Thursday, July 08, 2004

A call for help from my readers

The bathroom re-do is almost complete:

• The painting and all subsequent touching up are finished. I hope. I may look for some funky gold and/or silver stenciling to decorate the tops of the walls, though, because they're looking rather plain. I just haven't decided if that's too gay. (I also have this weird decorating fantasy of stenciling all the Latin conjugations of "to wash" -- lavo, lavat, lavas, etc. -- around the wall above the shower. But I need to 1) make sure I have the conjugations right and 2) find a cool lettering stencil or 3) develop a steady hand and paint the words myself. So it will probably never happen.)

• Bob went with me to Expo Center on Tuesday after work to help pick out a shiny new faucet and space-agey new towel bars (one of which I had to exchange for a shorter one last night before rehearsal because apparently I suck at measuring). The towel bars are up and sporting towels already; the faucet will have to wait until this weekend when I have time to make the three trips to the hardware store that are required every time I replace plumbing.

• I bought new outlets and switches (to be installed this weekend when I have daylight to compensate for the power being off) and even a new doorstop (installed last night).

• I still can't find the right replacement bulbs for the vanity mirror. (Damn. Gotta keep shopping.)

• I also can't find a decent-looking metal soap holder to replace the worn-looking one installed in my shower wall. I may just try to polish it and keep the lights low to hide its abject shabbiness. But I bought new grout for it, and nothing spruces up a shabby shower like shiny new grout.

But here's where I need your help: On a recent episode of Queer Eye, Thom decorated a whole wall in someone's house with little three-ish-inch square blocks of wood that he put votives on. It looked totally cool, and I figured it would be a cinch to find those blocky little shelves in practically any store. I figured wrong. I can't find the fuckers anywhere. (Places I've looked so far: Crate & Barrel, Pier 1, Z Gallerie, Expo Center, Restoration Hardware, Bombay Company, Pottery Barn, Home Depot, and a range of google searches for every combination of the words shelf, small, square, votive, candle and curio that I can think of.)

So do you, dear readers, have any idea where to find them? I don't care if they're wood or metal or some wholly unnatural man-made material (I can always paint them). But my bathroom renovation will be incomplete and all my future bowel movements will be slightly unsatisfying if I don't have a wall of votives on little blocks of wood to stare at as I perch on the throne.

Please. I'm on my knees. (And while I'm down here, I see another little spot that needs more paint. Shit.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

www.westelm.com
Not sure exactly what size you're looking for (does size matter?) but West Elm has a selection of floating shelves in various shapes and sizes.

[ im'mature ] said...

While you're at it, Jake, why don't you get some devoted local readers to touch up the rest of your place *for* you - free labour, possible shag! Ingenious, no? ;o)

tim said...

Jake-da, why don't you just buy some wood, have it cut to the size that you want and super glue them to the wall? That way, you can even finish them in any type of stain/paint that you want. Use something flame-retardant to finish them. Since they are only holding votives they don't need to be super sturdy.

Anonymous said...

That Latin stenciling sounds great. My friend has some matte golden Finnish text along the top of the wall in one room of her house, and it looks fantastic.

-Plish