to paper the guest bedroom in Brunschwig & Fils “Bird and Thistle” wallpaper in the Green colorway. We removed a bookcase from this room and it is looking less than perfect these days with lots of color patches.
Many colors happening in this room today, with our chosen swatch of the future, Bird and Thistle by Brunschwig & Fils.Close up of Bird and Thistle, Brunschwig & Fils
I’m working on placing an order for this paper so we can be ready for Walter to install in the coming months. As a reminder, we are working on the guest room, highlighted below.
Floorplan of Guest, with built ins
I have found a couple of different resources for estimating the number of rolls needed. The bookcase helps us out because we do not need to paper the majority of that wall. I checked Lowe’s = 6 rolls. I checked Amara Living = 6 rolls. I checked Omni Calculator (this site has a calculator for everything!) = 6 rolls. Three for three! We will go with 6 rolls and get this order placed.
This bathroom is teensie. Let’s flash back to the listing photo:
Listing photos are always so perfect
Here is the bathroom today:
The bathroom, prior to renovation
The bathroom is nice, but it doesn’t have a tub and the floor tiles are not our favorite, so I will change them when we add the tub. The shower hardware is mixed brands and even has two “hot” knobs instead of one hot and one cold (why did that happen!?). We will keep the sink and toilet to save some money on this project.
I will be working in a space that is 6’1″ x 4’10” at its longest points.
The bathroom is approximately 73″ deep
And I will be fitting in a bathtub.
Width is 58″ from tile to tile, and the standard bathtub is 60″
We have started shopping for tiles and I’m tired of the all whites and grays. I am really working on getting away from what we’ve been seeing and selecting different things for this home.
This is NOT what I will be doing
Here are some different tile patterns that I liked at Waterworks (with different color schemes):
Kelly Wearstler for Ann Sacks Doheny SmallKelly Wearstler for Ann Sacks Liaison Collection
We will add a better vanity and have already removed the existing mirror and shelf. I will be selling everything that is salvageable on Ebay and Chairish.
 The shelf and mirror have been removed and will be replaced with a lit medicine cabinet.
There are two medicine cabinets that I think are great for this space. The Astoria Medicine Cabinet from Restoration Hardware has a 1930’s look and is $455, or $364 for members for the polished chrome. It is 18 1/4″ wide x 30″ tall.
The small Astoria Medicine Cabinet from RH is the right dimension and has a 1930s look
The Kohler Verdera Medicine Cabinet is $911 (or $683.25 if you shop at Build.com) and is 20″ wide x 30″ tall. It has awesome lighting and would remove the necessity to put a light over the mirror, which would be nice. And yes – these lights DO make you look better!
Kohler Verdera has electrical in the cabinet which helps keeps counters clean
Instead of replacing the toilet which is from the Duravit 1930’s Collection, we have ordered the soft close cover and will keep it and the matching pedestal sink.
We have removed the hooks and will replace the base board with a ceramic version
To replace the toilet and sink it would cost $1,500+ so we are keeping the budget lower by keeping. However, we will replace the sink tap and drain.
The mirror and shelf have been removed the sink hardware will be replaced (the finish is chipped)
We will be replacing all of the sink and shower hardware, adding the bath filler and tub, re-tiling the floors, replacing the toilet seat and adding a medicine cabinet. My next step is to have my plumber price out this work and confirm that we can fit a 60″ bathtub in the space!
We need to get a painter in to help us with re-painting the apartment. While my dad and J dealt with the cabinets in our kitchen I scraped paint off our kitchen window. It appears as if someone had taped the window to limit draft because they couldn’t close the window fully by hand. We could close the window fully ourselves, but first I scraped this tape off.
Scraping old tape off the window frame
See how I make myself useful?
Unfortunately, there are surprisingly a lot of places in this apartment where there is evidence of a really messy paint job. For example, in the hallway we thought the paint was peeling, but there was actually blue painters tape that had been painted over, left over from the original job, that we were able to peel off! Luckily all of this is very easy to fix.
We also removed a bookcase.
Bookcase in the guest room
Note that the edge of the door was never painted. Or, was potentially planed down to better fit, and never re-painted. We will be fixing this when we paint.
Guest room cabinet removed
The baseboard is perfectly intact and the floor underneath was also refinished. The wall underneath looks minty. We will prime over this entire room to prepare it for wallpaper. We will wallpaper this room with Brunschwig & Fils Bird and Thistle.
