When its time for your “ME TIME” why not set yourself up in luxurious bubble bath and take time out with a book and glass of wine. Sounds too difficult! Not anymore.

Imagine soaking in the tub while reading a book, enjoying that glass of wine or even a delicious dessert. It sounds like the sort of treatment you would get at a spa, doesn’t it?

Well you can now have that spa treatment in your own home with the Umbra Aquala Bathtub Caddy. No more soggy pages when you read in the bath.

The Umbra Aquala Bathtub Caddy designed by Luciano Lorenzatti is essentially a bamboo tray with a metal hook edge that spans your bathtub and holds itself up on the sides.

The tray comes with all the features you need to have whatever you want in the tub with you.

There is a fold down book support so that you can  lean that new novel back on the rack while you lean back, soak and enjoy a few pages in luxury.

The tray also has a wine glass holder as well as a circular indented holder which can be used to set the soap so it’s within reach or even to set a sundae bowl that you can enjoy while in the tub.

At 28 x 8 ½ inches it will fit most normal tubs. While it is large enough to spread across the tub when you need it, storage isn’t a problem when its not in use as the handles fold in and it becomes much smaller and compact so it can be easily tucked away.

What We Like

• This is a fun luxury item at a very affordable price.
• This is much more attractive than a lot of others we looked at.
• The book holder  folds away and does its job better than most other models on the market.
• Made from  Bamboo which is a renewable resource  and it is water and mold resistant.
• Built in wine glass holder

Other considerations:

• If you have an oversized bathtub, this will not fit it so just be sure to check the  measurements.

Dare to be different.

Here is your opportunity to be the King of your castle, well at the very least the King of your throne room with the wooden Herbeau DAGOBERT TOILET THRONE .

Take a trip back in time with this olde tyme antique style toilet.

There is the pull chain flush with bell. A tug on the chain activates the flush and is accompanied by the ringing of a bell.

Other features include an ashtray sunk into the arm, a candle holder, a plaque and  a rather attractive painted toilet bowl.

The ‘throne’ is made from solid ash wood  which has been coated with 3 layers of polyurethane which gives the throne a solid finish.

This toilet will perfectly suit a vintage style bathroom  and can be coordinated with a claw foot bathtub to continue the theme.

Now this toilet does more than the general old run of the mill toilet because when the lid is raised  the toilet plays a song about Le Bon Roi Dagobert  (Good King Dagobert) which is a song about a French king who arrived at the minsters council with his trousers on back to front.

You can find the lyrics to the song here.  And as they are about a French King it stands to reason that they are in written in French.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• The overall height measures 63.3 inch
• The overall width measures 25.5 inch
• Has a standard 1.6 gallons per flush
• Hand-painted toilet bowl and plaque.

Click Here to buy the Herbeau Creations Dagobert Throne Toilet and be the king in your throne room.

If asked “Who built the very first toilets?” most people would probably think that the Romans were responsible. After all, they built amazing baths and spas with piped systems. The most famous one is probably at Bath in England, named after the Roman baths that still exist there today, surrounded with columns and watered from a spring of natural mineral water.

When it comes to the humble toilet, the Romans were a long way behind in the queue. Here are some fascinating toilet facts that would bring any dinner party to a screeching halt!

Stone Age Conveniences

During the winter of 1850, the islands of Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, were battered by a huge storm which ripped the grass from a large mound in Sandwick that the locals called Skerrabra. This revealed some stone buildings which underwent various episodes of excavation up until the 1930’s. In the 1970’s, materials from the site underwent radio carbon dating which showed that the settlement was a stone age one, from the late Neolithic period.

The dwellings dated from around 3000 BC. There were probably only 6 to 8 houses on the site at any one time, providing shelter for 50 to 100 inhabitants. And yet an impressively sophisticated draining system existed in the village, which archeologists believe may have included toilet facilities. Some stone huts had drains built under them and some of the houses had cubicles sited over the drains. They may have been some of the very first indoor toilets…very welcome when an Orkney gale was blowing!

Skara Brae is now one of the major tourist attractions on Orkney.

Nile Style…

At around the same time, in Ancient Egypt, wealthy folk had bathrooms inside their homes, which included toilets with seats made from limestone. Underneath the toilet there was a container of sand which was regularly emptied by slaves. The middle classes used clay pots filled with sand. The slaves and poor of the community had to manage on a wooden stool with a hole in it, again positioned over a container of sand…but they had to empty their own!

