At one time or another, we have all probably lived in a home that had a dreaded feature that we just couldn't afford to replace at the moment. A neighbor of mine had bright orange Formica counter tops (and a large family that caused a limited budget), My sister has a dreadful tile pattern on the wall in her bathroom and doesn't have the time or the budget to replace it, and I have an olive green bathtub that nearly drove me insane. I hear stories nearly every day about some stationary fixture in a home that causes decorating dilemmas for many of my clients.
In most cases, these obstacles can be overcome much easier than you might think! Sometimes it's a simple coat of paint, or a little decorating savvy to make the item blend beautifully in to new surroundings.
Take our upstairs main bathroom for instance. It has a 1970's Olive green tub. The moment I saw it I hated it! (of course, that's before Olive green became the renewed decorating color of choice!).
But at the time, we had much bigger projects to tackle (like the new deck for instance), leaving the green tub much lower on the priority list.
So I decided that even though olive green was not the color I would have naturally chosen for the bath, incorporating it in to my decorating actually made the tub an acceptable part of the overall scheme of things.
The awful thing was that the bathroom tiles were white (fine to work with) but they had burgundy insets that did not coordinate with that green tub! What do you do in that instance? Incorporate the odd color in to the color pallet as well!
I began by painting the walls a neutral off-white for softness (they were brilliant white originally which only made that tub stand out like a sore thumb!).
I found a new bath rug that incorporated burgundy roses with an olive green background.
My secondary decorating color was a completely neutral brown (not warm and not cold in tone).
Accent towels of Olive Green and Cream (to match the walls) were added, along with a gold wrought iron table. The addition of gold items brought the two colors together and gave a bit of class to the decorating scheme.
If you are looking for something creative to use to give your towels more interest, try tying tassels around them. Using colors that closely match the one item you are trying to hide actually creates a new and exciting look you might not have thought possible.
Other accessories to add interest and further incorporate colors would be to bring the same color in to the treatment over the shower. For my shower treatment, I simply purchased a single sage green window curtain panel, cut it lengthwise, hemmed it and then used it as a looping swag over a curtain rod. I used a natural fiber tassel in the center to give it more interest.
Adding framed posters to the wall in gold frames brought the color of the gold wrought iron table up on to the walls (which detracts the eye from the tub).

Keeping with the "Traditional" style of decorating I love, I was able to find a beautiful urn crafted of resin. I filled it with scented potpourri to add fragrance to the room
Instead of the standard and unsightly garbage can, I opted for a bamboo chest with a hinged lid to serve as the refuse receptacle. Because the lid can stay closed, unsightly garbage is never seen. A small, plastic garbage can sits inside and is easily emptied.
Lastly, I added candles in holders in deep brown to complete the picture

So when you are faced with something you just hate but can't change it immediately, try incorporating its color in to your decorating.
When it comes time to really do something about that ugly tub, instead of replacing it, consider having it painted by a pro! We had our jetted tub repainted by a service for just $200.00! A small investment to turn it from the once pale LAVENDER it used to be!

© Victoria Larsen 2007