Serenity now
How to create a spalike bathroom where you can hide from it all
When a barrage of bad news, glitchy videoconferences and cramped quarters propel stress levels to new highs, it helps to have a place to recharge.
For some, that has traditionally been the spa. But with many spas temporarily closed and social distancing measures in place, that option isn’t as easy, or appealing, as it once was.
A spalike bathroom at home can provide a similar sense of relief. Sure, it doesn’t come with expert massages or facials, but it can offer a serene place to shower, soak and unwind.
“Bathrooms are where you hide,” said Sarah Zames, the founder of the design firm General Assembly. “I think everyone is currently spending a lot of thoughtful time in there, either on conference calls or for a Zen moment.”
And if the goal is to make your bathroom truly restorative, she said, “there are so many things that can make it a special, spalike space.”
Here’s what the designers we talked to suggested. same types of fixtures in the same places they were in the old layout (although existing plumbing lines may dictate the placement of drains in some homes). Consider it an opportunity to customize the bathroom to the way you use it.
“Everyone has assumptions like, ‘Oh, I need to have a bathtub for resale value,’ ” said Kathleen Walsh, an interior designer in New York. “But if your intention is to stay there for another 15 years, what on earth does resale value have to do with anything?”
If you’re the kind of person who loves a long soak, splurge on the largest, most luxurious bathtub you can fit into the space.
But if you rarely take baths, reclaim the space where the tub used to be.
“Give yourself the luxury of that extra-large shower that you’d really like to have,” Walsh said, and think about adding a rain-shower head, body sprays, a built-in bench and a steam unit.
Choosing a limited range of materials and a subdued color scheme is a good way to bring calm to a bathroom.
“The more neutral the palette in the bathroom, the better,” said Timothy
Brown, a New York-based designer who likes offwhites, soft grays and pale blues. “You don’t want too much craziness going on, because it’s the place where you start and end your day.”
That doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Some designers choose a single signature material to create a standout feature in the room.
“We try to create visual interest by doing feature walls, rather than having the whole thing be visually too much,” said Francis Nicdao, a design director at Pembrooke & Ives in New York.
In a bathroom for a home in Palm Beach, Florida, for instance, Nicdao’s firm added a curved wall with an ombré mosaic around a free-standing bathtub. And General Assembly used slabs of Bianco Fantastico marble with dramatic gray, red and pink veining for the tub surround and shower wall in an otherwise minimalist bathroom in London.
When you want to create an inviting vibe in a bathroom, lighting is crucial. Most designers use numerous fixtures to bring light exactly where it’s needed.
And they put all of those fixtures on dimmers, so clients can adjust the brightness throughout the day.
Most important is lighting around the mirror, where faces can be illuminated with a pair of sconces or pendants at eye level, or a single light centered at the top of the mirror.
For the rest of the room, he usually employs a mix of recessed architectural lighting and decorative fixtures. “The architectural lighting is for the overall lighting, and there’s usually some detail lighting for highlighting certain things,” he said, like light coves that illuminate feature walls.
Even if you’re not renovating, swapping out a nondescript, flush-mount ceiling fixture for a chandelier can have an outsize effect on the feeling of the room.
If you’re replacing the bathroom floor, Zames recommended adding an electric radiant heating system under the new stone or tile.
“It’s important to think about how the material will feel on bare feet,” she said.
And stepping onto a warm floor on cold days “just feels so luxurious.”
Another way to pamper yourself is with a towel warmer. Usually, towel warmers are hard-wired, but if you don’t want to open the wall to run a wire, plug-in models are available.
Cluttered spaces rarely feel relaxing. To keep toiletries in order, create a convenient place to store them. It’s possible to add drawers to a vanity or, even better, to make use of unused space between wall studs by installing a recessed medicine cabinet.
When Pembrooke & Ives puts recessed medicine cabinets in a bathroom, Nicdao said, the designers try to make the cabinets extra functional by including dividers to keep hair products separate from things like toothpaste, and by installing outlets for handheld appliances like hair dryers and electric toothbrushes.
In any bathroom, wall shelves and baskets are an easy way to increase storage. When Stacy Stone, of the firm Stone Interiors, designed a bathroom with Walker Warner Architects for a house on Kauai, Hawaii, she installed open shelves and numbered rope baskets for multiple users instead of putting drawers under the vanity.
One of the easiest, least expensive upgrades you can make to a bathroom is replacing tired towels with new ones. “By all means, have a big, fluffy towel and robe within reach for when you step out of the tub,” said Brown.
For toiletries that will be left out on the top of the vanity or the edge of the tub, Stone recommended finding appealing containers. She noted that they don’t have to be purposebuilt for a bathroom — any appealing ceramic, glass or rust-resistant metal pieces will do.
Then think about how to bring in a favorite scent, she suggested, because fragrance can have a powerful effect on behavior and mood.
Finally, follow the lead of most spas and add sound with built-in or portable speakers.
“You could pipe in nature sounds or music,” Stone said, “to bring you to another space and help heighten the experience.”