Reminiscent of the whitewashed architecture of the Greek islands, Mykonos Grace was a study in white - with white walls, white furniture and white bedding. While we loved the white on white look, we ultimately drew our color inspiration from the bathroom of our Mykonos Grace hotel room, with its grey walls contrasted against white fixtures and bamboo shelving. We selected a dark charcoal color for the guest room walls and then filled the space with white furniture and bedding, as well as bamboo accents. Pops of blue - drawn from the sky, sea and blue domes of the Greek islands - complete the color scheme of the guest room. We carried this same color scheme into the en suite guest bathroom, where the dark grey walls compliment the light grey floor tile and perfectly contrast against the white trim, white fixtures, and classic white subway tile in the shower.
In addition to taking the color palette for our guest room and bathroom from Mykonos Grace, many details of the hotels design also found their way into the guest suite. In the guest room, these details included the comfy white beanbag chair, the large backlit photo above the bed, and of course, orchids. In the guest bath, I was able to replicate one of my very favorite details of Mykonos Grace - the Gill Nono quote that ran vertically up the wall of the hotel's lobby and library.
I used my Cricut cutter to cut white adhesive vinyl letters, and then used long strips of transfer tape to lay out the letters and adhere them to the bathroom wall. {Click here for the details on how to cut vinyl letters and place them using transfer tape}
It took a lot of measuring and planning to make the quote fit the wall just right - but all the effort was totally worth it. I was thrilled with how this project turned out, and the quote on the wall really serves as the focal point of the entire bathroom! Because the quote is on the opposite wall as the large bathroom mirror, the quote is reflected in the mirror, doubling it's impact. Thanks to the mirror, you can even get a glimpse of the quote from the guest bedroom.
Throughout Mykonos Grace, white orchids, bamboo accents, and smooth white stones added interest and texture to the spaces.
I brought these same elements into the guest bathroom for the same effect.
A bamboo tray placed between the two sinks holds a variety of guest soaps and bath amenities, all from the Spa Collection at Cost Plus World Market.
And a potted orchid (fake, of course) provides added height and interest.
The top of the half wall that divides the bathroom cabinet from the tub serves as a perfect spot for hand towels and tissues.
Two white rolled up hand towels fit nicely in a narrow bamboo tray, serving both style and function.
Since the bathroom by the nursery only has a shower, the tub in the guest bath is where we bath our sons. So while I want the tub to feel luxurious for guests, it also needs to be functional for the kiddos. The solution I came up with was to install a Grundtal rail from Ikea to serve dual functions. On a day-to-day basis, the rail holds bins full of the bathtub toys, but when guests visit, the rail is the perfect spot for more grown-up bath time essentials. {Click here to read all the details on how we created this bathtub storage using the Grundtal rail.}
Since the bathroom doesn't have a towel bar, the Grundtal rail provides the perfect spot to hang a towel by the tub. One Ikea Grundtal S-hook holds a loofah, while two more S-hooks hold a shallow basket from the Container Store, which provides ample space for a bar of soap, body wash and lotion.
Hanging above the tub is a vintage-style Greek island travel poster that I found online and had framed in a simple white frame. This poster adds a pop of blue in the room that ties to the blue accents in the adjoining bedroom.
I love the classic white subway tile in the shower, but adding a few teak accents (in the same color tone as the bamboo throughout the room) really makes the shower feel like part of the overall bathroom design. We hung a shower caddy, with teak shelves, from the shower head to provide a space for shampoos, soaps and body washes (which we have an abundance of in travel-sizes for the convenience of our guests - all collected from various hotels during our travels).
We wanted the guest bathroom to have a spa-like feel, and I think that the addition of the teak shower bench is one of the details that helped us achieve that goal. I was thrilled to find a shower bench from Home Decorator Collection that was exactly the right width to fit perfectly in the shower. The teak bench top an aluminum legs have held up great in the shower and still look like new.
At the far end of the bathroom is the water closet. A bamboo cabinet hung above the toilet holds extra guest towels.
Bamboo also manages to make even a garbage can and toilet brush holder appear stylish.
A photo gallery wall in the guest room displays our favorite photos from the island of Santorini, and in the water closet four more matching white frames display some of our favorite photos from the island of Mykonos.
Hanging these four photos from floor to ceiling makes full use of a narrow water closet wall, and the two lower photos are positioned perfectly at toilet-eye level. {turns out there is no really classy sounding way to talk about sitting on the toilet...}
I prefer to keep the door to the water closet open when it's not in use, but the door won't stay open on it's own. A couple of years back I found a large "wool pebble" from CB2 online and thought that it would make a perfect doorstop. When it arrived in the mail, I was disappointed to see that the shape of this "pebble" was very unnatural and it really doesn't look like a rock at all - more like a perfect cylinder. I would have shipped it back but for the fact that it does weigh as much as a large rock, so it wasn't worth the money to pay for return shipping.
Fortunately, even though it's shape is not what I had in mind, it's weight does serve the purpose of making an effective doorstop. I do, however, want to replace it at some point down the line, and I think this felt rock doorstop from Etsy will be much closer to what I originally had in mind.
Drawing upon the inspiration from Mykonos Grace Hotel, I think we managed to create a guest bathroom with a luxurious spa-like quality, but that functions just as well when it's bath time for our little boys.
There are still a few changes I'd like to make to this bathroom, including framing the large mirror and changing out the light fixture above the mirror, but those are projects for another day.
Looking for more creative ways to incorporate your wedding and honeymoon mementos into your home decor? Check out these links:
Labels: bathroom, bathtub, decorating, framed photos, Greece, guest room, honeymoon, inspiration, interior design, Mykonos, photography, Santorini, storage
