The Wake Up with... Sidney Ro

I was scrolling through Instagram one day and came across this insane, multi-colored tiled bathroom in Philly. I immediately DM'd the woman who lived there and asked if she would be interested in having us come out to shoot her space. She said "yes". I flipped out. Immediately ran over to Michael and was like "We need to book a flight to Philly, NOW" We didn't. But our good photo friend and Philly-native Taylor Galloway, said he could shoot it for us. Done.

Sidney Ro, was so incredibly gracious about opening her home to strangers. Turns out she rents her apartment from a wildly creative woman who snagged all of the tile from a local subway station! Damn. Real subway tile.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night before bed?

In the morning, I walk my cat to his food bowl and scoot the food towards the front of the bowl (why? No idea haha), then use the bathroom, then make coffee in our Moka pot. At night, I work on the NY Times Crossword and other NYT games before I fall asleep.

Are there any bath, wellness or grooming products that you swear by?

My sister introduced me to Verb
Ghost shampoo and it’s something that I’ve used consistently since first trying it. I also love using the Fitglow Vitamin Detox Cleanser for morning and night time cleansing! Maybe unrelated, but I just started using bath sheets instead of bath towels and I don’t think I could go back to normal sized bath towels!

What are you most proud of in your bathroom. What do you always hide when people come over?

I can’t take credit for how special and beautiful our bathroom is. All credit is due to our landlady! Something I love about what we’ve done is the silly art we’ve focused on putting in here.

Anytime people come over, the first thing to go are our retainers. We both wear them at night and put them in a little bowl to clean them and it’s definitely not the prettiest sight to see. Second thing to go is our laundry basket!

How often do you deep clean your bathroom? And what are your favorite cleaning products? Anything specific to the shower?

We do a deep clean about once a month but do a basic clean once a week. Because the shower has so much glass, we use a dish soap, baking soda and vinegar combo to clean the walls.

Favorite candle or bathroom scent?

It’s funny, I’m kind of an “odorless” person where I don’t wear perfume or use deodorant (lucky genes) and I didn’t grow up with candles/scents in the house. I have a job where I get a lot free samples so it’s kind of a rotation of candles that I have on hand! In general, I gravitate towards scents that are citrus forward or generally planty/floral.

The 2 most important Bathroom Questions: What kind of Deodorant and toilet paper do you use?

My family has been a Costco family since it was called Price-Club so it’s only fitting that my toilet paper is Kirkland Signature.

If you had a bajillion dollars, what would your bathroom look like?

I love vintage and fun tile and love the page @vintagebathroomlove so I would love to get a matching vintage American Standard set of a sink, toilet and tub with colorful tile all around.

Do you use your bathroom for anything other than the usual things? I’ve heard of people using their bathroom to eat peanut butter because their dogs go crazy if they smell it. That type of thing.

Nothing out of the ordinary but I’ll occasionally have a few sips of coffee in there on sunny mornings.

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