She's Got a Brick House!

My friend Kelly has a fabulous row house in DC that she's been slowly restoring for a few years now.  She has picked some beautiful paint colors, has done a great job editing the kitchen, has some beautiful, classic furnishings, and now has a timeless new powder room.  I visited her this summer and loved the house and what she's done with it, but I got the sense Kelly was looking to push herself a little further with her decor.  She's yearning for just a touch of an eclectic spirit to layer on top of her classic taste.  This is exciting for me to hear, but I have to confess that I am hitting a brick wall-- so to speak-- trying to help Kelly release her inner artist.

Kelly fully admits to being a catalog girl. She's often tempted to rip out an entire page and smatter her living room with everything in it. But she says she's ready to stray-- to get a little crazy. I'm learning to be patient with Kelly because we can't go too far. When I bring up things like "distressed metal," "driftwood," or "flea market" Kelly usually says something like, "I know you want me to buy one of those crazy mirrors, but I found this one instead..." It cracks me up-- as if my decorating suggestions are so wild!

I have made progress though. I nearly jumped out of my chair when I read a recent e-mail from Kelly asking what I thought about exposing some of the brick in her house! I was ecstatic! I used to dream of opening up walls in my house and finding brick, as long as it wasn't the foundation. Apparently, in DC there's brick everywhere behind the walls and Kelly is ready to (gasp) unearth it.


I have been saving photos of cool exposed brick and e-mailed them to Kelly immediately, hoping these fabulous interiors would inspire her cause.  I just love everything about brick-- it's warm and cozy, has so much texture, is timeless, and character drenched. What more could you ask for?

                                              

From: www.architecture-view.com, this 600sf East Village apartment (of course it's that small) explodes with that amazing wall of brick. I wanted the feeling of old brick somewhere in my house when we were remodeling, but only found the perfect solution after the work was complete.

Source:  Apartment Therapy

Source:  House Beautiful

Even before I hunted these images down online, I knew I wanted brick in my home. A week after we finished the installation of our master bath I received an e-mail from Waterworks announcing the launch of their new Henry & Grove Brickworks line. I couldn't believe what I saw. 

While tile shopping during our remodel I kept asking around if anyone had tile that looked like real, aged brick. The answer was always no. Of course, right after I completed my project, what I was dreaming about came true!

Waterworks created beautiful, glazed brick tiles with bumpy, irregular surfaces complete with pin holes. Grove Brickworks tile have the look and feel of aged brick with the practicality of glazed tile. Perfection! They remind me of Georgetown, DC.

I was bummed to see these tiles come out a few months too late for my project. I would have LOVED to cover my master bath with these beauties.


I  do have a confession to make about that...


The same week our master shower was finished, I noticed water leaking into the hallway. I was actually excited!  I thought to myself, "There is no way this leak can be fixed without ripping out the tile and drywall and repairing the leaky pipe." I actually thought I was going to have to re-tile the shower. How sick is that? Obviously, they got into the wall from the hallway (duh) and made the simple repair there.  And thank goodness. What a waste that would have been!  Waterworks tile is just so gorgeous that I literally can lose my mind over it.  Really...


Someday I will have this lovely tile in my home but until then I will share it with clients and enjoy it from afar.