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It is not actual water overflowing but the splashes of water that come out when you are in the bathtub belting out an song while moving your arms and legs. There is no extra side layer or curtain to prevent the spills over the side of the tub. And when you step out of the tub into that puddle......
Oh my goodness, how did people bathe in tubs for 100s of years and not be traumatized by puddles?
Honestly, I think your worry about bathtubs is pretty minor. In the old days, when I was much younger, we put a towel on the floor by the tub. For decades now, there have been rugs for bathrooms.
If people like to bathe in tubs, I see nothing wrong with it. I don't think most people do that these days, but maybe I'm wrong.
I have a pedestal sink in our powder room, and I love it. It a really nice porcelain one. And it's just a powder room. All of the bedrooms have full baths, so this is really just for people to use the toilet and wash hands. It's not a big room, so it works perfectly. I would hate to have a pedestal sink in a bathroom I actually had to brush teeth, dry hair, etc. in. And add me to the list of people who hate vessel sinks.
I also hate the new tile wood floors. Generally, I hate tile in any room that doesn't get wet, so basically anything other than a bathroom, kitchen, laundry or mud room. I've seen wood tile that looks great, but it's going to be look dated eventually, probably sooner rather than later. And ripping tile up is a huge pain. Just get wood floors.
Also not a fan of laminate wood floors. Basically, I just don't like fake stuff. If you want wood, then just get wood. Don't get fake wood.
I think the lamp vs. overhead light thing is funny. I personally HATE lamps. It's not enough light! I love bright rooms, and a lamp isn't going to cut it.
I also don't like gold fixtures, even the new, modern ones.
I like the gray trend. Much better than the old, everything is brown trend. I remember when the whole "Mediterranean" style was the thing. I never really liked it. But a lot of home builders here took it and ran. Paint is easy to change, but walls full of ugly brown rock are not.
Ha, and I am the opposite. I really dislike bright overhead lights. I had to have dimmers put on everything in the kitchen area, hallway and bathrooms and use lamps for softer, warmer light everywhere else.
The TV issue is very tricky. I don't look down my nose at my friends' homes and think 'gross, the TV is the focal point of their house/living room', but at the same time if I am asked to design a space, I do what I can to minimize the passive presence of the TV. And for my personal dwelling, I always ensure I can have a living room layout where the TV is not the focal point of the room when you enter the space. Otherwise, this is often a dealbreaker for me.
Now, hear me out. This is DIFFERENT than the TV being in some centrally located, easily view-able spot. Yes, the TV needs to be in an easy to see spot, at eye level (never above a fireplace or anywhere near that height) and central from any main seating in the living area. But, that does not also mean it has to be the focal point of the room as soon as you enter the space. That is what I dislike (personally): the feeling that the entire room was built around the TV. That is the key difference. I will also note that that is probably because we do not watch a lot of TV. We read, play music, host house parties, host game nights, etc. much more than watch TV. So, to me, I don't like centering our open living room around something we use a handful of hours a week.
I'll post a couple pictures below to illustrate (ignore the fact that I still have temporary art up on the back wall - I am working on a feature / focal piece to hang there but did not want it to be empty for now). In any of my own dwellings, I like a layout that does not draw attention to the TV when you are in the space, but still has the TV in a comfortable viewing spot from the seating area when we do want to watch TV. In our current house, I did this by making sure the TV is hardly viewable when you first walk into the space. It is on the side wall and is semi-shrouded by my favorite vintage lamp and also allows my vintage furniture and art to hopefully draw your attention first. But then, by the last picture, you'll see that if you are actually on the sectional itself, the TV is very comfortably viewable. But, even then, I offset the TV and surrounded it by other objects so as to not let it feel like the room is centered around the TV.
I have a clawfoot tub that I turned into a garden tub, next to the shower. My wife loves the tub as she fits in it perfectly. It was missing a foot, so we refinished it and dropped it into the surround I made. The shower is 4x8 so there's lots of room.
I’m glad I waited a few months before diving into this thread. Entertaining and mostly fun banter- I surmise most of us have elements to our home’s interior design that others would find inappropriate at best or appalling at worst.
We probably have too many paintings (almost all original pieces) that cover most of the walls in the living room and dining room- even some mounted too high as an “art wall”, WAY too many books - I’m an architect and that’s just something that goes with the territory- 90% are architecture books and just an overall bit of clutter with pieces we’ve acquired through the years and we have a themed “boat room” set up as a ships cabin with built-in cherrywood furnishings: captain’s bed, bench, side table, desk and bookcase and sailcloth closet with whimsical nautical themed art pieces on all walls and ceiling- but I like to say you are allowed ONE themed room but no more haha! Those of us with vintage houses and the architectural detail that goes with them, ours is 94 y.o., that have some good bones and architecture can have a little more funky fun with them.
