Today we caused a bit of controversy! Not one, but two of our projects were posted on Apartment Therapy today. I had submitted our little chair makeover to the folks at Ohdeedoh, thinking they may want to share it with their readers. And they did! You can see that post here. Well, the writer poked around our blog and liked our renovations so she did this post on our bathroom on the Apartment Therapy main site, as part of their bathroom month series.
And what a response it received -- to the tune of 62 people (so far) chiming in - to say how much they hate our bathroom renovation!! Okay - I exaggerate, only 90% actually hate it :) I'll admit, when you have that many people telling you they don't like what you've done, lots of thoughts run through your head... shock, anger, defensiveness, sadness, curiousity, incredulity, and ambivalence were just a few.
But now that I've had a few hours to absorb those comments, I can be a bit more objective about things. I get that our projects are rather atypical of the Apartment Therapy aesthetic. We're much more traditional and conservative in our tastes and our home reflects that. I can see how people would think our monochromatic bathroom boring. Or how they would think the hand-painted mural was lovely - without knowing it covered all four walls and ceiling and made the 5'x8' bathroom feel claustrophobic. I can even understand their appall at how we removed the jacuzzi tub and pedestal sink even though these things didn't fit our family's needs (functionally or aesthetically).
At first, I thought I would respond on the AT site and clear up misconceptions and provide more information about why we did the things we did... but then I thought, "Why do I care?" The folks who left comments likely have tastes far different from mine and there is nothing I could say to convince them that yes, we made the best decisions possible, that we considered all the alternatives, that in context of our neighbourhood/house style/lifestyle/personal needs our choices were sound, that our sweat and effort was worth it.
For those of you that did land here via Apartment Therapy - Welcome! Please poke around. I hope you stay awhile. And for those who only peeked in the door and decided this place was not for them, I hope you have your own happy place to go home to. We're crafting these rooms into a home that suits us, no matter what others may say - and as homeowners, shouldn't that all be our goal?