A side effect of moving out of an apartment you shared with someone you met on Craigslist and moving into an apartment with your life partner is that your station in the household decoration ecosystem rises. The bathroom in particular is now squarely an Ashley Weatherford production; yours truly is the director, star, and set designer of that windowless room. I swapped all the nickel fixtures and hardware for matte black ones, the trash can is this cutie from CB2, and the hand soap is whatever I say it is.
But the shower! That’s the best part. I gave in to those sirens of Pinterest and hung up some eucalyptus over the shower head. It does just about everything the internet says it will—it looks good and it smells nice, all the time! One of ITG’s favorite aestheticians, Joanna Czech, helped me out with the arrangement (and by helped I mean she posted a guide on Instagram to her 39,000 followers…). And then Emily saw the post, shared it with Anna and me, and here we are.
Turns out hanging eucalyptus in your shower requires a little more effort than, well, hanging eucalyptus in your shower. You need to hammer those leaves ($3.99 from Trader Joe's) on a cutting board first to get the bubbly eucalyptus scent flowing and thriving. Or, you can roll over them with a rolling pin, a wine bottle, a soup can...whatever’s heavy and handy. After that Joanna sticks her eucalyptus in a vase and takes it to the shower, but she strikes me as a person who’s not as clumsy as I am, so I fastened mine to the shower head with a scrunchie instead. I ran the hot water like Joanna said, and let the steam kick up more of that minty, lemony, pine-y aroma. And...that’s it; an urban forest spa was born. I’ve got at least a week of perpetual fresh air wafting from the bathroom to look forward to (when I emailed Joanna, she told me the scent is strong for about five to seven days). Until I switch it up to lavender (calming!), and then mint (stimulating!), and then rosemary (Italian!). A shower salad if there ever was one.
—Ashley Weatherford
Photo via ITG
