How to create a relaxing, spa-like bathroom
Take design inspiration from these relaxing spa ideas, creating a bathroom scheme that acts as a calming retreat within your own home.
Image: Original Style
More than ever, our homes are acting as a retreat from the pressures of the modern world – spaces to safeguard our mental wellbeing. The bathroom in particular is an important space to get right for this reason: it’s where we spend precious time on ourselves.
Creating a bathroom that offers a sense of peace and calm could transform your experience, so we’ve taken inspiration from relaxing spaces for 7 design rules to make every day a spa day.
Get the shower right
Image: Duravit
We all know that there’s nothing quite as relaxing as a long, hot soak in the bath, but your shower should be equally calming and refreshing. You don’t have to put up with water that runs hot and cold – changing a faulty shower valve can be a relatively simple job, as many styles come with the same width between inlet and outlet pipes.
Likewise, upgrading to a luxurious showerhead can transform your showering experience. Choose a shower head that has great spray coverage and look out for styles that combine the water with air for a soft, massage-like spray. It’s a super easy change to make, so take a look at our guide to choosing a new shower head.
Clear clutter
Image: Argos
It can be hard to completely switch off in your spa-like bathroom when you’re surrounded by everybody else’s ‘stuff’. Bath toys, blunt razors, so so many half-used bottles of conditioner – the everyday things that just sort of accumulate.
Working in some built-in storage gives you a quick and easy place to hide away bathroom clutter and create that peaceful haven you seek, if only for the next half an hour or so.
Have luxuries close at hand
Image: Cult Furniture
However, a spa-like bathroom is anything but stark. Carefully displayed and arranged products are ideally for fostering the luxurious feel of a spa. Invest in some beautiful bottles of lotions and potions to create a display around the bath or sink.
Bring in occasional furniture
Image: John Lewis & Partners
When we’re talking about creating a spa bathroom, it’s about creating a space that you want to linger in. Bringing in occasional furniture – from benches and chairs to side tables – takes the bathroom from a purely functional space to somewhere that time can be spent, even just for somewhere to perch for those 10 minutes while you’re running a bath.
Bring nature inside
Image: Carpetright
Natural elements are effective elements to help foster a relaxing atmosphere – especially in a bathroom where white porcelain can feel cold and clinical. Wood will help to warm a space, while natural stone adds a great tactile texture.
Also, don’t forget to bring the outside in by adding plants – there are plenty of house plants that actually thrive in the bathroom!
Create a relaxing lighting scheme
Image: B&Q
In the daytime, natural light is all you need to create a calming ambience, but at night, you will need to rely on your lighting scheme. Don’t just opt for harsh overhead lighting, build a layered scheme so you can creating a relaxing vibe when needed and a bright space for your beauty regime the rest of the time.
Need help creating a bathroom lighting scheme? Try our top tips.
Consider sound
Image: Lithe Audio
You may want to relax in your bathroom with a good book or a cup of tea, but you might like some alone time to catch up on your Netflix favourite, a Podcast or some soothing tunes. If the latter sounds more your style, consider how you’re listening to your choice of media. Tinny, muffled sound played from your phone isn’t the best way to immerse yourself, but bathrooms are traditionally without a power supply for many kinds of home speakers.
Consider instead a water-proof portable speaker to up your spa bathroom experience, or go one better with a built in audio system. This concealed ceiling speak from Lithe Audio has Bluetooth Connectivity and is IP rated especially for a bathroom.
What are your top tips for creating a relaxing bathroom? Let us know! Tweet us @goodhomesmag, or post a comment on our Facebook page.