Hi Blessedbe. I used to live in an incredible Streamlined Deco apartment building built in 1940, with terrazzo floors, glass block walls & steel casement windows with metal Venetian blinds 12 feet wide--the widest made--and although it's been 25 years since I lived there, I still love that sleek look. OK, so you don't mention whether your whole place is, like mine was, actually of the period, or if it's newer construction, and you also don't say whether you're going for an authentic period look--as though your bath might have been decorated during the era & somehow survived intact till now, or whether you're making a room that's about the era & the style. They're two totally different things. Either way, forget Maxfield Parrish & Alphonse Mucha. Both were wonderful artists, but they're both way earlier, and their lush colors & lavishly ornamental style have nothing to do with the slick, high-contrast style typical of late Art Deco that you're after. In fact, when Bette Davis' elegant movie characters were swooning about in sleek penthouses & nightclubs, both Mucha's & Parrish's artwork would have been considered hopelessly old-fashioned, and all that adding them into the mix would do is muddy the concept. Paris & San Francisco, on the other hand, were both sophisticated & up-to-date, with plenty of shops & theatres & apartments & hotels executed in just the glamourous style you're after. In fact, Paris' exhibition in 1937 & San Francsco's in 1939 represent the pinnacle of the style's development just before the dark days of WWII put a sudden end to the party. But watch out if you're thinking about using photos: there are a lot of classic photos of both cities that, like the Mucha & Parrish posters, would only confuse your decor. The Eiffel Tower is too old by half a century to say anything about the Art Deco era, and while the Golden Gate bridge is an icon of 1930s design, neither image would have been used to decorate a bathroom of the period. Nor would a picture of Bette Davis, talented though she was. No, those things--movie star portraits, photos of landmarks of the period, vintage magazine ads for, say, Evening in Paris perfume or Packard automobiles, covers from Fortune magazine or Vogue, colorful fruit crate labels, vintage travel posters featuring the Pan-American Clipper or the 2oth Century Limited--while perfect for a room that's ABOUT the period/style, are all wrong for a bathroom that's meant to look as though it's FROM the same period. OK, maybe a struggling actress or a shopgirl living on the cheap in an efficiency apartment might hang a picture of Bette Davis in her tiny bathroom, but only becasue she could tear it out of a magazine for free and hang it in a ten-cnt frame from Woolworth's. But a wall full of ads & commerical art wasn't likely to appeal to most people, even if they wanted to hang artwork in their baths, which generally, they didn't. For the upper classes--the target audience, after all, for the styles that we call (thanks to Kelly Werstler & Bevis Hiller) Hollywood Regency & Art Deco--the whole point of 1930s baths was Glamour Without Fussiness. That's why they went for rich or striking new materials on the walls--marble, Vitrolite, colored or engraved mirror--and often, strong color in the fixtures: by making beauty inherent in the materials themselves, they could eliminate superfluous ornamental touches. You wouldn't have found pretty crocheted doilies or dainty flower arrangements or frilly curtains in any high-style bathroom of the period. As Belle Watling said in 1939, "It wouldn't be fittin'." So, if you want a true period look but you still want a bit of decoration, you might try adding a stenciled (or taped) border (a zigzag, or a Greek key, or a very-authentic angel-fish-&-bubbles motif in black & one other color--there are lots of possibilities) just above the tiles or just below the ceiling. Stenciled & painted designs are an authentic look, because a border is actually part of the room rather than something in the room. And, on the other hand, if you're doing a room that's not intended in any way to be authentic but one that's, rahter, ABOUT the period, you have a lot more possiblities beyond the obvious cliches. If it's photos you want, look at the striking black-&-white images that Hedrich-Blesing took for the 1933 World's Fair here in Chicago. Their lustrous shot of the Chrysler building at night has gotta be the most drop-dead glamorous photo of the whole century. I think you can buy a reproduction from the Library of Congress. Or check out Ewdard Weston's work, if you don't know it. Once you've seen his voluptuous, suggestive photgraphs of produce, you'll never look at a green pepper the same way again. For Art Deco drawings, look up Hugh Ferris' work. His renderings of Hoover Dam are awesome. For posters, look at the work of A.M. Cassandre, or Joseph Binder, whose graphic work between the wars is some of the most powerful ever. And since this approach is not really authentic for the period, anyway, there's one more image that would fit in just fine with the style & also with the black-&-white scheme you've already got going on: Richard Estes' iconic painting "Drugs" from the Art Institute of Chicago. It's a 196Os piece, but the subject is a classsic late-1930s facade in curved black Vitrolite & bent glass, and I bet the AIC has it in reproduction. I hope this suggests the two different approaches you can take as you finish your room. Be sure to post some pics when you get your room the way you want. Regards, Magnaverde.

