Our pocketbook doesn't allow for as many trips to the spa as we'd like, so sometimes we have to pamper at home. We've enlisted the help of the Design Agency to help us turn our home bathroom into our own personal spa...
Many of your residential designs capture a spa feel. How can homeowners recreate this in their bathrooms? Any colours or items to stick with?
Keep your palette simple and clean. Neutral, warm and calming tones are a good general guideline, and using tone on tone or a monochromatic colour palette is best. You can always add a splash of colour through your decorative items like towels and soaps, but keep the fixtures and finishes clean and serene. The use of wood is a must for that real spa-like feel, so using teak wood as a shelf or floor mat in the shower gives that feeling of warmth.
When it comes to picking tiles, try to go with a more organic look rather than high-gloss ceramics and explore natural stones; we like using slates and travertines. Another important aspect for bathroom designs are the faucets and fixtures you utilize. Kohler has a great line of spa-inspired products which work well together. Their Purist line is definitely Zen inspired and offers the most in relaxation and design style. They also have bathtubs with Chromatherapy (colour-changing LED lights) to optimize your relaxation time in the tub. Their SOK overflowing bath gives you all the bells and whistles of an expensive spa, and enhances that relaxation quota by providing an “infinity” style overflow edge to give you the sound of constantly flowing water – one of our favourite tubs! If the budget allows, a heated floor is always great on the feet.
The Design Agency is a full-service, dynamic Toronto-based studio with more than 10 years of experience. The multidisciplinary principal team, Allen Chan, Matt Davis and Anwar Mekhayech, and partners Jonathan Carroll (ITravel2000) and Michael J. Cooper (Dundee REIT), help transform the complex and ever-changing environments we live and work in with innovative and thought-provoking designs.