Flowers in the Bathroom

My friend Thomas Eckardt has lived in a relatively small one-bedroom Manhattan apartment for years. Thomas deals in antiques and also happens to have good taste, so of course his apartment is beautiful (he also has a very popular Instagram following www.instagram.com/hadley_antiques_/?hl=en) Actually, the place is immaculate; I am not sure that the stove in the galley-kitchen has ever had a meal cooked on it, but this is Manhattan and Thomas has thrown some great cocktail parties!
When people come to visit, they admire the lovely antiques and beautiful surroundings, but there is one odd thing that everyone seems to take note of: Thomas always--and I do mean always--has fresh flowers in the bathroom. One young man, visiting from Washington DC, was so impressed that when he returned home he immediately started to refurbish his somewhat neglected townhouse. He wrote to Thomas, "...when I saw that apartment, and those flowers in your bathroom, I knew that was how I wanted to live." 

Now I do not think there is necessarily anything magical about flowers in the bathroom; it's more of an idea. The idea being that the way we live matters, your surroundings matter, and it is the small details of how we conduct our daily lives that matter. Once or twice a week, Thomas stops at the local outdoor flower market and picks up a few blossoms for his budvase. It is a simple routine that makes life nicer in a gritty city. The vendors have come to know Thomas, they exchange a bit of chit-chat (and can point out the freshest flowers), and that makes life nicer.

For some strange reason, most of us tend to think of flowers as a great extravagance. The truth is that a few flowers (and it only takes a few for a budvase) are actually inexpensive. If you don't live in a city with flower vendors readily available, most large supermarkets now sell fresh flowers. So after you've stocked up on the milk and bread, make it a routine to head on over to the flower market.

For small bathrooms, I love the idea of this wall-mounted vase: