Whether you choose store-bought or a DIY window cleaner, these tips and techniques for how to clean windows inside and out will make the job go quickly and easily. Find out how to bring a vacation style to your everyday life on the next page. A rustic, darkly stained wood vanity with wrought-iron-look fixtures and hardware fits right in with this style. Continue with other grand gestures, including ornately carved vanity cabinets in fine-grained hardwoods embellished with ornate, antiqued brass hardware. Top cabinets with real or faux-marble countertops, and drop in pure white or hand-painted porcelain sinks in a traditional or scallop-shell shape, or find similarly styled pedestal sinks. If the budget allows, consider a pedestal sink that’s a work of art itself in agate or rose quartz. Choose your color scheme — perhaps the classic royal blue, sun yellow, and white — and create a work of art with decorative tiles on your vanity countertop and backsplash.

It is a style that is also hearty and practical and makes an art of life’s little pleasures. There are all kinds of comfort, and these baths illustrate just how easy to live with — and how sophisticated — rustic style can be. Get away from it all without leaving home in a rustic lodge/cabin-style bathroom. While darker cherry tones create a feeling of rich history and home comfort, the decorating styles of the southwest convey a touch of vacationing in your own home. Italy, Spain, and Portugal are home to many of the world’s most wonderful designs in stone and tile, while southern France and Greece each contribute a distinctive aesthetic of their own. On the upper cabinets, glass-mullioned doors are curtained in pure white sheers for an airy, vintage look that keeps personal items out of sight. You can choose luxurious polished marble; durable, dramatic granite; interesting tumbled marble tiles; or hand-painted Italian tiles (or several of the above) to carry out your color scheme and decorating theme. A spacious, luxurious bath seems made for Italian villa style.

Either way, you’ll find the pedigreed look of 18th-century style gracious and wonderfully timeless. In this setting, whimsical accents and freestanding furniture add to the rich yet unassuming look. Taken together, these rich cultures offer inspiration for any size bath. In one bath here, weathered wood, rough-cut stone, and strategically placed beams work together to create a simple, striking room. For surrounding surfaces, why not evoke the spirit of a Roman bath? Inspired by the palatial yet airy homes of aristocrats from the time of the ancient Roman Empire to the opulent Renaissance, this style is luxurious but never heavy-handed. Continue on to the next page for an example of traditional style in the 1920s. A wealth of quality surfacing materials and intelligent design touches makes the space wonderfully livable as well as beautiful. Mediterranean style includes freshly creative ideas in a context that’s historically honored. For soap dishes and other accessories, choose from a wealth of Mediterranean hand-painted pottery and the characteristic blue- and green-tinged heavy glassware of the region. Against the dark woods and white walls, choose accessories, shower curtains, and window coverings in desert tones of soft coral and gray-green, or create a bright, happy mood with shades of serape-inspired sunny gold, turquoise, brick red, yellow, and cobalt blue.

Keep window treatments simple: stained wood shutters, Roman shades of plain muslin, or café curtains of homespun green-, brick-, or gold-and-white checks. For the crowning effect, you may even commission a custom mural depicting the Tuscany countryside, a Roman temple ruin, or a Renaissance still life. If your window’s very sunny, fill it with fragrant lavender or rosemary, and top with a sail-white Roman shade. The mix is one of free-spiritedness, but with a certain comfort. Degreasing dishwashing liquid solution: Mix two quarts of water with two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid in a bucket. So, technically, there is a tank involved, but it is not used to hold water in the way that traditional toilets do. For walls, try the eye-catching combination of heavily textured plaster or stucco walls inset here and there with a jewel of a ceramic tile. Accent with faux-bois woodwork finishes, and, if you’ve always yearned for a bit of opulent gilding, feel free to indulge your Midas touch here. Add baskets and, if your bathroom window has a sunny exposure, terra-cotta pots of cooling aloe vera plants. Tapestry and moiré-look wall-coverings and window treatments are appropriate and are now available in water-tolerant materials.