I’ve got tile on my mind.

I know, many people may have more pressing concerns—global climate change, the presidential elections, what to do on Saturday night. And it isn’t like tile has been on my mind long. I mean, this isn’t a life-long obsession.

Here’s what happened. I went to an Open House on Sunday. That was my first mistake. I’m perfectly happy with my apartment, and never want to leave it. In fact, I work at home as much as I possibly can so I don’t have to leave it. For one thing, I feel I’m getting more of my money’s worth the more minutes I’m here. I love my place, especially now that I’ve put some work into it and it’s really looking nice.

But the lure of the Open House remains. Does anyone remember the dark ages when, if you wanted to see what was for sale, you had to call the real estate agent and make an appointment? That was a bad time for people who just like to browse. Now, there are several Open Houses on any given Sunday, and you don’t have to prove you’re a serious buyer; you can just drop in and get some design ideas.

So that’s what I did this past Sunday. And that’s when Tile Mania hit.

There was one apartment that had a new kitchen and bath. This was in a building built in 1924. Sometimes, I’ve seen bath and kitchen updates in old buildings that are just hideous; thanks to an insistence on creating a modern look without acknowledging the overall look of the apartment.

And yet, one does want an updated kitchen and bath. For example, look at this terrific tiled bath:

And this one:

(I wish I’d brought my secret spy camera to the Open House, but these will have to do instead. You get the idea)

The owners of the place I saw managed to create a kitchen and bath that looked new and bright, and yet they fit in with the pre-war look of the apartment. The kitchen had tiny green tiles for the backsplash, and the bathroom had plain white tiles, similar to the original, only larger. The floor was tiled in simple, new, black and white.

So this is what I want to know. Why does my bathroom look so terrible? Here is the shower:

You may say this is a nice, old, pre-war look but I’m afraid it looks a little too prewar. But how much do those tiny tiles cost? In the world of luxury, I know that smaller means more expensive (think baby carrots versus regular grown-up carrots, or adorable little mini eye-shadows). Would I even have a chance of affording something this lovely?

This little girl has no idea how lucky she is to have such a stylish tub. Well, maybe I should just get some of those rubber duckies.

This post was written by the stylehound. This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.