Essentials for a Sophisticated Bathroom

3 Affordable Ways to a Better Bathroom

A sophisticated bathroom goes a long way. Whether you have guests often of you're just trying to prepare a cozy place for yourself, your decorating your bathroom is an essential part of tying your space together.

You don't need a lot of square footage or a big budget to create the bathroom of your dreams. There are only a few simple rules to follow when taking your bathroom from drab to fab.

The Bathroom Storage

Let's start with the big stuff: Proper bathroom storage is paramount to keeping a bathroom sophisticated. When planning for storage consider how many items you need to store and how much extra room your bathroom has.

Freestanding Cabinets

If your bathroom is large and bare, consider a freestanding cabinet to help you get organized. Floor

cabinets come in a variety of heights and depths, so it's generally easy to find a piece that fits into your space. Big stores like IKEA or Target offer a wide range of bathroom storage cabinets ranging from the very simple to chic modern.

Looking for something a bit more unique? If the big-box stores aren't ringing your bell, consider hunting down the cabinet of your dreams at a yard or estate sale, or by checking out antiquing locations in your area. Interested in estate sales but don't have the time or interest to check your local listings every week? Sites like EstateSale.net let you sign up for free to get notified about new listings in your area.

Tall Corner Shelves

A tall corner shelf provides a sleek floor-to-ceiling look without taking up as much room as a floor cabinet. We love the look of light wood such as bamboo because it goes with nearly any décor. Tall corner shelves are perfect for towel storage as well as storing other bathroom essentials. Keep your shelf neat and organized over time by keeping everything neatly separated in containers such as jars or small cubbies.

Love that sleek corner shelf look but want something a bit more unique? Try a cascading ladder shelf or a shelf for the corner. When shopping for your dream storage shelf, it pays to think outside of the box. Many manufactured furniture pieces will do just as well in the bathroom as they do in the living room. If you're patient and crafty, think about how you can recreate your favorite inspirational pieces on your own.

Shelf & Cubbies

If you need a lot of extra space or you have an empty wall to fill, use a simple full-sized shelf to store

your bathroom necessities. A shelf with individual nooks will keep your items more organized than a long shelf, or separate your goodies with cubbies. A combination of the two will give your bathroom a highly organized appearance regardless of how organized you keep the cubby baskets themselves.
Storage baskets come in a wide range of sizes and materials. Pair clear baskets with white wooden cubbies for a super modern look or add additional depth to your bathroom with natural wooden baskets. Natural browns or blacks and whites add sophistication to your bathroom. A splash of colors can add fun and excitement, but if you're not careful you could risk turning a clean space into one that appears overly busy.

The Bathroom Colors

When choosing colors for the bathroom, consider two things: mood and size. It usually helps to get started with a few basics, such as cabinets or art. Matching your overall color scheme to furniture and accessories you already own will be easier than buying furniture based on the colors of your walls.

1. Mood

Colors affect moods, whether you're blatantly aware of it or not. A white room can be cold and uninviting while a blue room can be much more peaceful and comforting. Colors can be cool, warm or neutral.
What moods do colors generally inspire?

• Cool Tones

Cool tones are your blues and greens. This ranges from baby blue to aquamarine. Cool colors can also have a variety of undertones. Cool color undertones can incorporate red to create various shades of pink and violet or deep maroons. These colors are generally associated with peace and tranquility.

• Warm Tones

Warm tones consist of yellows, oranges and reds, and combinations of these that result in peachy, golden or brown undertones. These colors are often described as lively and fun.

• Neutral Tones

These use a combination of warm and cold tones. The most common neutral tones are beige, ivory, black or grey. Neutral tones can also incorporate some yellow and pinks. Neutral tones generally convey simplicity.
Check out our post on creating a matching color scheme for more information on how these colors can be combined to create the sophisticated bathroom of your dreams.

• Whites
This neutral color can be your best friend or your worst enemy. White is simple and looks beautiful when layered, but it can also create spaces that are too big and cold.
White works best when paired with carefully placed splashes of color here and there, such as a rug or some bold art.
It looks particularly beautiful when combined with natural browns, as this creates a smooth balance that's not visually overwhelming.

2. Size

When planning your color scheme, it's not enough to consider how a color generally makes you feel. It's important to be mindful of the size of your bathroom before you begin planning how simple or colorful things will be.

For example, although yellow is generally a cheery color that evokes feelings of summer or happiness, it actually makes for a pretty poor choice when selecting your main color scheme. A yellow room can quickly become overwhelming and even create feelings of frustration and anger. However, yellow accents pair well with white to fill out a blank canvas.

