Toilets are tastefully hidden, walk-in showers replace tubs, and bold colors reign.
Borrowing from decor themes throughout the house, baths continue the ascent from bland, necessary rooms to stylish, relaxing comfort zones.
The influence of furnishings, amenities and even collectibles will be felt throughout 2006 and beyond in bath makeovers and renovations.
Clearly, baths have transcended strictly utilitarian functions. According to interior designer Robert Schoeller, the overall direction for upscale baths “is to make more of a room out of it rather than just a bath. It’s not just the old fluorescent tubes running down the sides of the medicine cabinet.”
Diana Schragi of the Kohler Design Center says consumers “give as much thought and budget to the bath as any room in the home.” Kohler research shows homeowners spend as much as seven years of the average lifespan scrubbing, relaxing and soaking in the bathroom.
To kick off this design transition, many stodgy counters are replaced with cabinetlike woodwork. Commodes may be an antique chest of drawers fabricated to accept a drop-in sink. If room allows, it’s not unusual for Schoeller to haul in dressing tables or collections of Staffordshire china or figurines to lend a homey air to the bath.
More adventurous designers plop stand-alone basins of tinted glass, hand-wrought brass, ceramics, crystal or fine hard wood atop counter surfaces sized to match the scale of the basin. The cost of dramatic designer basins can easily top $1,000.
Imaginative spigots, often crafted from sand cast metals, jut from walls or mirrors to stylishly cascade water to the bowl. Schragi has seen a shift from standard height vanities to variable height to accommodate the differing needs of men and women. Users gain added privacy when vanities or counters are separated into his-and-her zones.
The standard tub, once a dominant feature, is now upstaged by large, two-person walk-in showers or mega-tubs spouting spa effects. A single-head shower is passé; multiple chrome, copper or brass heads above and below the occupant soothe as much as cleanse. Shower tiles, or fixtures crafted to fit within a 4-inch-by-4-inch space of a ceramic tile, as well as large “sunflower” shower heads are in vogue.
All the better to accommodate the growing trend toward body care and overall relaxation.
The average time in a shower is a steamy 20 minutes.
Schragi says homeowners are mixing the look of handles, faucets and other fixtures to express their individuality. “We used to match furnishings in rooms, but that’s no longer the benchmark for sophisticated bath design,” she says. Brushed chrome works well adjacent to polished metals.
Even the toilet is in for an upgrade. The devices can be tastefully hidden behind a small bookcase or wall with hanging art. “The toilet shouldn’t be the first thing you see and I dislike rooms that look like you put a toilet in a telephone booth or a small cubicle,” says Schoeller.
There is added emphasis these days on bold colors and wall treatments in the bath as opposed to other rooms where neutral tones and colors are more accepted. Wall papers with splashy designs are excellent additions to overall bath decor because “it takes your mind off the equipment (i.e., toilet) and makes the room more interesting,” says Schoeller.
Furnishings resurface in lighting. Gone are typical garish lights, including track lights. The shift is toward other forms of indirect lighting often adjusted on rheostats. More and more owners install wall fixtures with silk shades for a warm, finished look.
But all the upgrades and improvements come at a price. Schoeller believes “people don’t bat an eye at routinely spending $30,000” on bath upgrades.
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