MicasaStyle’s Design Spotlight – Spa Bathroom
MicasaStyle’s Design Spotlight is proud to be shining brightly on designer
KathySue this week and her
Small But Spa-like Bathroom. The beautiful, serene colors and attention to detail caught our eye and we just had to have more information about the design of this room.
Although the bathroom is small, KathySue has made the most of the space and created a functional, open and very attractive room.
KathySue describes herself as a very detailed person and after hearing about her meticulous planning, we definitely agree. She began by laying out the entire remodel of the bathroom and decided on the ocean as her inspiration. She wanted to incorporate the colors of water, sand, clouds and sky into this space and naturally her first thought went to mosaic tile. Since she is also a huge fan of white tile, it seemed the perfect fit for her shower and toilet area.
After the main colors we’re picked, the detailed planning began. She designed the wall of the shower on graph paper to make certain the cuts would be even and also made sure the bench in the sitting area was at the perfect height for leg shaving. But it wasn’t just a detailed plan that produced this amazing room; it was also KathySue’s determination to design the room the way she had envisioned it.
As with any project, there were a few bumps in the road but she didn’t let that ruin the feel she was going for. She didn’t settle on mediocre pieces, but instead, hunted for items that were the ‘perfect fit’. By shopping around for the perfect pieces, she was actually able to score some really great deals, like the mirror ($89) and vessel sink ($200) that she purchased at Lowe’s.
She considers her biggest success the tiled shower wall since it had to be well thought out and measured precisely to fit without any gaps. However, her favorite piece (and ours too), is the mosaic tile. The colors and style of the tile backdrop create a wonderful sea-like feel and is by far the most eye-catching piece in the entire room.
Some may consider all the attention to detail over the top, but we admire the time and effort KathySue put into this room. We think she created a perfect marriage of design and functionality, which is the ultimate goal of any designer - amateur or professional.
We’d like to end this post with a quote from KathySue that describes exactly how we think that someone should decorate their home. “I always go for ‘feel’ rather than a look. If the house doesn’t ‘feel’ like I want it, it just becomes a well decorated house not a home.” We couldn’t agree more. Thanks to KathySue for sharing her home with us.
You can check out this space and many more from her at
MicasaStyle.com.
Labels: decorate, design ideas, interior design, micasa, micasastyle, spotlight
MicasaStyle's Design Spotlight
Our goal at MicasaStyle is to help designers, amateurs and professionals alike, to inspire and share decorating ideas. And with so many fabulous rooms being added to MicasaStyle everyday, we thought it was time to highlight some of the most inspiring rooms. So, we will be selecting rooms from our site that awed and amazed us and feature them on our blog. It’s what we like to call ‘
MicasaStyle’s Design Spotlight’.
Our first design spotlight is shining on one of our most popular rooms and still holds one of our highest ratings on the site:
Low-Budget, High-Style, Grad Student’s Apartment. Looking through the photos filled with extravagant wall art and unique decorating pieces is inspiring enough, until you realize that the ‘starving grad student’ who designed the apartment did it all for only $1200.00. We decided to ask the designer, Tom, about his experience in decorating the room and just how he pulled off this modern/contemporary look on such a small budget.
The key factors in Tom’s decorating decisions were inspiration and compromise. Tom didn’t have a clear vision of what he wanted in the beginning but knew that he loved a modern, Asian-contemporary style and wanted to experiment with Feng-Shui. After some tweaking, his idea
finally evolved into a theme of the 4 elements: earth, wind, fire, and water and he also incorporated the Chinese concept, Bagua, which represents the 8 corners of element, or 8 aspects of life. The compromise part came in to play when Tom realized that his budget didn’t quite support his tastes. A few hand-me-down rugs, drapes and several furniture pieces were too costly to replace so Tom worked with them instead.
Tom also opted not to purchase thousands of dollars worth of art and instead got his hands dirty and made some of his own. One of the most amazing parts of Tom’s apartment is that the expensive looking wall art is made mostly from Styrofoam. Inspired by his father, Tom used Styrofoam (about $5 per 2’x4’ sheet), metallic paint and some decorative materials, such as mirrors and glass beads, to create truly
expensive looking art like his Shui (Water element) piece and the sunflower constellation mirror. His ‘Strength’ (Earth element) wall art, made from gluing together mosaic tiles and inspired from the Beijing Olympics, is another eye-catching piece that makes this room so unique.
Aside from how easy this decorating project was on the wallet, the way Tom personalized the décor to really make it his own is one of the reasons it blew us away. At MicasaStyle, we wanted to share this room to help encourage our designers. If a ‘starving grad student’ can create such a beautiful space, there’s no reason why you can’t too.
We’ll leave you with a few tips to help other novice designers on a tight budget:
1. Window shop to find the look you like, then figure out how to do inexpensively.
2. Try to keep the main pieces of furniture neutral and express the look and feel through decorative pieces and art. (This makes it easier to redecorate your room later on down the road if your tastes change.)
3. Decorate all in one month and keep the receipts, so if you don’t use anything or a piece doesn’t work, you can still return it.
4. A
nd when in doubt, consult MicasaStyle.
A special thanks to Tom (naddhee) for letting us feature his apartment and sharing his decorating experience. For more details on Tom’s room, check out his space at
MicasaStyle.
Labels: design ideas, designer, interior design, micasa, micasastyle, spotlight