White is a great option for small and medium sized bathrooms, especially when painted with touches of color. White also works well when you can be versatile with your textures; for example, a tiled backsplash, a brick wall or some distressed shelving or cabinets.

Layer complementary shades of white, or choose accessories in a favorite color.
In small bathrooms, starting with white or another soft, neutral color will allow you to layer a matching color scheme without creating a flat and overwhelming space.
In large bathrooms with plenty of natural light, try using muted cool colors to create a tranquil space.

The Bathroom Accents

Just like a good rug can really tie a living room space together, so can accents make or break the Feng Shui of your sophisticated bathroom. Rather than filling up your bathroom for décor, focus on the accents to create subtle yet strong examples of sophistication.

Hardware

Designer bathroom hardware adds luxury and elegance without breaking the bank. You might not be in a position to renovate the cabinets, but what about the cabinet handles. A new set of updated cabinet knobs to match your overall bathroom theme will bring new life to existing furniture.

If you have a shower that uses a curtain, make sure that both are in line with your overall décor. A nice set of shower curtain rings adds a unique and homey touch that you can't get from cheap plastic or metal rings.
Replacing a sink is difficult, but most bathroom sink faucets can be installed in about an hour. A new faucet can take your uninspired sink to new heights, and it doesn’t cost much to get this project underway.
Add new towel hooks or rings, change out your toilet paper holder or add a new light fixture. These incredibly affordable accents will take an average bathroom to the next level with their attention to detail.

Walls

If you're dealing with a blank space, properly placed art or other wall décor can be an excellent solution. Before you begin nailing holes in the wall, there are a couple of rules you should consider and abide by.
The larger your wall, the larger your piece should be. If you don't have a large piece or you're not interested in large wall art, you can also group various small pieces to fill a large space.


Large Art

Your art should be hung with its center focal point approximately at eye level. If you're above or
below average height, you may want to consider raising or lowering your piece in order to find a more neutral spot.
If you're hanging your art over a dresser, cabinet or over the tub, it should be smaller in width than these things. Center it.


Art Groupings

If you choose to create an art grouping, your art should share a common subject matter or similar and matching color scheme.
In order to give your grouping a cohesive feel, it should only be 2-3 inches apart.
If your grouping has pieces of varying sizes, pretend you're dividing the space by a vertical line. The weight should be equal on both sides.
When in doubt, use a staggered stair-like method to create your shape.

Plants

If you're opting with a truly minimal experience with few colors and distractions, a splash of natural
green provides just the right amount of color to help guide focus to one part of the bathroom.
But some plants are more forgiving than others when it comes to moisture content and lighting.

Here are some of our favorites:

Parlor Palm

 

 

 

Skill Level: Beginner

Soil & Pot: Potting soil, good drainage

Light Requirement: Bright light, no direct sun

Water Requirement: Water regularly, but sparingly

Sansevieria

 

 

Skill Level: Beginner

Soil & Pot: Potting soil, good drainage

Light Requirement: Low - Medium natural light, no direct sun

Water Requirement: Low; water sparingly once a month

Philodendron

 

Skill Level: Beginner

Soil & Pot: Potting soil, good drainage

Light Requirement: Bright light, no direct sun

Water Requirement: Water regularly, but sparingly

Peace Lily

 

 

Skill Level: Beginner

Soil & Pot: Potting soil, good drainage

Light Requirement: Low - Medium natural light, no direct sun

Water Requirement: Water regularly, but sparingly

Sword Fern

 

 

Skill Level: Intermediate

Soil & Pot: Humus-rich soil, good drainage

Light Requirement: Bright light, no direct sun

Water Requirement: Frequent; soil should not dry out

Ribbon Plant

 

 

Skill Level: Intermediate

Soil & Pot: Potting soil, good drainage

Light Requirement: Bright light, no direct sun

Water Requirement: Frequent; soil should not dry out

5 Steps to Better Sleep

Falling asleep at the office again? We get it. There’s nothing worse than that droopy-eyed, second-cup-of-coffee 2 PM feeling. You’re exhausted during the day and you want to get better sleep at night, but as soon as you hit the hay, you just can’t seem to fall asleep or stay asleep all night. It’s a frustrating cycle that too many of us put up with in our daily lives.
Read on to uncover our top five tips to help you slip into slumber effortlessly and improve the quality of sleep you get.

Reduce Blue Light Exposure

Do you spend an hour watching Netflix or scrolling Instagram before it’s lights out? That little habit is doing more than helping you unwind: it’s negatively impacting your sleep in a big way. Screen devices such as your phone and your laptop use blue light to illuminate their screens. This type of light has a very short wavelength that produces a higher amount of energy. In the past few years, a huge amount of scientific evidence has revealed that this short-wavelength light suppresses melatonin (the chemical in our brains that makes us sleepy) production more than any other type of light. The results are shortened sleep time, difficulty falling asleep, and diminished sleep quality due to frequent nighttime awakenings. 

