Mad About … Blissful Bathrooms

A bathroom is no longer just a place to get washed and clean your teeth. These days it’s a sanctuary, a place where you can retreat from the rest of the household and grab a few precious moments of peace and quiet to recharge your batteries. So for that reason, this week, we are Mad About Blissful Bathrooms.

It’s a place for a glass of wine and a chapter or two of that book you never have time to read. Or perhaps to listen to some music while you soak away the cares of the day.

So the question is how do you spa up that bathroom? Well there are a few tricks to make it feel a bit more boutique hotel and less Blackpool B&B.

Obviously in an ideal world there would be a view like this, or at least a fireplace, but in the absence of the requisite natural features, make sure the towels are matching, and, if possible, roll up the spare ones on a shelf for an instant spa look. Besides, it’s much easier to roll than fold tidily. Have a few large church candles dotted about, you don’t have to light them, but if you do want to then it’s much easier to light five big ones than faffing around with 400 tealights like they do in the movies.

A bit of wood or bamboo instead of tiles often adds to the warm spa feel.

In this simple monochrome bathroom, even the view looks as if it has been co-ordinated to match.

If there’s room for a chair and a table, on which to rest the radio and the glass of wine, then so much the better. This bathroom has added a couple of beanbags, presumably so that you can chat to your other half while soaking away, which may defeat the object but it looks nice.

In an interview in 2008, the designer Philippe Starck spoke about the creation of the salon d’eau, a concept dreamt up shortly before he came up with the 2 Bath, a design classic  and which would ultimately lead to its creation as part of his idea that the bathroom should be a place for pleasure.

“Before, a bathroom was just a room where you washed yourself. It was not very glamorous. We invented this salon d’eau as a room for pleasure. All the pieces, the sink, the bathtub – everything was like a piece of furniture. Have a fireplace, a thing like that, and it [the bathroom] becomes a place to rest and to speak with the love of your life,” he said.

This industrial-style bathroom indulges my love of exposed brick walls but still feels indulgent and luxurious.

And this one is a bit Rough Luxe 

For more fabulous bathrooms:

My Pinterest Bathing Beauties Board