In the Pink!

With one thing and another I have not had the time to go shopping for stock recently.  First it was the weather which has been pretty awful for a couple of weekends and then poor Spikey (my brocante buddy and husband) fell ill last Sunday with the dreaded man-flu.  Luckily the weather was beautiful so I managed to get some of the railings in our courtyard painted (a job I have been itching to do get on with for some time).

During last week though - before the man-flu struck - we did do some serious shopping for the house thanks again to Le Bon Coin.    

The first thing I found on that wonderful website was the cutest little roll top bath.

Waiting in my office for some TLC - I just love the ball and claw feet

I know you're probably looking at the picture and thinking that I've gone quite mad but it isn't the first bath I've overhauled and I think it has the potential to be the prettiest.  It's become something of a calling card for us to leave a roll top bath in the bedroom of the houses we renovate but this time it's going to be in a little room off our dressing room with a massive window where I have my dressing table.  This room is to be henceforth known as 'the bathroom'.

The slipper bath that we renovated and squeezed into a corner of the

bedroom in our last house (it had a super view... better than a loo!)

The big roll top bath in the corner of the bedroom
of our first home in France

I'm so pleased because not only will our new little bath fit perfectly into the small space I have it earmarked for but it was only 50€ so who can complain at having to do a bit of work?

The second purchase for the house was 25m² of marble tiles.  These were obviously much more expensive than the bath but we managed to find them at around a third of the market price so that was a bit of a coup too!  The poor man who was selling them hadn't taken into account the small joists of his relatively modern house so when it came to tiling his dining room floor the load was too much (we have a good old solid 19th century house so no problems there).  The tiles had been languishing in his barn for about five years so it really was time to let them go.

The reason I wanted them is that I have always dreamt of a marble lined Art Deco style ensuite shower room like the ones you used to find in Parisian hotels (before they were all modernised).  I was originally set on the classic grey Carrara marble which was a little embarrassing because I have trouble pronouncing it (I have found that heartless people tend to laugh when you say 'Cawawa' - you know who you are!).

Happily Le Bon Coin came to the rescue again and I sourced some stunning tiles made from Rose Aurora marble which I unfortunately pronounce 'Wose Auwowa' which I fear may actually be worse! They are however absolutely stunning and their beautiful rose blush has allayed my fears that the room might look a little cold.

So stunning and such a lucky find...

...although I didn't feel that way at the time of
loading and unloading them from the van (they really do weigh a ton!)

In reality we are still a very long way off from seeing both the bath and tiles installed but I know from past experience that it's imperative to buy these things when you see them because if you don't you'll never find these wonderful one-off items again.