I totally understand you. My beds are so small right now. This is our first house and a new one at that with no flowers to speak of except azaleas and 2 willow oaks that the builder planted. I have a large blank slate but lots of clay that has to be amended and limited budget. Though I do get frustrated at times because I want it all now, still I love watching it grow steadily along and during the year I added to the plants I was able to bring with me and now this year as well (when I could). We have also had other projects to do. We just can't do everything as fast as we like sometimes. It will all come together in time and look at it this way you can plan out and research the plants and planting ideas you have in mind. For now yes, annuals are a great way to add some color in my mean time. Have fun! Meghan

Here's your inspiration photo: What about white tile with gray grout? Especially if you're using gray and black tiles with it.

i had two niches placed in our shower... one is in full view across from the door centered on the wall with 2 shelves and i try to keep it alittle 'nicer' looking with my bottle selections...(though, i don't worry about it too much since it's just us in there! if giving a grand tour of our bathroom, i would rearrange!) the 2nd niche is in the knee wall and i love it! our shower is long enough(5ft) that it doesn't get a direct full spray and it does keep some of the full array of products from full view!(otherwise there would be overflow on the bench) i also like propping my foot on the edge to shave my legs...perfect ht. not inconvenient at all.

Ok, Steph, which bathroom or which sink? I intended to install the Cheviot Nova (the one with the side apron big enough to set things on) in the tiny bath with the shower. However, the first contractor (or friend and neighbor) decided to reduce the width of the already-small space by another 10 inches to avoid changing the closet of the front bedroom. He chose to do this while I was out shopping, did not discuss it with me. So then I had to scurry around and find another much smaller sink, which turned out to be the Porcher Elfe. Truly it is the tiniest sink in the tiniest bathroom ever. The sink and the toilet are different manufacturers, but they are the same color. The very soft Behr Lilting Laughter paint on the wall may give a softer tone to the toilet. The toilet in the tiny bath is the American Standard One Piece Compact Cadet 3 which flushes with 1.2 gallons of water. It is a fantastic little toilet. Takes up only a small amount of space in all directions. I bought the soft close lid for it. And it is very dependable about flushing in one try. I can imagine that it would work placed in a corner on the diagonal, because the tank is built onto the base. I had planned to install the new toilet in the master bath, or else buy a Toto with washlet for the master. However, the plumber said he'd rebuilt the OLD American Standard toilet and it worked like a charm, so I did not have to spend the money for a new john. And the plumber also had a Toto washlet still in the box that he would sell to me. I bought it from him and now it is hooked up and operating nicely. The washlet is the Zoe model which is discontinued, but it works nice, even warms the water before it sprays/washes your rear end. I was using it already, but connected it to an extension cord since the electrical was not finished in the master bath until Friday. In the tiny bath, I put in beadboard wainscoting and made the shower unglazed porcelain big tiles, with the 1/2 inch porcelain mosaic for the shower stall floor. I used the big porcelain tiles in the same color as the shower walls on the floor of the rest of the bath. I think there was ONE full tile in the whole floor! The color is the Roman Salmon which we used on the sun porch and loved because it is a soft faded terra cotta, very Italian in feel. I painted the wall and ceiling of the tiny bath the Behr LILTING LAUGHTER, which is a soft soft color that reads just a shade of white but is great for skin tones. It is one of myy favorite paint colors. I bought that lovely oval mirror at a local glass and mirror store, 50% off, and it was the bronze look with hints of gold showing through. I tried to get everything in there an oil rubbed bronze, but the faucet, mirror, sconce, and towel hooks are as far as I could get with bronze. The shower is like stainless color, the toilet flusher is polished chrome. I learned my lesson in that bathroom, because I do not obsess over getting everything to match. In the master bath, I said, POLISHED CHROME IT WILL BE. Now the master bath is ready for floors and paint. When the first contractor/friend disappeared, he'd installed the Cheviot Nova sink and the old toilet, and put in a strip of beadboard wainscoting behind the sink, and dry wall on the wall shared with the other bath. There was a big hole in the floor where the original toilet sat, and which the plumber used to gain