apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I like the blue in the lower half of the bathroom. Do you know what the paint color is?

I have a clock on the back of mine. It keeps me from spending too much time in the shower!

umm i have a vintage camera collection, there are four little 8 mm cameras that a bought off ebay because they were broken (no worring about the humidity) Maybe im totally off my rocker but i chuckle everytime i pee, because i like the tounge and cheek factor.

I don't know...I just always have a negative reaction when people put decoration on the back of the toilet. IMHO, the toilet is the one thing in the bathroom that should be minimized as much as possible, not shown off. I also heard that you should shut the toilet lid before you flush, because microscopic particles can be launched up to 20 feet from the toilet with each flush, which means all the tchockes on top of the toilet are covered in.....

a lovely white brain coral and an air plant. :)

Oh no-- projectile flushing!

I am so jealous...I have cats... =(

i think the first sentence in the post should have a period at the end of the sentence, not a comma.

A ceramic hippo with holes in its back (that I think is actually intended to be a toothbrush holder.)

And a little crystal elephant that I have there for some long-forgotten feng shui reason.

plants.

A basket of potpourri

A small bottle of Dawn liquid soap because my new Kohler toilet told me I couldn't clean it with anything other than mild soap, lest I void the warranty. No more bleach pucks in the tank for me. Rats.

Urban Outfitters has these:

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?itemdescription=true&itemCount=60&startValue=61&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=14841662&parentid=A_FURN_WALL&sortProperties= product.marketingPriority,-product.startDate&navCount=150&navAction=poppushpush&color=

I have a candle from Pottery Barn on mine and my bathroom smells AMAZING!

box of kleenex and a candle/matches in a pretty basket

I'm not so sure that this is an area that cries out for more than a candle and/or matches (but not in plain view, thanks.)

what kind of plants are those? i cant seem to find any plants that don't need light and i dont have a window in my bathroom. any suggestions?

The matches make me gag. If you don't have a fan, get some air freshener. Matches just make an odor problem worse.

Amiencc,I totally agree with every single word you said .When it comes to the toilet less is more, except when it comes to cleaning.

I have an urban non-tank toilet, so -- nothing. I also don't have an installed fan, so I brought in a fan, and now I have a fan, and a window actually. I wouldn't put matchbooks on display, that's weird. I can't believe you haven't fixed the handle yet and still using that pull you rigged up several months ago. The microscopic shit particles was a myth, I thought, it just turns out people don't think they needed to wash their hands. Plants are ok.

I agree with the poster above in not drawing attention to things like toilets (and litterboxes and wastebaskets, etc). They're there, people take craps, crap smells, here's some matches so you know we know you're taking a crap in here. Don't be shy, just light a match. It's like that nightmare of clogging someone's toilet and not knowing what else to do since the plunger's not evident, or running out of toilet paper, which no host should allow. Here, we've taken care of your modesty needs in a blatantly unmodest way. Jeez, at least put some pretty matchboxes or something. This is like handing out Imodiums in a candy dish before the party starts. We've provided means to prevent you from embarrassing yourself in our terlet tonite, ENJOY! I prefer the nondescript option rather than making a spectacle of bodily functions and other unwanted stuff like garbage. In my opinion, human necessities as such should be obvious (not hidden behind anything stupid like a bookcase), but not prominent to the point of hiding things in plain sight by making them exceptionally gorgeous and unmissable, fun focal points of the room... please just don't. But a little shelf space on top of the tank for some plants or potpourri or seashells is appropriate and nondescript.

I have a small seated buddha with a small platform in front. I think it was originally supposed to hold a tea light, but I put a tile in the space and an incense burner. Next to the buddha is the kleenex. My main bathroom is ultra small, so I really need that space on top of the toliet - the kleenex won't fit anywhere else easily accessible.

Right now, I have a Buddha tealight holder on mine and a plant...but I love the bowl of matches idea.

I have a reed diffuser shaped like a giant orange gummi bear on my tank. It's AWESOME. And it smells nice.

I guess BUDDHA'S are the in thing for bathrooms.

A couple months ago the knob broke off of the door to my half bath, locking me inside the bathroom for over an hour. There was nothing in the bathroom except for a painting, towel, and a soap dispenser. I did end up escaping (that is a whole other story on how I escaped) but the first thing I did was take a small little plant and stick it on top of the tank. The bathroom needed something.

like many previous posters, i don't get the whole "matches" thing. the matches don't really do that good of a job of masking the stinky smell, so i would seriously rather smell the stinky than the stinky and match smell all rolled into one. yuck yuck yuck!

my bathroom is pretty small and has very little storage so i built a shelf over the toilet tank (which is adjacent to the sink) and i keep a couple of baskets on the shelf w/ some bathroom basics like cotton balls and cosmetics in them.

I used to have a box of kleenex, but I have room for it by the sink now that I moved.

I would never leave anything breakable on the back of the toilet. There have been several times when I had to quickly whip off the top so that I could stop the toilet from overflowing. Anything on the top would probably have gotten broken in the rush.

love the matches.

I have a box of kleenex, a framed photograph of an Austrian garden I took a few years ago and a piece of pottery. The toilet/unit I have above it are the first thing you see when you enter my small bathroom, so it needs some dressing up.

A toilet is not a place where I want to see decorations.

caart3, those plants are a maidenhair fern and an out-of-bloom orchid of some type.

As for decorating the toilet, well, currently there is stuff on the back of ours because our bathroom is microscopic and we need the space, but in generally, like amiencc, I'm against it. The stuff we do have now... a peace lily, which is flourishing in our steamy, sunny bathroom, and two covered milk-glass dishes holding cotton balls and feminine necessities. I figure at least they're covered and so hopefully somewhat less germy.

I do think it's the perfect place for plants... plants do so well in bathrooms and make them look so much more inviting, and who cares if they have germy leaves.. most people don't spend much time touching their plants. As opposed to matches, etc.

We love decorating underappreciated rooms in our house, so we really had fun with our bathroom. Here's a picture of the toilet:
http://flickr.com/photos/rhiannononon/2931672713/

You can't see the hanging baskets (facing the toilet, when the door's closed) filled with squirt guns, extra incense, and other Octopi, nor can you clearly see the "Ecosystems of a River" poster there on the wall. There's art on the other wall, too, of a bathroom sink (since we don't have a sink in our bathroom, it's in the next room).