Indian loos…

Situated where modern day Pakistan now exists, was the Indus Valley Civilization. This was so called because it was along the Indus river basin. These people flourished from 2,600 BC to 1,900 BC. Their streets were in a grid system, as Manhattan is today. Underneath was a network of sewers. The progression here was to toilets that flushed – probably by having a bucket of water thrown down into the holes.

Greek sewers…

Slightly later, (2,000 BC to 1,600 BC) the Minoans on the isle of Crete also had drainage systems incorporating sewage disposal by the ‘flushing’ of toilets with water.

Enter the Romans…

…probably a lot later than you would have thought! In the first and second centuries AD the Romans built the first public lavatories. They would not have been happy places for anyone who was shy as there was no privacy at all – just a row of stone seats next to each other. The Romans built drains that collected rainwater as well as sewerage and had a Goddess of sewers called Cloacina. Despite the public toilets, many people still relieved themselves in the street. It is known that after using the toilet, Romans wiped themselves with a sponge on a stick.

The fall of the Roman Empire…and with it, the loss of drainage systems…

When the Roman Empire fell in 500 AD, plumbing systems disappeared with them for hundreds of years. In the Saxon age, (500 – 800 AD) a toilet was a hole in the ground with a wooden seat over it if you were lucky. For the poor, this was to remain the method of going to the toilet for the next few centuries.

Medieval water pollution…

If you walked past Portchester Castle, in Hampshire, England, during the 12th Century, a common site would be monks sitting on a stone ledge overhanging the sea. The Monks did what they had to do through holes in the ledge and the tide went in and out, taking the sewerage with it.

In the castles of the Middle Ages, the toilet was a vertical shaft topped off with a chilly stone seat, which emptied into the moat. The smell must have been overpowering but people hung their clothes there because they thought the pong would keep moths away. The toilet rooms with clothes hung in them became known as ‘garderobes’ from the French ‘protect clothes’. Over time, this word became changed to ‘wardrobe’ that we use today.

For après toilet hygiene, rich people used rags for wiping whereas the poor used a plant called the woolly mullein.

The first cistern

In 1596, Sir John Harrington invented a lavatory that flushed and had a cistern but for some reason, it wasn’t a hit and people carried on using either chamber pots (the first ‘potties’) which were then emptied into the streets – or just holes over pits. Before flinging the contents of the potty into the street below, it was customary to warn those walking beneath by shouting “gardey loo!” This is thought to have been derived from the French “regardez l’eau” which means “Look! Water!” This is also where the term ‘loo’ probably originated.

Flushed with success

In 1775, Alexander Cumming was given the patent for a lavatory that flushed. This was improved on a few years later in 1778, with a design by Joseph Brahma. In 1782, the U Bend made its’ first appearance. However, toilets that flushed were a luxury for many years and did not come into common use until the late 1800’s. During the 1800’s, most people used an ‘earth closet’ which was a pan, which was used and then had the contents covered by clay, released from a box by the pull of a lever. In rural areas, these earth closets were still in use until the early 1900’s.

Working class homes almost always had outdoor toilets and in the early 1800’s, many homes often shared one, with queues resulting!

At the turn of the century, some homes were built for specially skilled workers and these did have indoor bathrooms and toilets but it was still far from common. Toilet pans were made of porcelain and if you were wealthy, they were often painted or decorated. Seats were almost always wooden and the toilets emptied by pulling a chain fixed to the overhead cistern.

The Thomas Crapper myth

Thomas Crapper didn’t invent the flushing toilet but he did hold the patent for the ballcock. He provided the future King Edward VII with toilets at his new home, Sandringham and received a Royal Warrant for his troubles. He was a great salesman and was the first to have a bathroom and toilet ‘showroom’ so although he didn’t invent the loo, he did a lot to popularize it.

Some Quick Toilet Facts…

• In 1547, it was forbidden for people to relieve themselves in the courtyards of Royal Palaces so there must have been a lot of crossed legs…

• The first public lavatory in London opened in 1852.

• The Ancient Chinese used paper to wipe themselves but packaged toilet paper didn’t go on sale until 1857. It was hard and scratchy and soft paper didn’t appear until 1942. It remained a luxury with most families using torn up newspaper.

• We take our toilets for granted but in developing countries, there are millions of people who still have to use pits and holes in the ground.

• The word lavatory is derived from the Latin ‘lavare’ which means to wash, because in the 1600’s, the ‘lavatory’ was where one washed.