For us it is not just adequate, every night we are in our living room for happy hour, music and cocktails and absolutely revel in its comfortable artistic presence and I take a tour of every room in our house every night- and the garden terraces and the immediate cul-de-sac of all the other architectural gems. If you love your space and house you’ve decorated it just fine!
Regardless, to me there are somewhat inappropriate, not to the house’s original architectural style (the architect in me cringes at built-up moldings cherry wood cabinetry in a MCM) or more likely just not to my taste but as long as I see some thoughtfulness into a design aesthetic- even if it is not to mine- I like the effort and one’s personality coming through! Design that looks like the residents just gave up or went went the easiest, most inoffensive look to me says something to their emotional investment to their living space or lack there of.
Great light, a few quality pieces of comfortable and welcoming furniture, some purely decorative -hopefully with some familial or fun acquisition story connection, some books and original art and you are 80% there in my book.
Ah, my pet peeve has come towards the end of the discussion.
We saw one of those million dollar house of a good friend. They had a decent shower and a small toilet but the main feature of their humongous master bathroom was this free standing bath tub that looked like a display at the Museum of Modern Art. I could imagine a young queen victoria lying in the tub and hot water being filled by her ladies in waiting.
This was an useless decoration piece. They had never used it since the house was built and it occupied valuable space. Instead they could have built two showers that could have been used simultaneously by the working couple who both needed to get ready at the same time in the mornings.
OMG, this can only be written by someone who never experienced the joy of being able to lie back in a tub with your head bent back over the rim of an old fashioned bathtub, instead of having your head bent back over your chest because the tub had a 90 degree angle to the shower wall.
Why on earth would anyone need two showers? How sad that a working couple wouldn't want to take a shower together. Yeesh. Why even live together?
Now, if the feature old-fashioned tub was the perfect tub, it would have the faucet in the middle of the tub on one side, so that neither of the two people who could lie in it together - would have to have the faucet digging into their neck.
Then, they could light some candles, get some bubble bath, ditch the cell phones, put on some music, and actually enjoy each other's company.
Hence, the opposite of wasted space. I highly suggest you suggest to your friends that they should start using their tub. Maybe buy them some nice bubble bath and some fragrant candles.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned yet, but I hate when a builder puts sliding doors in a dining area. In order to go through the door you must navigate around a table. For that matter, I don’t like anything in the way of sensible traffic patterns.
This seems to be common in newer homes, when they try to squeeze a bunch of features that would fit in a big house, into a small house.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned yet, but I hate when a builder puts sliding doors in a dining area. In order to go through the door you must navigate around a table. For that matter, I don’t like anything in the way of sensible traffic patterns.
This seems to be common in newer homes, when they try to squeeze a bunch of features that would fit in a big house, into a small house.
This would be my absolute biggest pet peeve - impaired traffic patterns.
We probably have too many paintings (almost all original pieces) that cover most of the walls in the living room and dining room- even some mounted too high as an “art wall”, WAY too many books - I’m an architect and that’s just something that goes with the territory- 90% are architecture books and just an overall bit of clutter with pieces we’ve acquired through the years and we have a themed “boat room” set up as a ships cabin with built-in cherrywood furnishings: captain’s bed, bench, side table, desk and bookcase and sailcloth closet with whimsical nautical themed art pieces on all walls and ceiling- but I like to say you are allowed ONE themed room but no more haha! Those of us with vintage houses and the architectural detail that goes with them, ours is 94 y.o., that have some good bones and architecture can have a little more funky fun with them.
As I posted before, my solution was a free clawfoot tub (missing one foot) dropped into a garden tub type enclosure next to the 4x8 shower: //www.city-data.com/forum/56786512-post269.html No need for steps as you step out of the tub easily into the shower area.
The overflow drain is low enough that water doesn't splash out of it, and even if it did, it'd just be IN the shower. The 4x8 shower is large enough that my wife and I have showered together without getting in each other's way, lol. And the tub fits her perfectly when she wants to have a hot bath but doesn't want to go out to the hot tub outside (like if it's raining or snowing). I built all of it back in 2007 and I think it looks good and it actually works quite well for us. Haven't found it to be hazardous at all.
this is lovely AND functional! This is what I want when we buy a house. I'd always thought I wanted a clawfoot tub until I read all of the accidents people have getting in and out. What ends up happening is nobody uses the tub so it just looks pretty.
And I realized that clawfoot stand alone tubs are really the pedestal sinks of the bathtub world. Where do you put anything? You have to get a shelf that lays across the tub.
I'm not a pedestal sink hater by the way. They just are useless in anything but a small guest bathroom. So really the stand alone tub is worse. Very pretty but not practical.
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