What do you think of the above wallpaper? Intriguing? Garish? Eye candy or cacophony? Something you’d like in your house, or something that would make you take the day off from work to redecorate immediately?

As someone who has been surrounded by this wallpaper numerous times since the age of 3, I am somewhat partial to it. This wallpaper is in the powder room of my grandparents’ house, and my late grandmother selected it. To this day I still examine it closely; it’s a collection of vintage advertisements and posters, mostly from Europe. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to appreciate its artistic value instead of just viewing it as a collection of pretty ladies.

Now I’ll be the first to admit, this wouldn’t be my first choice for bathroom wallpaper. In fact, like many people whose bathrooms appear on this site, I’d probably avoid wallpaper all together. But for my grandma, this pattern was a perfect fit. She loved to travel, and she decorated her home with many objects and ideas from her adventures abroad. Clearly, her travels to Europe inspired this purchase, even though she bought the wallpaper in a foreign country that was much closer in proximity (Canada).

I decided to feature this wallpaper in my first post for the Bathonista blog, because my Grandma’s powder room is what the Bathonista is all about: expressing yourself through design.  

The Bathonista blog will be updated frequently with design ideas, new products, tips from designers, and links to other spots around the Internet that discuss bathroom design. You might find some of the Bathonista posts to be ridiculous and others inspirational. But if you like expressing yourself through design, I promise you’ll find the majority of the Bathonista blog content to be fun and refreshing. Whether that means checking out a streamlined, minimal bathroom or looking at wallpaper with drawings of beautiful European women  will just depend on when you visit.

I hope you keep checking in on the Bathonista blog. Please feel free to leave ideas in the comment section or e-mail me directly with your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.