"You don't understand your DH's way of thinking because your not codependent." Actually, I totally do. I had just not thought of that before. My mom is a (recovering) alcoholic. She has been sober for what will be 8 years this fall. I definitely had (and still do, to some extent) a codependant relationship with her. After my parents' divorce, it frustrated my dad to no end to see me "go back" to my mom time and time again, only to have her relapse and let me down. My mom is the kindest person but when she was drunk, occasionally, a mean streak would come out, and she would lash out with hurtful things. When I was pregnant with my DD she called me a slut. :( You have to know my mom to fully understand how crazy that is--she has such a kind, gentle spirit, the worst curse word I've ever heard her say is d*mn. She is very spiritual, quiet, a bookworm, etc. One time when I was about 12, she was drunk and my brother, who was 8, wanted a snack. My dad was at a baseball game, not knowing that my mom had been drinking--this was very early on in the course of her disease. I made my little brother some pudding and my mom staggered downstairs and flipped out for some unknown reason. She threw the pudding bowl across the kitchen, shattering it, and pudding went everywhjere. She slapped my face a bunch of times and shoved me out the backdoor and locked me out of the house. AUUGHH. It is hard to even think about this memory today. :( I was HYSTERICAL. I ran to the neighbors but no one was home. I remember sitting outside sobbing for what seemed like hours waiting for my dad to come home. My little brother came out at one point and said she had gone upstairs and fallen "asleep" and that I chould come back in. I didn't, I waited for my dad outside. I still remember my dad just hugging me and rocking me when he got home. He was FURIOUS. Took me and my brother to a hotel, and actually filed for divorce. My mom checked into rehab---her first stint--and was able to not drink for about 3-4 months. My dad at that point started going to Al-Anon and this is really when the cycle began. They did not divorce until I was 18, and she did not get sober until I was 21 years old. I am now 28. ANYWAY--my point is, I would continually let myself back in and I'd hope she had changed, and then she would drink again, and it would just be hurtful. Even when she wasn't mean, it was still awful when she would drink because she'd be out of commission for days, even weeks, at a time, and she would miss events, etc. It makes me sad to type this today. She missed my junior and senior proms because she was in rehab for both of them. Missed my May Day senior year--a BIG deal at school. Came to my graduation, but she was fresh out of rehab, and I had not seen her for about 4-5 months. I remember being happy that she was there, but just not trusting her sobriety at all, and feeling very detached from the whole situation. On my 19th birthday, I knew she had been drinking all summer long, and I hadn't really seen much of her; but still, I went over to her house for dinner, and she was drunk and all the food was burned. It was AWFUL. She had made a favorite meal of mine, and it just broke my heart to see her alone in her house, drunk, lonely and sad--but still trying to be a mom in some way. :( I will NEVER get that memory out of my head. :( I can almost feel how sad and depressed and lost she was. She is doing so well now, though. Still goes to AA meetings several times a week, works a program, and really has just changed her life. She has made ammends to everyone, even my dad. She is remarried and is a GREAT grandma to my DD. She told me when she made ammends to me a few yrs ago that she could not undo all the hurt her drinking caused our family, but that she could somehow repay that by being a wonderful grandma. And she IS. I think sometimes it is extra hard for me to see how BM is, and to see DH semi-believing her and giving her chance after chance after chance. I know how hurtful it is to grow up with an alcoholic parent and to see SS going through the same thing is really painful. It makes it even worse to not be able to really do anything about it.

Thanks skydawggy. Any way to tell what series it is from the label? The only model information I was able to find from the label was: Part #: P-PLFIX-13711287 Plfix fixed proline model 1 unit Contour standard colonial 4x4 The Pella website is no help. Is there some characteristic of the window that I can look at to make sure it's not a 200 series?

Usually the caulk matches the grout. It would be grouted in that area, but the change in planes (the countertop is perpendicular to the backsplash) means that there will be more movement because of the way houses move. If it was grouted, the grout would crack because it is not flexible. Caulk is flexible, so it can withstand the normal movement of a house better - less chance of cracking, though eventually it may also crack and need to be replaced - one of the normal maintenance things one has to do around the house.