I’ll be mixing and matching some variation on the below all fall, along with the pieces from my last style post. And that skirt, in particular, I would like to call out! It’s a modern fit, comes in three colors, is comfortable with an elastic waist that doesn’t look like trash if you tuck in your shirt, and it is $22. Get it.
Lucky Charm Necklace, Gem Remember when we were all wearing bubble necklaces? We had fun with that, but delicate jewelry with little symbols is way more interesting. You’ve got to get close to appreciate.
Monroe Lace-Up Boots, Frye; Garnet Hill I once had a pair of 1920s lace-up boots that I loved, literally to death. (Do you know how hard it is to find wearable vintage shoes that fit our relatively large modern feet? I wore them until they wore out.) These take me back to those and I’m sure it’s in large part nostalgia, but wow do I love these.
Margot Scarf Ponytail Holder Set, Anthropologie I can’t decide if these look too juvenile for me, but I’m going with it. Easier than fussing with an actual scarf if you need to save 67 seconds of styling time.
Ruby Bag, Anine Bing A good structured ladylike bag is a thing of beauty. Classic.
The Modern Loafer (Bone), Everlane Who would have thought white leather shoes would become my favorite thing to wear? Not me. But here we are and these are great.
Now that the bathroom on the second floor is back in commission, I’ve been restocking it. I realized as I was doing so, that I have pretty strong allegiances and opinions here! Let’s talk bath and body.
I’m going to break our favorites down between me, Brandon, and the kids. I’m probably the pickiest of the family, but everyone has their needs and preferences and they vary between us. We use a mix of inexpensive drug store finds and pricier products that have proven themselves worth the added cost.
Our Favorites
So, um, do you remember when I bleached my hair and dyed it a fiery orange-red? That was fun! It also wrecked my hair. Up to that point, I had always used whatever drugstore shampoo and conditioner sounded fine, didn’t cost a lot, and was easy to find because I didn’t think it mattered much. Then I went for a haircut where they used Kevin Murphy Hydrate-Me Wash and Rinse, and my hair was fixed and soft again in a single wash. What? I hadn’t known shampoo and conditioner held that much power! In the years since, I’ve tried to stray, experimenting with other brands (because it’s a pain to get when I run out), but I keep coming back. It’s that good.
Brandon likes American Crew Daily Shampoo and Conditioner, and he’s trying out their Tea Tree 3-in-1 right now because he always shampoos but doesn’t always use conditioner (why?), so the all in one thing appeals. I don’t use them but appreciate the packaging and the scents.
My go-to face wash is Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser. It removes all of my makeup and Brandon and I both like it even though I have oily skin and his is dry. I tried to switch recently to CeraVe and have tried more expensive cleansers, but I keep coming back to my old favorite. Our body soap is a Dove Beauty Bar. It isn’t drying, it’s readily available everywhere, and so affordable. I like getting bath and body stuff as a gift and I’ll enjoy using it, but once it’s gone I go back to simple Dove soap for myself and the whole family. We also like liquid hand soap refills from Mrs. Meyers or Method for each sink, and I keep L’Occitane Shea Butter Verbana Soap by “mine” (I’m 95% the sole user of the sink in our master closet/dressing room). It smells so nice and lasts forever, but the kids do better with liquid hand soaps.
For the Kids
One of our kids has a sensitive scalp that’s prone to seborrheic dermatitis. After years of trying various shampoos for babies with cradle cap or for adults with dandruff (suggestions from hair stylists and our pediatrician), I asked for recommendations from fellow moms and found Neutrogena T/Gel. It doesn’t smell great but it works, and we pair it with a Free & Clear, a dye-free, perfume-free conditioner.
That same kid has sensitive skin too, and we love Aveeno Baby Daily Moisture Lotion most days, or the Soothing Relief Moisturizing Cream if something heavier is needed. I use the same lotion unless I’m feeling fancy and want to use something with a nice scent or that I got as a gift. I discovered it when E was a baby and it’s been a staple in our house ever since.
The other kids don’t have any specific hair or skin issues beyond occasional dryness, and they also have no preferences of their own when it comes to this stuff. I loved Aveeno Baby Wash and Shampoo when they were really little and didn’t have enough hair to need conditioner. As they got older, we switched to a 2-in-1 (because rinsing kids’ hair is the worst chore and I’m all for a single step) and have lately been using Suave Kids Purely Fun Sensitive 3-in-1. Like the conditioner above, it’s free of a lot of common irritants, dyes, and perfumes. Sometimes the kids like to use bar soap for their bodies, but other times they’ll just go with the 3-in-1 everywhere and call it a day.
