my home in trieste, FGV italy - chapter 1, bagno
my own hard work began after we arrived back 3 weeks ago. my architect friend michele always told me that my bathroom design was "too white". and i always told him not to worry, just "wait and see"! the paint and wall paper was brought from the US (we had 7 pieces of checked luggage! ??) it was not an easy job to make sure the grays go with the "aluminum" in my tiles, and the pattern complement both the floor tiles and subways tiles with grey grout - i wanted character but not business! since i was not able to see the space in person, i could only rely on photos michele took. and i know photos can be tricky and every single gray has an undertone! i ordered no fewer than 8 different rolls of wallpaper, and finally landed on this one!
toilet in. at this point, contractor's work was pretty much done. we also changed the awkward regular door which could be half open because of the original toilet placement to a nice pocket door from Zanutta (where we got all our doors) and i absolutely love my toilet - it takes up such small floor space and looks so chic against the tiled wall, now i think of what we have as standard in the US, i consider it (the toilet with a big water tank in the back) backward.
my generously proportioned and gorgeous shaped vessel sink is in. we could not find any piano that is perfectly sized for the quirky window niche when we were here last october. the live edge piano was made of reclaimed cypress by our local artist Don in Dunedin. we brought it with us when we came back to trieste in november 2021 to close on the house and start the reno. it is such a statement piece.
tiling: for all my homes, i always used the same b&w diamond marble mosaic tiles for bath floor for its timeless classic look. alas, we could it find any marble mosaic tiles in whole trieste and we had to buy all the material needed for the bath before our return to FL on xmas day. so i used the closest thing i could find. and no one i came cross had heard of "curb" for the shower. most triestini use prefab shower tray for their reno to save money even if the space available is bigger than the off the shelf shower tray. so my GC almost never had to lay mosaics tiles for shower let alone building a curb! took many photos from HOUZZ to make myself understood what a "curb" looks like and how to lay tiles all the way to the ceiling for the entire enclosure but only to 1.2 meter high outside the enclosure!
more example of dinginess and hand scratching layout. many toilets are like this - 45 degree to the wall, and even many more were set on top of a platform in tiny floor space. we always call it a "death trap". at least this one is on the same level of floor and the bathtub is between two walls! so we did not have to move the plumbing too much.
both piano (platforms) were custom hand crafted by Don. it provides just as much storage space as a traditional vanity. of course because everything can be "seen", one does need to be neat and tidy all the time. which is not a problem to my husband and myself!
Q