True-Blue Glamour

Stotts recommends you begin with one or two items you love as a design baseline for your powder room.

"A wall covering, a fabric, or an important accessory can be your starting point," she says. For this stylish old-world scheme, she first selected stone wall and floor tile for a sense of timelessness and the silk window-treatment fabric in a trend-forward robin's-egg blue for a dash of color and softness.

"When you use stone, your fabrics have to add color if you want the room to warm up," she says. Set on the diagonal, beach-glass tile insets add blue notes on the floor.

To complement the tumbled-stone tile, Stotts specified a rough plaster treatment for the upper walls. A hand-painted cream, gold, and silver wallpaper decorates the ceiling. This treatment, in conjunction with a substantial crown molding, makes the room seem grander than its dimensions. Mounting the window treatment close to the ceiling heightens the effect.

To furnish the room, Stotts favored a mirror with attached sconces and a chest with two doors. Both items feature gold and silver hues with crackle and rubbed textures for the look of age. Mirrored accessories with a touch of tarnish play up the glam factor.

Stotts fearlessly mixed metal finishes to convey the sense of a scheme collected over time. The brushed-nickel faucet works with the bronze frames of the antique prints and the silver design on the chest doors because the finishes share a similar matte sheen.

 

Note: Some of these products may no longer be available.

Wallpaper (on ceiling): Verona No. 4 ($178 per roll) from the Old World Volume III collection by Phillip Jeffries, Ltd.

Paint: Woodlawn Blue on walls and Linen White on molding from Benjamin Moore & Co.

Fabric: Surat silk No. 61132 in Robin's Egg from F. Schumacher & Co.

Stone tile: Floor: Tuscany Pavers in Light Travertine (12 x 12 inches, $11.15 per square foot); walls: Opus Anticato Old World cornice molding (12 inches long, $15.75 each) and field mosaic ($19.75 per square foot) in Light Travertine, Pavio Antico field tile (8 x 8 inches, $8.75 per square foot) in Classic Roman, all from Walker Zanger.

Glass accent tile: Beach Glass (2 x 2 inches, $41.35 per square foot) from Architectural Ceramics, Inc.

Faucet: Hampstead with Victorian spout and cross handles in brushed nickel ($1,240) from Kallista.

Mirror: Fine Arts' Mezzogiorno Girandole model 908155 ($1,800) through Burgess Lighting and Distributing.

Chest: Louis XVI door commode 850-03 in Coventry Parchment with Venetian Silver design ($3,640) from The Furniture Guild, Inc.

Accessories: Alabaster Empire Silver soap dish ($80) and jar (lid not shown, $180) from Labrazel, LLC. Wastebasket WBMDX ($138) and lamp LHAM4 ($258) from Worlds Away. Ceramic pear (about $20) from Imagine Artwear.