How would you fill these?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

When we bought this house 3.5 years ago, there were some ribbon bark things in these sconces. The ribbon bark was at least twice as tall as the sconces. I neither liked nor disliked the look of it. About a month ago I got tired of it and threw it out. 
I wasn't smart enough to take a picture of it before I threw it out. Now, I'm not sure what to put in there. 
What do you think?

[msventoux]

I would take them down.  But I have cats, and anything I might put in there would not be long for this world. 

Ivy, ferns, bamboo, p.u.s.s.y.willows (stupid filter!), air plants?  Stick water and bunches of flowers or a single lily or daffodil into each?  Put some essential oils in them and some reeds and treat them as diffusers? 

[toomuchreality]

May 20, 2016 23:42:37 GMT -5 msventoux said:

I would take them down.  But I have cats, and anything I might put in there would not be long for this world. 

Ivy, ferns, bamboo, p.u.s.s.y.willows (stupid filter!), air plants?  Stick water and bunches of flowers or a single lily or daffodil into each?  Put some essential oils in them and some reeds and treat them as diffusers? 

Very good ideas!

Even if you don't want to actually put essential oils in them, you could put the sticks in, to make it look like that.
You could also grow (either in water or dirt) some philodendron in them. It's a very easy plant to grow and will grow in most light conditions, as long as it gets some light. I don't suppose it thrives in the dark. LOL

What are those branches with small or medium size, kind of brownish, round leaves, that smell good? Those might be good in them.I don't know if these are the right ones, but they look sort of like this. People make wreaths and decorate with them.

Take a walk around Pier one imports. Maybe something will jump out at you, or you will get inspired. 


Good luck!

[Happy prose]

That's eucalyptus. When they're still greenish, they are used as air fresheners. I love them. When they are dried, like in the picture on the right, it is often called Chinese money. 

[Tiny]

Fresh eucalyptus - like fresh as in from the Farmers Market where it's standing in buckets of water - is VERY fragrant. If you get fresh eucalyptus the scent might overpower you in the small room. I brought home a good armful once and put it in a big vase w/o water (it will dry naturally) in my large living room you could smell it strongly in EVERY room of the house.

I too would remove the sconces, but I can also see where some type of flower or long/tall decorative things would be interesting. I wouldn't use water in the sconces - just something else to have to clean regularly (especially with fresh flowers).

Michaels or Hobby Lobby or JoAnne Fabrics? carry all sorts of decorative stuff. Might be worth 'browsing' for ideas.

you could use decorative sand or glass pebbles or rocks in the sconces IF you need to anchor the decorations in the sconce. I bet you could also "paper" the interior with tissue paper or wrapping paper (think a decopage like treatment - with just glue and water - so it could be temporary) if you want to make the glass sconce appear to be a solid color. Or maybe a bit of 'tempura' paint (water based) would 'color' the glass temporarily from the inside. You could wash it off/out later. You don't want to permanently change the glass sconce.

[Opti]

May 20, 2016 20:59:29 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

When we bought this house 3.5 years ago, there were some ribbon bark things in these sconces. The ribbon bark was at least twice as tall as the sconces. I neither liked nor disliked the look of it. About a month ago I got tired of it and threw it out. 
I wasn't smart enough to take a picture of it before I threw it out. Now, I'm not sure what to put in there. 
What do you think?

In a prior life when I was married, one of our couple friends used to put fresh flowers in them. She had a deal with a local florist to take some of the flowers that might be tossed anyway, and maybe paid $10/week?

That was the late 80's into 90's. But you might be able to do something like that. Or perhaps stock with grocery store flowers once in a while.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Remove the vases and use the rings to hang complementary hand towels?

[Tennesseer]

Colorful stones.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Shells?  Colored glass stones?  Dried lavender?

[Pants]

I'd either remove them or do ferns. I

[Deleted]

Awesome bath and I love the colors.  Ditto with some who said sand and stones.  Or, if you are up for the maintenance, a weekly single floral stem.  Drooling over the light fixture.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2016 12:51:48 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

Remove the vases and use the rings to hang complementary hand towels?

This was my thought. Or buy actual new towel rings that coordinate to hang complementary hand towels so that you don't have to patch/repaint.

Or take them down and hang small pictures/plaques of some sort on either side.  Even a medallion of sort might work.

Fake flowers look . . . fake.  Real flowers are too high maintenance.

ETA:  If that is you in the mirror taking a picture, I want to be you when I grow young. 

[CCL]

I would just take them down, but the other ideas sound good too. If you do add something, I think they could use some color, maybe more than you can get with a plant.