access to the plumbing under the house. But he had not taken out the old sink pipes, next to the old toilet. Before they left forever never to return, they did put a piece of plywood over that huge hole, and another piece of plywood over the sub floor so the a/c would function partly anyway. The electrician had pulled wires to a couple of boxes and switches, but none were marked and none were connected. (The NEW electrician found one that was LIVE so it was a blessing I did not touch it.) Then enter the new contractor who is like a knight on a white horse in my book. Thank HEAVEN. My dear friends who own several rental houses had recommended another man who did whole-house construction new, and he was busy and he said he recommended DeMouy. I called him, and he was between big jobs, with another one starting in a week. He came, he saw, he called me back with the estimate, and I knew before he said a word that I would accept the price. Our closet and tub bumpout involved foundation work, roofline changes, roofing, framing, exterior material installation to match the existing stucco, building Lexan windows, installing one special window, and then the plumber for the tub and the carpenter for the beadboard walls and door frames and window sills. It was a fiddling involved piece of work. Now with all that extra time for me to think, I did make a few changes in the plan. We decided to go ahead with bumping out for the closet over there, since DH did not want to make changes elsewhere in the house. And if we had to raise the roofline to get headroom in the tub alcove, we might as well do that whole side of the house at the same time...otherwise it would look funny. And when it came time to pour the foundation, he had to go almost an extra foot further, and that gave me more room for space around the tub. In digging for the foundation, they ran across the existing sewer line and broke a part of that which was the old tile...but it already had been busted and someone had just laid some sheet lead over the hole. DeMouy came over on a Saturday and personally replaced the old sewer line with the PVC pipe. I take my hat off to him for doing this personally on his day off. NOT a pleasant job! I forget how many different subcontractors or crews came to work here. I don't think I met the roofers. I met the plumber. I met the electrician. I met the carpenters. I met the stucco guys. Oh, and I met the diggers for the foundation, because they hauled the dirt back to my "back forty".... Steph, if your DBF is able to do all this, you won't have many people come to your place. Just the ones you already know. The carpenter went shopping for the wall board, and instead of putting drywall in the closet as I'd expected, he got all beadboard for the walls and ceiling of both spaces. I'm not hard to get along with at all, and I very philosophically estimated that it was "meant to be." So I said why not. The board cost more than the drywall, to buy and to install, but it meant we did not have to call a dry wall guy and I did not have to worry about taping stuff. And now I know what it will look like to have the whole space with beadboard! I still have to do some filling and smoothing of the wood, and DH has to do the tile floors of both spaces, but that will happen soon enough. I never considered a vessel sink. I used the Cheviot Nova sink in the master because I had it. Now we have more space in the master bath than I've ever had in any bathroom in my LIFE, and I could have gotten a vanity sink. I think maybe an undermount would be nice. Smooth surface easy to clean around is my thinking. DH is such a slob when he uses the sink, water everywhere, so I knew a vessel would look awful. It might even be grounds for mayhem. Also, vessels are such a matter of personal taste, that I was not sure I knew which one I'd love the most. And I'd probably want to change it out for another sooner than later. Of course, it would be easier to do that with vessels than with sinks requiring special shaped/sized holes. In your case Steph, I would find a piece of furniture you already own and install the sink. If you need a new top to set the sink on, get a piece of marble or any other stone you like, even doing some mosaic under it, and by George, I think you'd have a winner. Since I have more space now than I thought, I'm building two storage towers out of bifold shutter closet panels/doors and a 12" wide pine boardfor the back. Along with a special wall cab over the toilet in that indented wall space, I should have LOTS of storage space. Plus I've ordered from the unfinished furniture store 2 72" tall x 24" wide x 8" deep pine shelving units to attach to the walls in the hall outside the other tiny bath. I will cover those with pairs of bifold shutter doors too, and they will be quite full of medical/beauty/cleaning products. Every little inch can be used when necessary. Hope I answered your question. If not, ask away. Cheviot Nova from VintageTub.com