Bird and Thistle wallpaper, Brunschwig & Fils
An alternative paper that J really liked was from a room that we have stayed in during our annual trip to Twin Farms, a Toile du Juoy print. I have not been able to find the maker.
Twin Farms bedroom wallpapered in Toile du Juoy
We are visiting again in February and will potentially find out more then. In the meantime I am scheduling a visit from the painter, and from Waterworks to start on these bathrooms.
The kitchen of this apartment is in great condition, but feels a bit dated. That being said, so many elements of this kitchen are timeless, so I want to preserve the beautiful Bolhuis cabinets, the Sub Zero and Miele appliances and the Perrin and Rowe hardware while giving the kitchen a bit of a lift.
Here is a reminder of what the kitchen looked like:
Listing photo
Here is a photo of what the kitchen looked like this morning:
Taken on an iPhone 🙂
In person, and somewhat illustrated by the non wide-lens camera, the space is a bit cramped. The area between the hanging cabinets and the sink is only the width of a four burner stove. I want to visually open this space up by removing the hanging glass cabinets.
The space feels cramped (and not just because the ladder is there)
Of course my biggest mistake was not taking more “before” photos, but everything moved quickly once the work got started! My dad is helping me here! He built the house that I grew up in, laid all the floors and spun every spindle by hand.
Part of the challenge of the hanging cabinets is that they took up a lot of counter space. If you refer back to the first photograph you can see that 1/3 of the counter space was monopolized by the base of the cabinet. At the base was a hollow opening that included an electrical strip. The opening was suited for storing breads, but a microwave would not fit.
The first step was to remove the heavy glass cabinet doors
First, we removed all cabinet doors and shelves. Since these cabinets were more decorative, and less everyday, the hardware was in perfect shape. We will replace the more tired hardware in other areas of the kitchen with these. This will save money since each of these knobs cost $45.
The “like new” cabinet knobs and hardware will be repurposed in other areas of the kitchen
Next, my dad removed all of the small lights running through the cabinets. We tossed the lights (one already had broken glass) and kept some of the electrical elements for use on other projects.
Dad hard at workCabinet doors carefully stowed away
We removed the crown molding around the center cabinet in order to drop it down. The molding was an interesting recovery for two reasons. First, it can be re-used to patch now remaining gaps from the hanging cabinets. Second, it appears as if each of these little teeth were individually nailed to the molding (wow! so much work!).
Recovered molding will be used to finish the gap left by the end cabinet we removedIt appears as if each of the teeth on the molding were applied individually (wow!)Once the molding was removed and stored, we took down the cabinets
This project took almost a whole day, but it made a big difference. We successfully removed all the hanging cabinets and opened up the kitchen.
This made a huge difference in opening up the space!
The only thing we changed was removing the hanging cabinets, and the kitchen looks dramatically different. The work that remains includes: replacing any tired door hardware with the knobs that we retrieved from the glass cabinets, professionally re-painting the kitchen cabinets, updating the backsplash and countertops and incorporating the La Voliere chandelier so we can eat breakfast with the birds!
Some of my best friends threw me the most beautiful bachelorette in Calistoga, California this weekend and we had the best time! We got to spend a full half day antiquing in downtown Calistoga and had some very good finds between the group of us.
It was love at first sight when I saw this gorgeous mirror hanging in the back room of Lincoln Street Market in downtown Calistoga. The mirror is approximately 4 feet in diameter (our guess) and beautifully carved with flowers and leaves.
The origin of the mirror was unknown, but it was on consignment and marked down from $275 to $175 (!!). The price was unbeatable and I bought it on the spot. It will be shipped (yes, come to find out, the shipping did cost more than the mirror for everyone who may be wondering). We took a closer look at the mirror off the wall and it is in great condition.
The mirror is painted and glazed and may actually be made of plaster, or a light wood, but in either case it is going to look great in this pre-war apartment and $175 is tough to beat for a mirror of this size. I can either hang the mirror above the fireplace in the living room or the dining room. The pictures here are the listing photos of the apartment.
If it isn’t the right size for these spots, I am sure I can find the perfect home for it. If not, I will list it for sale on Chairish.
MY CHICAGO HOUSE. 