Monday, May 25, 2009

Casa Gutierrez in El Salvador by P&P Architects








Specially designed for a recently married young couple in El Salvador, Casa Gutierrez has the exquisite feel of a contemporary home with traditional spaces. Designed by P&P Architects, there’s a Salvadoran kitchen, a large living room with floor to ceiling glass windows and a small terrace in the front that gives the feeling of living outdoors. Promoting natural light during the day and turning into a gorgeous lit home at night, it’s perfect both for a family or a young bachelor. Another party-perfect home?

Contemporary Vanities - Solace Bathroom Vanity

Installing a modern bathroom vanity is a great way to remodel your bathroom, or resuscitate a boring bathroom design. Many contemporary vanities, much unlike their traditional counterparts, feature a minimalist (“bare bones”) aesthetic that is often quite striking in its simplicity and beauty. Of course, some of these vanities just end up looking trashy. Today, some of the most popular and common vanities are manufactured with steel or chrome and glass. Again, this is a nod to minimalist art, and the philosophy that sometimes less is more. Which brings us to the 35” Solace Bathroom Vanity. Like many modern vanities, the Solace is wall-mounted. The solace features sturdy chrome construction and, as with most modern vanities, features a very sparse look. But just because it is simple, do not assume that it is unattractive. In fact, the simplicity of the Solace’s design is one of its more endearing qualities.

The countertop is glass, and it supports a glass countertop vessel sink and a towel rack. The glass is available in four colors: amber, blue, frosted (a sort of light blue), and grey. The Solace has one shelf beneath the countertop for storage, so if you are a serious organizer by nature, this may not be the vanity for you. The shelf should give you plenty of room to organize your toiletries and hygienic products, but the fact that these are clearly visible (as the Solace does not have cabinet doors) may be a bit deterring for some designers and homeowners. The shelf is approximately 30” wide, as opposed to the countertop which is 35” wide. The entire vanity stands at about 20” in height, though this may change depending on the faucet you choose to install. It should be noted that the Solace and the faucet are sold separately, which is an important budget consideration. The Solace is a relatively affordable vanity though, with a price tag of about $650 and you can get it from here.

Overall, the Solace is a very charming contemporary vanity at a very reasonable price. It won’t be worth your time if you have a lot of bathroom stuff to organize, nor will it serve you particularly well if the bathroom sees a lot of traffic everyday from multiple users (look into a double bathroom vanity for that). But for a simple and endearing bathroom vanity that fits nicely into bathrooms of any size, consider the Solace a very good option.