Well, here’s the latest in the ongoing fashion for breaking down walls and going open plan: bulldoze the wall between your bedroom and bathroom and create a sanctuary, no less. Now we’re not talking about a little ensuite here for a quick shave and shower of a morning, but an aspirational luxury country house hotel sort of arrangement that one might hanker for after a weekend away. You know the sort of thing where you’re woken by the gentle chirping of birds, and from the comfort of your six-foot wide bed in your vast boudoir, you catch a glimpse of a claw-footed bath perched in the middle of the bathroom floor. To the side, his ‘n’ hers matching wash basins studded with high-tech, non-touch chrome taps elicit a cascade by a simple wafting of the hand across a sensor. Perfect for hygiene enthusiasts who can’t bear to touch where the filthy fingered have been before. The loo is consigned to a separate compartment – or at least secreted behind a panel – so as not to offend the carefully orchestrated aesthetic to be viewed from the bed.
For most of us mere mortals, however, removing the adjoining wall will mean the break of day is heralded by the loo flushing, followed by the bedroom being enveloped in a cloud of steam as the beloved tackles their daily ablutions. As you open a tentative eye the aesthetic is likely to be comprised of wet towels flung on the floor, so it’s not really what you hoped for is it?
Perhaps it will require children leaving home to free up the adjoining bedroom for conversion into your sanctuary but, if not now, at some point in the future it may become a reality. Keep dreaming, and in the meantime consider some of the options. A bath is a must, and whatever the eco warriors might tell us about conserving water and having a shower instead, as they start to whinge I can’t help but think of the late poet Sylvia Plath who quite rightly pointed out, “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them’. So now you can assuage your guilt and try claiming baths are not a luxury but a medical necessity.
If space allows try a free-standing model in the middle of the room. Slipper baths have a touch of nostalgia, look beautiful and are remarkably comfortable with one high end on which to rest your head. This feature will appeal particularly to the short-legged among us who struggle to stay afloat when stretched out in the tub.
Those preferring something modern with therapeutic value might opt for the whirlpool bubbly option with ferocious jets of water to pummel away at cellulite-ridden thighs. Corner bath options are considered to be space hoggers, but if you can’t accommodate a centre of the floor free-standing number, the corner tub offers some light relief from the relentlessly straight lines that can characterise bath design.
When the bath is installed and you are installed in it, don’t forget to pour yourself some other light relief from a chilled bottle of something delicious, light a scented candle, lie back and sigh with contentment.
by Carol O’Callaghan (first published in the Irish Examiner 09/07/11
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