If you can’t laugh in the bathroom, where can you?

Ideally, of course, we want to sprinkle the whimsy about the whole house, to put the stamp of personality on each and every room.

But if that’s a bold move you’re not quite ready to make, and especially if you’re in a temporary home and/or your tastes are in a state of evolution, the bathroom can be a comfy place to cut loose.

Even the most princess-like of dainty powder rooms can work better with a light-hearted touch…

Bathroom Cabinet Inside-Out, anyone?

Okay, if the look you’re going for is more of a Victorian bordello or Cleopatra’s bath, or a baroque bathroom fantasy, perhaps it’s not the right cabinet for your particular posh loo…

But check that simple yet witty graphic illustration of the contents of the storage space, the clean lines and uncluttered construction, that bold colour — yes, it’s a cabinet that’s got a lot going for it!

I’m suddenly thinking about the new mudroom that we’re aiming to add on here (contractors and weather permitting) this spring. By all means, go for the bathroom if the style suits, but just think how many other places could be jazzed up with this neat-o Authentics design — or a DIY variation, if you’re the crafty clever type. Summer cottage? Kids’ room? Laundry centre? Home office?

Clearly, the Italian design firm Kartell has something special going on with see-through furniture — it keeps turning up in my favourite home decor sites, all sparkling and spooky.

Just recently, Will of Furniture Fashion wrote about the disturbingly beautiful Kartell Louis Ghost chair, and he explains it all thus:

Kartell is probably the only company that has a specific division that researches raw materials like polypropylene, polystyrene and polyethylene for use in not only the world market, but their own dining chairs and other furniture lines.

The piece that caught my eye in Kartell’s current product line, however, is this baroque table lamp designed by Ferruccio Laviani.

Both ornate and streamlined, the Bourgie lamp is traditional in form but achingly modern in its execution, with all that poly-transparency to catch the light beams and sparkle like an earth-bound chandelier…

Sure, all this transparent furniture and accessories has a disorienting effect — it gives me a strange sense of double-vision, as if my depth perception is just a bit off — but yet, the attraction is there… I think I could even convince myself that it’s intensely practical, too. After all, the lamp can be assembled at any one of three different heights, then adjusted to another height later on if your lighting needs change… so… that’s very practical, right?

If British designer Lee Broom’s gothic-curvy Neo Neon art furniture isn’t inspired by a haunted mansion, I’ll eat a toad.

Chairs, cabinets, console tables and delightfully baroque vanity mirrors take on a ghost-like glow when they’re highlighted with neon lights.

I’m especially taken with the High Voltage Vanity mirror, 92cm x 141 cm (approx. 36¼” x 55½”) framed in black or white lacquer and lit with pink or white neon.

Where best to display such a mirror… perhaps in a minimalist foyer, or at the end of a long hallway where it can command the attention that’s due?

Lee Broom launched the debut line of neon art-furniture last month at the Brick Lane Gallery during the London Design Festival (which, seriously, I’d have raffled off my mother to be able to attend). Each of the Neo Neon pieces is built to order and will have a limited release of 25 worldwide, individually branded and numbered for authenticity.

[via StyleHive]

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