TRADE SECRETS: THE BATH; A Designer Dips Into the Big Boxes
Want a bathroom that looks like a sauna? Try the tongue-and-groove cedar boards, $19.97 for 15 square feet. You could use the AstroTurf mats ($10) as bathmats. In lieu of solid doors, wood and glass French doors in a variety of sizes (30 inches wide by 78 inches tall, $139 apiece) would add light to the classic no-window New York bathroom. Install a sheer curtain for privacy.
Next stop: Ikea. The drive to the store in Elizabeth, N.J., was an easy one; on Saturdays and Sundays, there's a free round-trip shuttle bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal at Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street (information: 800 BUS-IKEA or 800-287-4532).
Ikea offers highly useful classics and interesting new designs. More than anything, this is the place to buy storage furniture. The Atran cabinets -- plain, metal rectangles with locks -- would make excellent medicine cabinets. In colors or shiny chrome, they are $24.95 each.
The painted wooden Lack shelf (43 inches long, $12.95) is thick and monolithic like a Donald Judd sculpture. It would be perfect over a toilet to hold towels. Or try the iMac-colored Prelat, a translucent plastic wall shelf roughly 17 inches high and 10 deep (about $25).
In a larger bathroom, I might install Akurum/Abstrakt kitchen cabinets for storage. They are trimmed in aluminum, have frosted-glass doors and are $249 for a unit 30 inches wide by 39 inches high. Ikea also has Grundtal kitchen pot racks ($19.95) that look exactly like those overhead train racks people have been using for towel racks for years.
In several places in the store I saw washable sheepskins ($19.95) that would make unusually soft bathmats. Rubber Dondal doormats ($10) in black with accents of blue, red, green or yellow would also be fun for the floor or the shower.
A few of the store's many lighting fixtures would do well in the bath. You could make a witty sconce out of a Luxo-type lamp with a chrome accordion wall bracket similar to a shaving mirror's (Semester, $9.95). I also admired the frosted-glass wall sconces -- the jujube-shaped Klys ($18.95) and Rolo-shaped Vakare ($22.95). They had clean lines and were not at all cheap-looking.
The Muck metal milk box, a faithful copy of the kind left outside for old-style milk delivery, would be great for hiding cleaning products ($24.95.)
Just as I got to the checkout I saw the collapsible translucent nylon Fyllen laundry basket, which opens and closes by means of a metal spiral clad in silver vinyl. I've seen similar, less stylish all-black numbers elsewhere for $50; the souped-up Ikea version is $14.95.
Home Depot Expo, the chain's higher-end branch, features entire room settings. It is a good place to look at stainless steel kitchen appliances, bath fixtures and finishes. I visited the store on 1250 Corporate Drive in Westbury, N.Y.; there's also one in Union, N.J.
The tile selection is comparable to what you might see in a showroom, at similar prices. The advantage here is that you can get the tile in 10 to 14 days, instead of waiting for up to two months at a showroom. And Expo is open seven days a week.
Suprema, a nice line of molded tiles with a handmade appearance, comes in attractive pastels and bolds for $10.90 a square foot, about $2 less than similar showroom products. Stone tiles are well priced, and there is a big selection. The marble options include cool gray-veined Carrara at $5.95 a square foot and the lesser-known golden-white Calacatta for $8.95 a square foot. Exotic stone items like mosaics and inlaid trims are also immediately available, but pricey. One limestone mosaic was $100 a square foot.
An interesting and surprisingly practical flooring option is Brazilian teak in three-inch-wide boards at a truly cheap $10 a square foot.
Home Depot Expo's monumental hall of toilets is almost forbiddingly comprehensive. The beautifully simple satin stainless Axor hardware is a welcome sight. The prize of Axor's offerings is a divinely simple shower mixing valve devoid of writing and plastic. It's no bargain at $383, but worth the price for what it doesn't have. There is also a deluxe 14-inch rain-shower head that looks great, as well it should, for $1,600.
Expo has a bargain area that includes plumbing fixtures. Sadly, the day I was there it was awash in sinks in Dumpster-ready shades of brown and kelly green -- not much of a deal at any price. But more pedestrian (and usable) white pieces turn up here, too.
Ikea and Home Depot offer more items, but Expo is a good place to look for that special premium touch to enliven a basic bath, especially if you don't want to wait for delivery.
Anyone who has to redo a bathroom today could pull it all together in several hours driving from one of these stores to the next -- and be happy with the results. Home Depot for the basics, Expo for luxe accents and Ikea for storage and accessories.
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