A note on bubble bath: we skip it. The only one that didn’t irritate or dry the kids’ skin was by The Honest Company, but even that couldn’t be too often. It’s fun to fill the tub with bubbles, but if I’ve found that if I don’t offer it, they don’t ask for it. Phased out. They’re happy just to splash around in the water with toys during baths (or hanging over the side à la Calvin below).
And yes, I’m bothered enough by mismatched colors and bottles that I decant a lot of these products. Amber apothecary bottles and jars everywhere and they make me so dang happy.
Kevin Murphy products are sold in salons, but here are links to our other bath and body favorites below.
This bathroom renovation is sponsored by Lowe’s. Thank you for making this project possible!
I want my bathroom tile to have longevity. I’m using porcelain (wonderfully durable), and have been taking care to do the job right from the prep work through to completion. I’ll share more in an upcoming post about the tile installation, but first I want to point out a big mistake that I almost made (and how I fixed it).
I had been planning all along to lay my tile on top of Ditra. It’s an uncoupling membrane that isolates movement between the subfloor and finished tile, preventing cracks over time. It’s also a waterproofing layer. All good things!
Our bathroom had hardwood flooring, and you can’t lay Ditra directly on top because solid wood shrinks and swells with temperature and humidity changes. I could have added a more dimensionally stable subfloor (OSB, plywood, or cement board) on top of the hardwood. It would have added more weight to the floor, but more concerning was the additional height. When I had the cast iron radiator removed temporarily, I was advised to keep the connections at the same place. There is some give in the pipes, but not a lot. Same with the tub drain and toilet stack. I started to worry that in hopes of saving myself a little time by not ripping out the wood floor, I would be creating costly plumbing fixes in my near future when it came time to reattach everything.
I decided to demo the floor. It added more time to my project, but it was the right thing to do. I had to use my Dremel Multi-Max Saw in a couple of places, but most of the wood came up easily with the combination of a pry bar, wrecking bar, and claw hammer. Safety glasses and gloves are a good idea too.
Next I set about getting the floor ready from there. The plywood subfloor beneath the wood was mostly in good shape. There was some water damage beneath the toilet, but that was easily cut out and replaced.
At this point, I was still planning to use Ditra with my tile, but the finished floor would have now been too low, so I opted to lay OSB on top of my plywood to add thickness. Two 4’x8′ sheets cost less than $20. They’re big and heavy and hard to maneuver, but I got them cut to size, carried them up to the second floor, cut my openings for pipes, fine tuned the fit, and screwed the OSB into place (6″ spacing around the perimeter, 12″ grid spacing within). Hooray! I finished just before midnight, tired and sweaty, but feeling good about my progress.
There are different instructions for Ditra installation based on the type of subfloor you have, so I looked up that information the next morning. The OSB wasn’t the issue I ran into, it was the tile size. “The tile format should always be greater than 2” x 2” (5cm x 5cm).” Hi, I would be using 1” square mosaics! Oh no.
I was basically back to where I was when the hardwood flooring had still been in place. Cement board over top, or rip out what I had just finished and put cement board directly over the plywood subfloor? Out with the OSB. I went back to Lowe’s and picked up DUROCK cement backer board instead, plus thinset, the proper screws, and alkali-resistant fiberglass mesh tape.
Cement board can be scored with a razor blade and then snapped for a clean edge. A saw will cut it too, but produces silica dust particles — a razor blade is the better choice. Screws (8″ apart) hold the cement board in place, but thinset between it and the subfloor ensure there are no springy weak spots and make the floor behave as if it were one solid slab. Taping the joints and filling the gaps with thinset (be sure to smooth the top) also adds to the stability.
I added two coats of Mapai Aquadefense for waterproofing as well. I don’t think this was strictly necessary (this is a bathroom floor, not a shower or wet room), but I’m looking at it as a bit of added insurance. Porcelain tile doesn’t absorb much water and cement backer board is water-resistant, but neither is waterproof.
My mistake put me behind schedule, but lessons have been learned. May they spare you from a similar mistake!
I shared all of this on Instagram Stories as I realized what I had done, and very quickly, the worried messages started coming in. People had either installed Schluter Systems Ditra themselves beneath small tile, or had hired a professional that did. What now!?
