Stick with The Classics - Day 135 - The garden home challenge with p. allen smith

I didn't know you all were there -- just kidding. Come on in the bathroom. They say an eco-friendly house can't be built in 150 days for $150,000, and I say it can. I'm Allen Smith, join me as I push the limits with time, budget and creativity with the Garden Home Challenge, exclusively on eHow Home. Finally, this bathroom is coming together. I know, its not finished yet, but we're a lot closer than we've been. When I designed this bathroom, I wanted it have that sort of farmhouse chic look, but I also wanted it to have a timeless quality. So I thought I might talk about some of the decisions we made that give this bathroom this timelessness. Of course, through this whole process, we've had to be mindful of cost, but color doesn't' really cost anything. That's why I went with white with all of the bathroom fixtures, in the way of the sinks, the commode, all the porcelain -- except for the porcelain tile that we actually used in the shower stall. I went a little over budget with the floor in the shower stall with just some natural materials. Natural materials, like these gravels that are ground off flat, they have a classic look. They're gonna stay in style for a long, long time. The other colors in this room are, of course, the white trim and white cabinets, and the walls are kind of a brown mocha. And the hardware in here, whether it's the knobs, the finish around the frame here for the glass for the shower stall, the light fixtures: Everything is polished nickel or brushed nickel. And then, of course, we have the countertop itself. Now I know this looks like a natural material. Again, to me, anything natural always stays in style. But this is actually a manmade stone -- it's called pond stone. And it's been honed around the edges, so you don't have a sharp point here. But with this variation in the stone, it really does look natural. The color is sort of a taupe gray that works with the colors of the walls, the floor as well as the shower stall itself. Hey, if you're enjoying these segments on the house, let us know about it. And make sure you subscribe to eHow Home. And if we could just get these fixtures in here, we would be in business.