bathroom Archives - The Curated House

How Reconnecting With Family Roots Can Lead To A Beautiful Product | A Gorgeous Giveaway from pamuk & co.

What do you get when you take a Canadian designer with a luxury background {think retail spaces for Gucci, Tiffany, Prada + Dior} and reconnect her with her Turkish roots? You get pamuk & co., a collection of Turkish linens that are as beautiful to use as they are beautifully made.

If like me you love a meaningful {albeit bittersweet} story, lean in. Founder Jasmine’s father emigrated to Canada from Turkey when he was very young, and remarkably didn’t return to Turkey until 2009. On that fateful trip, while visiting his birthplace, he had a heart attack in his sleep. His life came full circle in a way that suddenly connected his daughter Jasmine with her Turkish roots for the very first time.

Jasmine immediately invested in meaningful relationships with her Turkish cousins – relatives she only met after her father’s passing. She quickly absorbed all she could about Turkish culture and language. Armed with Rosetta Stone and a year’s worth of classes, Jasmine became fluent in the language and – even more importantly – steeped in the culture. On one of her visits to Turkey, Jasmine became especially taken with the history and beauty of the peshtemal {what we know here in North America as turkish towels}. Seeking out the best sources for this beautiful product in Turkey, Jasmine met a family who has been weaving these luxurious linens for 5 generations, and thus pamuk & co. was born.

People with meaningful stories usually have generous hearts, and Jasmine is no exception. One of you lucky lovers will win a set of 2 pamuk & co. towels for yourself! How you ask? Easy peasy.

G I V E A W A Y D E T A I L S

1. Follow @thecuratedhouse and @pamuk_and_co on Instagram
2. Like the photo I’ve posted from the pamuk & co. collection
3. Tag two friends in the comments

For a second entry, just share the photo on your Instagram account including all the details on the giveaway. {Don’t forget to tag Jasmine and me in your post so we know about it!}

The winner will be announced on August 11th on Instagram. Best of luck to all you beautiful people!

xx
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|August 4th, 2015|0 Comments

A Timeless, Traditional Master Ensuite

As a designer, two of my favourite rooms in the house to design and decorate are kitchens and bathrooms. I think it’s because we spend so much time in them just living. They can contribute so significantly to our lives – to our freedom to relax, unwind, connect and dream. And kitchens and baths are also an amazing opportunity to explore and express a love of details.

I went through no less than twelve iterations of the floor plan for this bathroom before the owners settled on my first instinct. We were taking out a very dated bath and removing their walk-in closet {replacing it with a larger one as a part of the addition}. As such, we had a lot more space to work with than what they had been living with previously, and they wanted careful consideration to be given to each and every detail. Form could not trump function, and function could not make anything less than beautiful. I was certainly up for the challenge.

Painting by Elzbieta Krawecka via Art Interiors

The obvious centrepiece when entering the room is the creamy, wood-paneled tub floating in the centre of the space. Its interesting shape and timeless, Romanesque paneling set the tone for the entire room. The elliptical skylight above mirrors the shape of the tub and floods the space with healing and inspiring natural light. Truly a successful focal point.

My goal with this master ensuite was to interpret my clients’ traditional taste with a refined restraint that would be simply timeless. For that to be accomplished, symmetry became the absolute rule, starting with “his and hers” custom, bow-front mahogany vanities on either side of the tub.

My clients wanted ample storage so that the space could remain uncluttered while entirely functional. Even the bow front drawers on the face-frame vanities offer storage, eeking every square inch of possible function out of their lovely, curvaceous forms. We chose to leave the mahogany unstained in all its natural glory, with just a clear-coat finish to protect the wood. The warmth of the mahogany works so beautifully with the Crema Marfil tile work, speaking beautifully to its golden veins and timeless character.

What you don’t see in these shots are the perfectly balanced water closet and walk-in shower {picture them over the right and left shoulders of the photographer as you enter the room and face the tub}. The privacy offered and the elegant and refined balance to the floor plan work beautifully together to marry form and function.

As I’m sure you know by now, I am quite addicted to the texture and patterns made possible when working with tile. This bathroom was a delightful opportunity to work with the timelessness of Crema Marfil and create elegant and timeless designs. Even the baseboards around the room are carved from Crema Marfil! Decadent, elegant, gorgeous.

I have already confessed to you my addiction to all things herringbone, so the design for the inside of this tile carpet was an honest marriage of intuition and addiction. I love the way that this tile carpet runs under the tub, anchoring it like a piece of furniture in the room. I also love the way the warm brown mosaic border draws the eye straight into the room and towards the beautiful focal point of the tub and the gorgeous art hanging above it. Overall, the floor is an elegant exercise in scale, pattern and warmth.

Because I know you’re the kind that love details, I had to share the ceiling of the master bedroom with you today as well. I designed this together with architect Kevin Crozier, and I think the end result of this collaboration is rather stunning. From the window design to the deep coffers in the ceiling to the skylight to the elegant focal point of the Fortuny silk chandelier, I love the view looking up in this master retreat!

Wishing you a Wednesday filled with details to delight!

xo
s.

All photographs by Amy Montgomery

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|October 31st, 2012|0 Comments

Powder Room Perfection

Today I thought I’d share with you one of my favourite client powder rooms. Small but sophisticated, this powder room elicits a lot of conversation when guests come for dinner. I think it’s all in the details.

There’s just no substitute for gorgeous raw materials. In this case, I chose Macassar Ebony for the floating, 2-drawer vanity and beveled mirror frame {which wraps around the vanity from floor to ceiling}. I finished it with a simple but stunning polished black granite countertop with a 5″ mitred edge. Clean, substantial, modern and gorgeous.

To continue the floating effect established by the vanity, I chose a simple and elegant Hansgrohe wall-mounted faucet, mounted on top of the mirror so that it seemingly pours out of infinity into the shimmering hand-hammered, undermounted nickel sink.

As if mimicking the waterfall from the faucet, the crystal droplets of these two sconces {elegantly framed by their black pleated shades} add sophistication and glamour. Layered on top of the stunning metallic flocked wallpaper from Kravet, they tell the story of texture upon texture and detail upon detail.

I love the femininity and simplicity of the art we chose to mount above the toilet – a gorgeous ink on mylar piece by Madeleine Lamont {via Art Interiors}. Simply floating on the matting behind, Madeleine’s piece compliments the very graphic, henna-like pattern of the wallpaper without fighting it, carving out a place of its own with it’s gestural, organic image and crisp, dark wood frame. The baseboards, crown moulding and ceiling are all painted out a dark, chocolately-charcoal grey, acting as a dramatic frame for the entire room.

The floors are once again texture upon texture and detail upon detail. A gorgeous, striated mocha limestone is inset with a beautiful mosaic tile carpet which runs underneath of both the floating vanity and the toilet to truly anchor the room and connect the elements.

The border is created with 7 rows of 5/8″x5/8″ jointless dark chocolate Emperador mosaic.

The inset of the tile carpet is comprised of this timeless and spectacular Crema Marfil mosaic, the fan motif serving as a beautiful nod to the Art Deco period.

Overall I’d have to say this is one of my all-time favourite client powder rooms, a sophisticated space for a sophisticated family. A great deal of time and attention to detail were poured into the design of this powder room, a space that is far too often overlooked for the opportunity it offers to created a style statement in a little jewel box of a room. I hope this inspires you with some ideas for what you might do with yours!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|October 3rd, 2012|4 Comments