[Tiny]

Whoa. I googled images of wall vases - and got all sorts of interesting images!

I'm not overly fond of the 'fresh flower and water' thing.
But, you could duplicate the look of fresh flowers with silk/fake flowers and then use those glass pebbles or actual pebbles to hold the flowers in.

[Opti]

Fake flowers look . . . fake. Real flowers are too high maintenance.

I don't get what's so high maintenance about real cut flowers. Its fairly simple. You put them in water, and a week later you toss them out and replace them with new ones. If you want to be high maintenance you remove the icky flowers daily and change the water daily. But from what I've noticed it doesn't extend the bloom life that much. FWIW.

At work, we get a fresh flower bouquet every week. The AL administrator added fully replacing the water every night to the receptionist duties. It made it look a little prettier, but it hasn't always extended the life of the flowers, and in some cases I think they died faster. I like real flowers. I may have a different view than some because sometimes I think it would have been fun to be a floral arranger.

[Pants]

May 22, 2016 0:27:54 GMT -5 Opti said:

Fake flowers look . . . fake. Real flowers are too high maintenance.

I don't get what's so high maintenance about real cut flowers. Its fairly simple. You put them in water, and a week later you toss them out and replace them with new ones. If you want to be high maintenance you remove the icky flowers daily and change the water daily. But from what I've noticed it doesn't extend the bloom life that much. FWIW.

At work, we get a fresh flower bouquet every week. The AL administrator added fully replacing the water every night to the receptionist duties. It made it look a little prettier, but it hasn't always extended the life of the flowers, and in some cases I think they died faster. I like real flowers. I may have a different view than some because sometimes I think it would have been fun to be a floral arranger.

I think the high maintenance is that you have to pick the flowers, purchase the flowers, trim the flowers and water the flowers. At least once a week. Forever. You also have to clean dropped petals and pollen, take away the dead ones, which always manage to smell bad, etc.

[Deleted]

May 22, 2016 0:27:54 GMT -5 Opti said:

Fake flowers look . . . fake. Real flowers are too high maintenance.

I don't get what's so high maintenance about real cut flowers. Its fairly simple. You put them in water, and a week later you toss them out and replace them with new ones. If you want to be high maintenance you remove the icky flowers daily and change the water daily. But from what I've noticed it doesn't extend the bloom life that much. FWIW.

At work, we get a fresh flower bouquet every week. The AL administrator added fully replacing the water every night to the receptionist duties. It made it look a little prettier, but it hasn't always extended the life of the flowers, and in some cases I think they died faster. I like real flowers. I may have a different view than some because sometimes I think it would have been fun to be a floral arranger.

I'd hate to add "replacing the fresh flowers in the bathroom" to either my weekly chore list or weekly grocery budget.  Quite simply, it wouldn't get done.  It's a luxury idea (think hotels, etc.) that isn't practical for most of us. 

But to each her own. 

[Deleted]

Stones with candles.

Sand and driftwood.

Or remove.

[Lizard Queen]

I'm all about light on the sides of a bathroom mirror. It makes so much difference when applying makeup, tweezing, etc. I'd see if I could get some light sconces that matched the overhead ones.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Thanks for the ideas. I thought I only had large rocks that would be too heavy; then  realized I had smaller stones also. I've put those in there for now. I don't want to spend the money on fresh flowers each week. If I were going to do that, I'd put them in the main areas of the house. I have some blue hydrangeas that are about to bloom. I might figure out how to dry those and put them in for a while. 

[whoisjohngalt]

Good smelly potpourri (did I spell that right?).  You can get them in Dollar stores and some of them have decent smell and look OK.

[lisamomof4]

glass marbles (they have them in all sorts of colors at the craft stores), small shells, rocks...with a pillar candle

again the base filler, curly willow and small ivy or air plant? 

[Peace Of Mind]

May 24, 2016 0:30:41 GMT -5 lisamomof4 said:

glass marbles (they have them in all sorts of colors at the craft stores), small shells, rocks...with a pillar candle

again the base filler, curly willow and small ivy or air plant? 

That's what I'd probably do.  You can add acrylic to look like water with the stones/glass beads, plants and put the candles on top to look like they are floating in water if  you are lazy like me.    You could use scented candles when you have company to keep the bathroom smelling fresh.  You could put a little plastic thing to hold the candles so the candles can be easily replaced if you acrylic them in but these are really pretty.







I just read SS's post.  Chloe is that you?  You are very pretty unless you really look like a camera nose down!