The good news? You don’t have to give up your favorite night time habits to improve your quality of sleep. Enabling your phone’s night mode removes blue light from the equation and free downloads like the Flux app for your computer allow you to select a variety of settings for day and night. These settings will replace the blue light coming from your screen with red light, which doesn’t impede melatonin production.

Bedtime Routine

Train your body to know it’s bedtime with a consistent bedtime routine. You probably haven’t followed a religious bedtime routine since you were a little kid – and remember how great you slept back then? Around the same time every night, go through the motions of washing your face, brushing your teeth, reading a book, etc. You can even add in meditation or a nice cup of tea (no caffeine!) to get yourself as relaxed as possible. The key here is consistency; if you do the same routine around the same time every night before sleep, your body will start to recognize your routine as a cue to get sleepy.

Got a case of the Mondays? That Monday morning feeling can last all day, impacting your mood and workflow. While fatigue is certainly not limited to the beginning of the week, the reason breaking away from the weekend is so difficult for most people is that the bedtime routine goes out the window as soon as you leave the office on Friday.

Keeping a bedtime routine on the weekend can be difficult, but the more closely you can adhere to your normal schedule, the easier Mondays will be.

Find the Right Temperature

Here’s a bit of trivia for you: body temperature is a crucial factor in falling asleep. As part of your body’s normal circadian rhythm, your body’s internal temperature rises and falls every day. Your body naturally associates a lowering temperature as a cue for sleeping; your body’s temperature rises throughout the day, then falls in the evening. This is part of why you begin to feel drowsy in late afternoon. 

If you live in a cold environment, you’re lucky. Sleeping with the windows open may be all you need to reverse your sleepless nights. But if incessant heat is keeping you up at night, there are still plenty of things you can try to improve your nighttime routine. Lower your bedroom’s thermostat a few degrees, a fan in your room, or take a cool shower 15-30 minutes before bedtime. 

White Noise

Do you find silence deafening? You’re not the only one. White noise machines are not just for babies anymore – nearly 5 percent of Americans use white noise machines to help them fall asleep. Research shows that white noise activates brainwaves that lull the brain to sleep and help to drown out background noise such as traffic or neighbors. You might already have some natural white noise in your room, like the rhythmic hum of a ceiling fan. But if you want to try using white noise as a sleep aid, you can find lots of white noise videos on YouTube or use the SimplyNoise site to create your perfect sleeping environment. 

In some cases, a lack of noise might actually be the problem. If you’ve recently moved to the suburbs after spending years in the city, you may have become accustomed to letting the sounds of traffic or nearby trains lull you to sleep. The makers of Sleep Machine considered this. This phone app is available for Android and iPhone, and allows you to create a variety of sleeping environments by mixing and matching sounds from a library, which includes white, pink, grey and brown noise as well as noises you’d encounter in the city, alongside the ocean or in the country.

Bedding

You’ve done all the preparation for good sleep – you’ve turned off your cell phone, lowered your thermostat, finished your bedtime routine and started your white noise generator. None of the preparation is worth it if you’ve got scratchy sheets waiting for you when you climb under the covers. Invest in some lovely high threadcount sheets for a luxuriously cozy sleep, then build your bedding to fit your needs. Think about creating a comfortable atmosphere – that’s different for everyone! Do you like a lot of pillows or just one? A fluffy comforter or a soft quilt? An extra top sheet or just a fitted sheet? You spend one third of your life in bed, so make sure your bed is customized to be as comfy and sleep-friendly as possible. 

Follow these easy steps and you just may find yourself making it through the day without that second – or third or fourth (we’re not judging) – cup of coffee. 

What helps you get better sleep? Share with us in the comments!

Creating a Matching Color Scheme

When decorating your home, whether you’re tackling a big space, revamping just one room or deciding on patio décor, a matching color scheme will be a major component in ensuring all of your elements come together in the end. With so many fabric and pattern options out there, things can quickly get confusing and fall apart if you don’t have a plan to follow.

You don’t have to be a decorating expert to create beautiful and cohesive rooms. There are only a few things to consider, and they all start with the magic of the color wheel.
The color wheel is divided into two sections. On one side, you’ll find cool colors, and on the other side, you’ll find warm colors. As you are mentally decorating a room, you’ll notice that you likely naturally gravitate to one part of the wheel or the other. Whether you choose a cool or a warm color should depend on how you want the room to “feel”. Cool colors are generally associated with calm and serene feelings while warm colors tend to feel more exciting and lively.