You will probably be fine. Probably! The problem though is that Ditra has a waffle texture and where the small tiles overlap in a way that they’re not fully supported, there is a possibility that they’ll pop up or break, or the grout will crack over time (the very thing an uncoupling membrane is supposed to prevent). I’ve seen recommendations for filling the waffle voids completely, letting that dry, and then proceeding to tile. The job would not be covered by the Schluter’s warranty, but if the openings were all filled to the top it should stand up to normal traffic.
TL;DR A high heel putting pressure on a tile is one thing — I had been planning on putting our claw foot tub back in. That much weight focused on four points made me nervous, and since I realized my oversight before it would have been terribly difficult to reverse course, I opted to change my installation method.
I went out last week specifically in search of a new skirt, and came home with two. I also tried on a shimmery metallic shirt on a whim and it’s the best! Soft like a tee, machine-washable, and comfy with some stretch, but able to go casual or dressy depending on the pairing. It also goes equally well with silver or gold tones. I don’t do a ton of OMG FALL WARDROBE SHOPPING (!!!), so it’s going to be these pieces, plus maybe a new sweater or two, but I feel like I have a lot of mix and match options here.
Eleanor, my eldest, is interested in making some changes to her room, and she has requested a canopy bed! After talking to her more and looking at examples together, we’re realizing that what she wants more than the look of a canopy bed is the feeling of coziness and privacy.* She wants a place to hide away and read, and I want to give that to her.
We may do something custom, perhaps building the bed into a nook, or mounting curtain rods from the ceiling, and if we do I’ll share more about that process (of course). To start though, we’ve been looking at readymade canopy beds. They’re falling into general categories, and I’ve rounded up examples below.
Curved Metal Beds
We all remember this Miles Redd bedroom, yes? It predated the chevron craze, but was also an early example of the canopy beds Redd has been doing (in ever more elaborate styles) since. I could get on board.
Pottery Barn Teen has a simple metal canopy bed that’s lovely, but it lacks a solid headboard. (Annoying because pillows tend to squish out the back.) If you’re willing to overlook a few details, this is the same shape but costs far less. I think it’s worth seeking out a solid headboard, in whatever material you like, and I’ve included a few in the mix below. What I did not include in this “curved metal” category are the arched canopies that reminded me of my childhood 80’s bed — I just can’t do it.
Again, some of these lack a solid headboard, but maybe that’s my unique fixation? I particularly like the combination of a metal frame with an upholstered headboard.
I was surprised that these weren’t more appealing to my daughter. She loves spending the summer exploring the woods, surrounded by the forest canopy, but that didn’t translate into wanting a forest canopy bed. Still, these are fun for the right person.
These read a little more juvenile, and definitely more feminine, like something a storybook princess would sleep in. We both liked the sense of enclosure in the second one, but didn’t love the bed itself.
My favorite style! I would invest in a bed for my master bedroom (I did, and I love it), but these are beyond my budget for a kid’s room. I could be surprised, but I expect that my daughter’s interest in canopy beds may be outgrown as she gets older.
* I’ve been saving examples in an Instagram collection to share with Eleanor and it has been tremendously helpful for narrowing down the things she likes (and just as important, the things she doesn’t). Saved collections are private, but I’ll work on moving the images to a Pinterest board. There were many responses from people that are looking at canopy beds for their kids too (or for themselves) and lots of requests for more details on the images I shared briefly in Instagram Stories. I’ll let you know when it’s up!
Look at that pup luxuriating on my tile floor. I’ve painted the bathroom, finished the floor, installed the lighting, and put a working toilet in. HOORAY! The sink faucet is in many parts and the most complicated I’ve used, but it’s making sense and I should get the sink in working order shortly. It’s all very exciting! I’ve been taking photos and even some video all along the way and I’ll share the process. I DID THIS. You can do it too.
Shall we? On to a few things that have caught my attention between bathroom renovating and new project planning!
Congratulations to Design Milk! They’ve sold the company but will continue on with much of the same, but the money to make things bigger and better.
Two blogging/social media courses launched recently. Similar spaces, but whooo the teachers couldn’t be more different! Want motivation to love the audience you have now and leverage that into sales with a no bull teacher? Erica Reitman’s Uplevel Your Instagram is for you.
Are black windows a good idea? Yes and no. They’re trendy (you knew that, yes?) but could look classic. Or dated. The difference is explained well here.
We had a great discussion about canopy beds on Instagram and I’ll have a roundup with my thoughts for you next week. The ones that I love the most are $4000+ (of course), but then there’s also a great one for less than $300. Today, I’m off to get a sink in working order! (It can’t be that hard, right?) I’ll be sharing as I go in Stories if you want to follow along.