Whether you have a new home or are just redoing the bathroom in your existing home, you may be thinking about  the what bathroom tiles you should use.

Updating the tiles will really give your bathroom a lift and totally modernize it if it is tired looking and outdated.  But before you start shopping for tiles, there are some things you need to consider to ensure you get the right tiles for you.

Material

Vinyl Tiles –If you are looking for purely economical tile options, you may want to look at vinyl as it is much more affordable than other tile types.

Ceramic Bathroom Tiles – The most common tile you are going to find in the bathroom is ceramic. With a glazed finish this can come in a number of colors and styles and will last  for years to come.

Glass Bathroom Tiles – In the designer arena are glass tiles that are usually used as decorative accent pieces to your bathroom as they can be very pricey.

Mirror Tiles – These can be used to give the appearance of space in a small bathroom.

Style

Simple – If you want to let your bathroom décor do the talking and not the tile, you may decide to choose a simple tile design that is just a solid color. Then no matter what accents you add to the bathroom they will be coordinate with the tile base.

Edge Design – Add  flair to a simple bathroom tile base by using solid color tile with an edge design. This literally means the edge pieces of the tile work will have a decorative accent.

Overall Design – If you know just what you want in your bathroom tile, you may want to go with an overall design. This is tile that is usually hand painted or that the pieces will go together to create a mosaic or decorative design that is just as much a part of the bathroom décor as it is a wall covering.

Random Pattern Tiles – Use an occasional patterned tile every so often to break up a solid tile base. These pattern tiles can be placed randomly or at standard intervals.

Once you choose the type of  bathroom tile that suits your decor and budget, you you can even jazz it up a little more by adding colored grout to complete the look.

Whether you are looking for a shower head that can help you save  water and energy in your home or one that just has more oomph if your current water pressure is a little on the light side,  then the Delta Water Amplifying Adjustable Showerhead with H2OKINETIC Technology may be just the thing for you.

When you first hear that this showerhead only puts through 1.8 – 2.5 gallons of water per minute, you may think it can’t possiblly stand up to the other shower heads  that put out 3, 4 or more gallons of water every minute.

But surprisingly, the Amplifying Adjustable Showerhead has been specifically designed to use less water and combine it with air to give  you a result that compares more than favorably with other showerheads.

This showerhead can save you in a number of ways:

Saving Water – The first feature is that it will help you save water usage. This is vital in a world where many of us are trying to reduce our carbon footprint.

Saving Electricity – Using a water saving showerhead also saves energy. The less water that has to be pushed through the shower head, the less water your hot water heater has to warm up for those hot showers.

What We Like:

• This has a great flow and pressure to it if you like a real shower with some decent water impact.
• It helps conserve water (only 1.8 – 2.5 gallons per minute) while still feeling like a shower that is pushing through more water.
• It helps save energy, as there is less water to be heated.
• It was very easy to install.
• It is a great value for the price.

CLICK HERE to buy the Delta Water Amplifying Adjustable Shower head with H2OKINETIC Technology and start enjoying hot showers while saving water and energy.

If making a change to the look of your bathroom is a part of your plans this year, there may be an easier way to do it than you think.

Many people think redoing a bathroom means you have to break out all of the tiles and replace them with new tiles to create a whole new look. The truth is that you may be able to paint your current bathroom tiles and make them look new again.

Preparing to Paint Your Ceramic Bathroom Tiles

There is a lot of preparation work that has to be done before you can paint your bathroom tiles:

Clean – The first thing you need to realize is that if the tiles are dirty they will not hold paint well. It will chip and peel where the dirt was. So, make sure you thoroughly clean the tiles before you begin painting.

Grout – Make sure you also clean the grout around the tiles as well as replacing any that needs to be fixed. If you do this make sure to give it time to dry before moving forward.

Priming – This may seem like something you don’t want to do, but if you want the paint to hold on to the ceramic tiles you should use a sander or sandpaper to break down the shiny and smooth coating over the tile. This will help paint stick more easily.

Dust – Once you have sanded make sure to clean up all that dust so it doesn’t get caught in your paint job.

Painting Your Bathroom Tiles

Whether you are doing one color, texture or a design on your tiles, you should always begin with a good base coat that will give you a smooth canvas to work with. You will want to use paint with an oil base that will hold up best in this wet space.

You can put on as many coats as you would like, but you need to make sure to let each coat thoroughly dry before adding the next.