The color wheel seems basic at first glance, but it actually consists of a wide range of colors. Each main color on the wheel can be further divided into hues or saturations. Once you’ve decided on a main cool or warm color, consider the varying tones it can offer. In fact, using varying tones alone can help you coordinate your colors.

Monochromatic Decorating
A monochromatic scheme uses several hues of the same color. Coordinating colors in this way creates a sophisticated look that’s easy to shop for. Monochromatic schemes usually use neutral colors such as beige, khaki or grey. However, you can apply this decorating trick to any color. Keep in mind that bolder colors should be used more sparingly.

Analogous Decorating
Ready to add a little more spice? Try an analogous color scheme. The idea behind this decorating secret is to use colors that appear next to one another on the color wheel. When decorating the analogous way, limit your choices to three colors. Whether you choose a primary color, a secondary color or a color shade is up to you. You can mix cool and warm colors or stick to one side of the wheel.
This way of coordinating a color scheme works best if you choose a principal color, and then make the other two colors on the wheel your accents.

Complementary Decorating
Analogous colors work well together because they tend to naturally complement one another. But did you know that every color on the color wheel actually has a complementary color? Complementary colors are an artwork staple since they allow the artist to create depth with shadow and light, however, complementary colors can also work wonders in your home. Unlike the artist who blends complementary colors, you can use two colors on opposing ends of the color wheel side by side.
Be careful, as this style of coordinating colors can quickly create a cluttered, overwhelming feel. Create a cohesive look with complementary colors by sticking to one color shade. If you’re in doubt, start with small accents, such as a set of orange and blue sofa pillows.

Lastly, if you’re feeling very adventurous, try a triad of colors. As the name implies, this type of color scheme utilizes three colors from the color wheel simultaneously. But we don’t just want to choose any three. With so many color hues available, things can quickly end up looking like an amateur finger painting.
To utilize this decorating trick correctly, begin by choosing a dominant color. Then mentally (or literally) draw an equilateral triangle on your color wheel. You’ll end up with three evenly spaced colors ranging from warm to cool, and although this decorating style does create some very vivid contrasts, it actually tends to be less intense than a complementary theme.
Go bold by choosing the most saturated version of all three colors, or soften the look and feel of your triadic color scheme by utilizing gentle hues.

Four Budget Friendly Bedroom Decorating Ideas

Your bedroom is where you start and end each and every day. It should be your favorite room in your home, attract peace and tranquility, and make you feel truly at ease. How you decorate your bedroom can affect your level or comfort and how well you sleep. It also helps to tie in the rest of your living space.
Let’s break down four ways in which you can create a unique and tranquil sleeping area – all while on a budget!

New Bedding
New bedding doesn’t always come cheap, but springing for one nice ensemble can absolutely transform your bedroom and your quality of sleep. A beautiful 3-piece comforter set such as this one from Sherry Kline provides an oversized comforter and two pillow shams. This bed set can work perfectly for a French country or farmhouse styled bedroom.

Rearrange Furniture
Sometimes, all you need to spruce up a room is to move some things around for a fresher feel. Rearranging your dressers or shifting your bed around can drastically improve your feng shui and it doesn’t cost a penny! Keeping with a French country style, your design can be minimal, so you might even want to downsize and donate some of the furniture you don’t need anymore. This will also free up more space and make the room feel bigger.

Paint Walls
Is your bedroom neutral, dark or light? Maybe it’s time to change things up. For that French country
Make sure that you consider how your new paint will look with what you already own so you don’t have to repaint or buy new pieces for your bedroom.
Want to open things up even more? Consider a wallpaper that mimics nature with an ocean or forest scene. If you or a friend possesses some artistic talent, consider drawing your own design or mural to save even more.
feel, try more rustic and creamy colors.

Decorative Art

Enhancing your bedroom with unique decor doesn’t have to come at a big price, especially if you love to bargain hunt or craft in your spare time. We like to use Pinterest or Etsy to help us get inspired!
Tapestries, chandeliers, and elegant décor naturally fit into a French style, but for a more affordable option, try more rustic designs. For example, a couple of Mason jars can go a long way when used like a vase or to hold tea lights. Mason jars can even serve practical purposes like holding a hairbrush or a set of pencils. Many crafting materials can be upcycled are guaranteed to fit perfectly into any budget!


Designing your bedroom so that you love it every day can be easy on a budget. When it comes to your next bedroom makeover, use one of these four ways to give your design a complete overhaul without breaking the bank. Focus on the areas that have the most impact for the biggest changes, such as the bedding or wall color.
Try something new today and let us know how it goes!