A is a carefully considered bathroom.
A beautiful bathroom can make you feel beautiful. Choose the transparency of glass and pretend you're showering outdoors. Use found objects and pale, pretty colors to personalize your bath. Or let a spacious bathroom show a little character in a simple rustic room or the open corner of a loft.
A Room Almost in Nature
Erase the boundaries between indoors and out to create a bathroom with all the relaxation of nature. Use stone for floors; marble or slate for counters, showers and sinks; carved stone or a molded composite for a tub---or a deep cedar Japanese soaking tub. Imitate a jungle downpour with a "rain" shower head enclosed in a glass cabinet. Keep all lighting daylight-balanced, all surfaces uncluttered and all towels extremely fluffy. And make one wall (or a floor-to-ceiling sliding door) entirely glass. If your vista is uninhabited nature or your property allows a walled garden outside the bathroom, let the grounds, trees and view be the fourth wall of your bathroom. The shower mist echoes the landscape mist, and you feel connected to the planet every time you take a shower.
Get Bold in a Big Space
If you have the good fortune of a big bathroom, maximize it. In an old house with wood floors, sand the floors smooth and leave them unfinished. Install a thick hardwood board to hold square porcelain farm sinks, and back the sink wall with a huge, unframed mirror. Cover the shower wall in tiny glass tiles and use a weathered wood farm bench to hold soaps and sponges in the shower.
A large, freestanding porcelain tub can sit in the corner of an open loft space next to a tall window with frosted glass or a drape of sheer fabric. Hang a lush drooping fern or vine in front of the window, or frame a small stained glass window and suspend it on chains in front of the real window for a play of colored light over the bath. A tufted antique chair, a scrap of handwoven carpet and thick bath towels in pastel shades might tempt you out of an endless bubble bath.
Shabby is Chic in a Handcrafted Bath
Pale peach walls, penny tile floors, a clawfoot bathtub and a shabby chic sensibility can turn an ordinary bathroom into a style statement. Hang a flea market chandelier from the ceiling in the center of the room (chandeliers should never be hung over tubs or shower stalls). Add some Swarovski crystals or colored glass flowers to the chandelier for more sparkle. Make a balloon shade of pale striped silk for the window---the fuller the shade, the better. Heap lots of pale pink, peach, buttercream and mint towels in a painted wicker flower basket. Stitch elastic around an embroidered tea towel for a toilet seat cover. Use half a large white clamshell for a soap dish. Put a flat quartz stone in the shell and place vanilla-scented soap on the stone. Recess a niche in the wall, defined by an ornate picture frame painted creamy vanilla. Put glass shelves in the niche to hold pretty jars of creams and a small jug with cut flowers from the garden.
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