Guest Blogger: Lisa of Lisa Mende Design

Thank you, Erin, for having me as a guest blogger while you are on vacation with your family. House of Turquoise is one of the first blogs I started following and still love reading it daily. Turquoise is my favorite color so naturally I look for every opportunity to use it in my home and my clients homes. Recently, I was honored to be asked to design a bathroom for American Standard’s luxury line, DXV. I am excited to share that project with your readers today.

First, let me tell you a little about DXV, in case you aren’t familiar with the brand. As Amercian Standard Brand entered its fifteenth decade of business, it launched DXV by American Standard, which is a flagship portfolio of luxury bath and kitchen products. It was the company’s way of celebrating its 140-year heritage. The concept was to take the most influential design movements and re-imagine them with collections representing Classic, Golden, Modern and Contemporary eras.DXV fixtures and fittings do not merely reproduce styles from each era; rather they are inspired by historically significant designs, reinterpreting them in light of today’s aesthetic and performance demands. Each of the DXV movements includes one or two bath-fixture suites and complementary faucet collections. The portfolio also includes a collection of kitchen sinks and fittings, as well as the AT Series, a state-of-the-art smart toilet and bidet seat that perform as superbly as they look. DXV products are available exclusively through luxury showrooms.

Last year the DXV products debuted in New York City with a grand unveiling of bathrooms and a kitchen designed by professional designers from the US and Canada. It was an exciting top secret project that culminated with the debut of the panel member’s beautiful designs in New York City. I am honored to be a member of this year’s DXV’s 2015 Design Panel. Meet the other talented designers chosen for the 2015 panel here. As a designer on the panel, I was asked to reinvent a classic piece of literature into a modern day bathroom using the DXV product lines.

The object was to tell my story using DXV products while using a classic novel as my muse. I chose Breakfast at Tiffanys by Truman Capote; because it is one of my all-time favorite movies and because the leading lady in the book, Holly Golightly is a southerner like myself. Did you know that Holly Golightly was born Lula Mae Barnes and hailed from a small town in Texas?

Once I had the book in mind, next came the job of designing the space. Again, I took inspiration from the movie main character. In the opening scene, Holly Golightly is peering into the window of Tiffany’s as if she were dreaming of owning a lovely piece of jewelry from the iconic store. I wanted a voyeur type shot to mimic that scene. The photo above serves as an analogy for Holly longing for a life of luxury and jewels. Don’t you long to soak in the beautiful tub when peering through those beautiful Tiffany blue Metrie doors in a room flooded with natural light? The DXV St George tub was the first item I chose for the space. I could picture Holly Golightly luxuriating in that tub after a night out socializing on the town. In the book, Holly’s only job trying to capture a husband who could afford her dreams of a lavish lifestyle. She spent late nights on the town socializing, so relaxing was important to Holly’s routine.

“My design is a nod to mid-century chic with the furnishings and lighting. I then combined those elements with classic, high-society elements. I’m wanted a unique, eclectic mode: chic and sophisticated, but with a little whimsy mixed in, reminiscent of Holly Golightly herself.”

Holly’s spartanly furnished New York brownstone inspired me to keep things simple. I decided to make the walls white brick and the floors gray chevron rough-hewn wood. If you look back at the movie her furnishing consisted of a bathtub cut in half and made into a sofa and zebra skin rug. I didn’t have the heart to saw one of DXV’s gorgeous tub in half, so I chose to use a GreenHides zebra stamped cowhide on the front of the Vanities. The zebra hide is the perfect inspiration for Holly since she was a wild little minx and enjoyed a good party. I wanted the set to be mod and a little glam, so white lacquered cabinets with a champagne finished hardware seemed the perfect choice to create that vibe. I discovered the Modern Danish chairs on eBay, which were purchased and sent to an upholsterer and recovered in Tiffany blue ultra suede. I love the dressmaker details on the chairs that were a nod to Holly’s feminine side. The scalloped apron with covered buttons and the long diamond trapunto design on the back fo the chairs, as well as the tall, graceful lines, seemed to represent Holly’s graceful nature. I also chose to mix the metals in the room as a nod to jewelry for the room much like Tiffany’s offers many finishes of jewelry in their store.

The DXV products were important to the design of my bathroom. I chose the products first and designed the room around them because I wanted the beautiful DXV products to be the stars of the room. I chose the beautiful vessel faucet from the Rem Collection because of its sculptural, design. It commands attention over the sink and draws the eye down to the sink.

I chose the square vessel sink from the Pop Collection because of its sleek design. The juxtaposition of the smooth lines of the sink against the rough brick walls and white lacquered cabinets provide the perfect tension for the space.

The floor mounted tub filler from the Landfair Collection adds classic, refined elegance and works perfectly with the sculptural St George tub. Isn’t it a beauty? Don’t you love the bubbles in the tub and the Pelle’ chandelier over the tub both giving a nod to the champagne bubbles Holly so adored?

To achieve the look I was trying to create for the space, I chose Balmoral Classic silver leaf finished mirrors from Michael Smith Collection from Mirror Image and the Mira Sconces in gold from Cedar & Moss.

I also chose the Lola table from Emporium Home with quartz details as a compliment to the tub and the furry sheepskin pouf from Modnev here in Charlotte to add softness to the space. The tub is filled with glass bubbles, and the bubbles are repeated in the lovely Pelle Chandelier hanging above the tub in salute to Holly Golightly’s love of champagne.

And yes, that is a real cat! He is an actor cat and comes with his handler. His name is Cooper, and he is exactly like the cat in the movie that Holly called simply “cat”.

The beautiful doors are from the Fashion Forward Collection from Metrie and the hardware is brass doorknockers I found online. The Tiffany Blue color is a trademark color, so I had to custom mix my own.

I hope you have enjoyed finding out more about my bathroom design for DXV. Please visit DXV to see all the beautiful designer product lines. I love this company and plan to incorporate DXV in many upcoming projects.

Please take a few minutes and visit DXV to see the other designer’s projects! Each designer’s interpretation of their classic novel is amazing!.

Thank you, Erin, for allowing me to guest post today! I invite your readers to visit my blog Lisa Mende Design and to follow me on instagram to get a view of my current work, as well as Pinterest to see what inspires me and twitter to have a conversation!

Love turquoise? Visit my shopping blog Everything Turquoise…updated several times throughout the day! Check out Decor by Color for even more color-themed shopping!