Luxaflex: How To Turn Your Bathroom Into A Spa

Active wellness, rather than just recovery from feeling under par, is one of the biggest emerging health trends. Instead of just fixing stress or depletion, the focus is on good sleep, proper nutrition and mindful calm. And the easiest way to get into good habits is to make them easy to perform; so, we’ve got a few ideas to steal from the spa professionals to turn your bathroom into an invigorating, wellbeing-enhancing health retreat.

Wellness at Home

The main reason a trip to the spa is such a restorative treat is the sense of calm. The focus on winding down and escaping the chaos is paramount, which is the core element to try and achieve when looking for bathroom inspiration. This means stripping out all of the excess clutter and chaos. Steal the spa designer’s approach and remove all you can that is unrelated to achieving your calm goals. Clean lines, a limited number of materials and proper storage will all help create your own wellness retreat.

Material world

The best spa bathroom ideas start with a theme that unifies and simplifies the visual noise in a room. Imagine which kind of spa you have felt most relaxed in, and whether you prefer a more medical, sleek approach or the use of natural materials in a more Eastern approach. If you’re planning a remodel, start by looking for a dominant core material. Both styles can work wonderfully with marble, stone, granite or mosaic tiles – the most important thing is to keep the scheme simple to enhance the feeling of calm. From here, you may move towards white or metal or rich wooden tones – layering in your preferred spa style. Using the same materials on the wall as well as the floor can work to powerful effect and makes a small bathroom seem more luxurious. If you are simply revamping with a spa effect in mind, try and unify your bathroom accessories with a colour way or type. The addition of dark wood Venetian blinds reflected in a stool or mirror will instantly pull together a relaxed plantation-style elegance.

Grown-up glamour

Modern spa design, from refined Swiss wellness retreats to minimal aesthetic salons, combine a clean, fresh sense of order with more indulgent features such as flowing fabrics or shimmering hardware. If you have room, a freestanding bath, such as those favoured by luxury hotels, is a great place to start. Keep the baseline colours pared back, and add in a few bold pieces such as vintage bathroom mirrors. Too many bathroom accessories like this and bathroom designs will veer too far into a classical, indulgent design, so keep the balance towards clean and light.

Bathing Beauties

A bath spa is the ultimate way to unwind at the end of the day, helping the body and mind to settle down and improving sleep quality. Lying in a warm tub bathed in morning light making plans can also be a wonderful way to become centred and calm before the day starts. Bathroom décor always needs a focal point just like any other room, and if you have the space a bath is ideal. Even if you are limited on space, even small bathroom ideas can usually incorporate a bathtub. Placing a small bath into a corner and tiling around it can free up more floor space, as will putting your shower above it. It can still be the focus even if offset, if your lighting scheme draws the eye to it.

Lighten Up

Spa bathroom lighting ideas are key to success as the element most likely to create the correct ambience. It is essential to avoid your light looking harsh, a guaranteed way to kill the soothing spa atmosphere. However, spa bathroom décor needs to work all through the 24hour clock and for all moods, so if you don’t have any daylight to work with you still need to add in ways to change the mood from invigorating to indulgent. This can occur by layering lighting, from recessed dimmable spots to feature lights that lend a focal point to a subtle scheme. Hanging globes over the tub, sconces or adding an LED rope under shelves will take the scheme from practical to premium.  If you do have a window, even if it’s overlooked, make the most of it. Use window coverings that are either Top Down, Bottom Up to allow in as much light as possible, or Duette Day & Night to change the mood from fresh to cocooning.

Put it away…

… or keep it out. But whichever you decide to do, approach bathroom storage with purpose. Cleaning products, children’s playthings or spare towels all need consideration. Clean lines can only be achieved when all these requirements have been resolved or they’ll drift onto every surface. Interestingly, a bathroom can be made to seem bigger by adding in false walls; push click false walls can hide everything from boilers to laundry bins and run floor to ceiling, creating lots of shelving inside. Try creating a mirrored wall that covers deep drawers for bottles and jars. When you have cleared the decks, you add in features such as a wooden towel ladder or shallow shelf for your prettiest containers. Modern bathroom ideas aren’t about taking out personality but leaving space for the important things; in a spa-inspired bathroom that is a sense of space and quiet. The lack of visual clutter allows the chosen items to breathe

Shower power

Spa bathroom showers should work hard. Consider how it can add to your invigorating spa scheme for every need. Try a showerhead with variable settings – from a focused piercing jet for muscle massage to a wide, gentle rain shower stream for a gentle mood relaxer. If you do want a drenching shower fitting in the ceiling (or pummelling jets from the side) do try and also incorporate a hand-held attachment for variety as well as making cleaning super easy. If you are going to incorporate a wet room consider having the latest steam features or using large smooth stones in an area of the floor to massage the pressure points on the feet. It’s these details that elevate a nice bathroom into a wellness, spa-focused sanctuary.

Go Green

Amazingly, indoor air quality can often be worse than the air outside. Gasses released from household appliances, open fires and cleaning products can all compromise the air. An air purifier can help, but for a more natural solution include house plants to clean the air and help eliminate toxins. They will also increase a sense of well-being, as the colour green is known to boost healthy living by reducing stress and creating a sense of calm. Succulents are ideal in a small space that lacks natural light, and are low maintenance. If you want less of a commitment but enjoy the sense of freshness, use some cuttings of eucalyptus to bring a cleansing zing to the room.

Practically perfect

Tiling is an affordable and easy way to implement a design upgrade. It lends the room the qualities of a Turkish Hammam and can be incredibly durable if your preferred spa treatments include oils and scrubs that may drip or stain. If you want to amp up the spa luxury feel, underfloor heating, a sound system and air conditioning can all be sunk into the surfaces before tiling. Add in a motorized blind so you can operate your window coverings from the comfort of your tub. All these clever home automation touches can elevate small bathroom ideas to a deeply glamorous and considered neat retreat.

Inside and Out

A green home is more than what surrounds you, but also what you use in it. A natural spa feel is most evocative when carried through to your natural skin products. Organic Beauty products or natural skin care products are an easy win for improving the sense of well-being. If you’re going to invest in a new organic face product range, plan your scheme to show off the pretty packaging, with a shallow shelf just as wide as the deepest container. Look for a more organic solution to your decorating too; ignore convention in search of chic potential decorating solutions. Offset a mounted bathroom sink rather than make it centralised, to leave room for body brushes and natural sponges to get the circulation moving. And then of course, after all that decorating, time to lean back and enjoy it.

If you’ve been inspired by our ideas for upgrading to a spa bathroom, find your best-suited blinds solutions with a guide to the best bathroom blinds.

For more inspiration visit Luxaflex®