Designing an At-Home Spa Bath

One of the new segments I’m trying out for the blog is a design post each Monday (along with Wedding Wednesdays and “How To” posts on Fridays).  So this Monday I’m excited to kick things off with an at-home spa bath design!

When we think of spas, we think of places that are calm, relaxing, and refreshing.  Common colors are green, white, natural browns and beiges, and blues.  But there is also an emphasis on texture: smooth glass tiles, soft towels, comfy robes, sleek metal faucets, and the soft falling of water.  Also, a good at-home spa bath design will also have extra elements of comfort: plush rugs to stand on, heated and cooled air, water, and (if you’re lucky) even flooring, and appropriate lighting.  Finally, at-home spa bathrooms have to be practical at home – if you don’t have time for a thirty minute steam shower on a daily basis (or don’t want to waste all that water – kudos for that!), then it doesn’t make sense to spend big bucks to install a steam shower that you’ll only use once or twice a year.

But now on to some examples of at-home spa bathroom designs:

Curved Shower Bench from Kitchen Bath Ideas

Here are some great take-away ideas from this design:

1. Curved shower bench – comfortable and useful (how many times have you slipped trying to shave your legs?  Am I the only one without the requisite balance to stand on one leg?), and oh so cute!
2. Colors – the beautiful blues and greens are a very calming palette that’s also reminiscent of lakes, ponds, and waterfalls
3. Plant on stool in the shower area – maybe this is just me being incapable of remembering to water plants, but I kind of like having a plant in the shower area (as long as there’s a window giving it enough light), and the teak stool, together with the plant, bring in a splash of different color and texture.  Plus plants purify the air, so it helps with the air quality in the room.
4. Glass door – I have to qualify this first by saying that clear glass doors are great, slightly frosted but untextured glass doors are awesome, but I do draw the line at textured and frosted glass doors.  Some people like them, but personally I don’t like the way they distort the light.  Plus the seem a lot harder to clean.  But glass doors of all varieties have several benefits including making a small space feel larger (because you’re not cutting it off with a shower curtain), not collecting mold and mildew (the way shower curtains do), and allowing light into typically dark shower spaces.
5. Multiple types of tiles – sure, this room might work with only one tile being used, but it looks so much better because the designer chose to use one type of tile at the very top of the wall (using the lightest color on top also makes things appear larger), another for the majority of the vertical space in the shower (using tiles that are taller than they are wide also makes the space look tall), and a third to make the curved bench stand out (using simply colored and simply shaped tiles makes the shape of the bench, not the tiles, stand out).

But that’s enough gushing about that particular shower, how about another one!

Double Shower Area from Kitchen Bath Ideas

I love this shower too!  Here’s what makes this shower great:

1. Rainfall shower head – I was in a hotel once with this type of shower head, and at first it was a little odd, but I really did love it!  And if it’s too odd, there’s always the other shower head over to the right.  But rainfall shower heads not only feel good, they look really cute too, and what’s not to love about that!?
2. Patterned tile – in this shower, unlike the above shower, there is just one pattern of tile.  but what makes it interesting is that it’s not all in the same color.  But it still has that calm spa feeling due to the monochromatic palette, and what’s not to love about that?
3. Built in nook/bench – in a shower like this, where the walls are fully tiled, too many interruptions (like soap shelfs) would make it look too busy really quickly.  But who wants to pick their shampoo up off of the floor everyday?  Not very spa-like.  Instead, this shower has a built in nook/bench for sitting on and for housing shower supplies.  Gotta love functional prettiness!
4. Curved glass door – I think I made my point about the awesomeness of glass doors, but this curved one?  Loving it even more!  I even like the simple, unobtrusive handles and hinges.  Too much hardware can ruin a glass door (like the gold railing on our sliding glass door in my college apartment).  Also, when mentioning sliding glass doors, I should say that, while they work okay, the gunk that gets built up in the tracks isn’t much better than mildew on a shower curtain – and a lot harder to get rid of.  That’s another reason I like this glass door so much – there aren’t any tracks to get gunked up (yeah, it’s a phrase).  Finally, the glass here goes up high.  Really high.  Like “I-just-visited-Boulder” kind of high (cheap joke I know, but I live there, so it’s cool).  And that means that you’re that much less likely to lose water over the sides!
5. Window placement – I like windows in bathrooms, I think it’s nice to have natural light in as many rooms as possible (despite the fact that the sun and I aren’t necessarily friends, as those of you who know me well can attest to).  But I don’t necessarily like having a window in the shower, which is why this window, which is next to the shower, appeals to me so much!  Also, it’s not frosted glass brick.  Eww.  I’m sorry, but if there is glass brick anywhere near me, I can’t help but start singing ’80s songs (ooh heaven is a place on earth – see, can’t help myself!).

And now, for all my tub-loving people out there (including myself) – how about a bathroom with a beautiful bathtub?

Oversize bathroom from Country Living

Mmmm, this bathtub makes me want to curl up with a good book and some pretty-scented bubbles.  Here’s why this bathroom is so amazing:

1. Color palette – I really do like white in a bathroom because it gives off a sense of cleanliness and purity.  But I think what makes the white work in this room is the natural wood of the door, the wicker of the towel basket, the tan of the curtains, and the beige tile on the floor.  White looks best when it’s placed against something that can offset its crispness and cleanness.
2. Bathtub placement – Most bathtubs are stuffed into a corner or along a wall, but I’m really digging how this bathtub comfortably takes its own place in the room.  And the way the shower curtain wraps around it is awesome – love those circle curtains!  You can just wrap yourself up into a little white cocoon of bubbles, water, and light – like being in a cloud  :)
3. Wall panels – Another reason that white works so well in this room is because the room is architecturally interesting.  If the walls had no panels on them, it’d probably be too much white and too little anything else.  But with the panels, the eye has something to rest on instead of a blank slate.
4. Textures – The textures in this room are layered on thick, and it’s really working!  Take the floor for example; the floor itself is a beige floor, but it’s got tons of little tiles that make it interesting to look at and walk on.  And then on top of that is a big cushy rug, and what’s not love about something soft and warm to step on after a bath?  Next to that rug is a wicker basket that not only provides awesome texture, but provides incredible storage too for some more white happy fluffiness in the form of towels.
5. The hardware – Like I said earlier, I love wrap around shower curtains (as much as I dislike cleaning them) because it’s such a cute vintage statement.  And the shower head that goes all the way to the top of the shower curtains is another adorable element.  All of the straight lines of plumbing and hardware combine to make the room look definitively rustic instead of transitional, and they combine really well with the straight lines of the architecture of the room.

Well, that’s about that!  Those are my three favorite spa-like bathrooms that can calm down your morning routine.  Or evening routine, whatever you prefer, I don’t judge   Is there one of these rooms that you really prefer?  Or one that you think would be too weird to actually have in your home?  Let me know what you think!

Have a great day!