How to start planning and designing your spa-style bathroom?

Want to get started on creating the ultimate spa-style bathroom? Sometimes, the most daunting part is knowing where to start.

Spa-style bathrooms are a trend that has blown up in recent years, with people wanting to integrate a slice of R&R into their homes. Knowing how to make your bathroom feel like a spa takes a good understanding of interior design. For this reason, it’s worth setting aside a good amount of planning time so you can decipher exactly what it is you want and establish how you can achieve it.

With so much inspiration online, it can be beneficial to take a moment to sit back and really think about your vision for this space. While it may be tempting to incorporate trends from various sources, you’ll want to avoid overcrowding your new bathroom with clashing designs. The last thing you want is to create something that could look dated in a few years. It’s all about creating a classic, timeless look.

Here’s what you need to know about planning and designing your spa-style bathroom.

Why is the spa-style bathroom trending?

More and more people are placing a focus on good, solid routines, whether that’s a skincare routine or a pre-bedtime routine. The pandemic helped to create a large shift towards self-care in all its forms. Since then, it has been a huge priority for many Brits and can vary from person to person.

Having a home that helps you embrace self-care is a great starting point. Relaxation is a key part of looking after your mental health, so it pays to make your bathroom as relaxing as possible. Having a spa-like space to do your morning and nighttime routines can help contribute to this. As a result, many households in the UK have gravitated towards spa-style bathrooms.

What would you include in your spa bathroom?

Certain items and objects can help to bring a spa-style bathroom to life.

Bathroom-friendly house plants such as fresh eucalyptus are a great place to start. This particular example can help with nasal clearing, where steam from the shower or bath releases the essential oils stored inside the plant. The health benefits of this include the clearing of congestion and inflammation in the sinuses. It can help to reduce the risk of sinus and bronchial infection as a result.  If you find it too time-consuming or expensive to update eucalyptus in your bathroom, you could always opt for a fake plant used for styling purposes. There are plenty of realistic dupes available in high street stores.

Make the most of decorating your spa-style bathroom by installing open shelving to display decorative objects and self-grooming products such as perfumes and more. This could be a single floating shelf or a bigger shelving unit with individual compartments to help categorize your products and keep things neat.

An important element of a spa-style bathroom is creating as much light as possible. While the window size and position of your bathroom will dictate this, whites and neutrals can help to open up the space and give it that all-important clean spa feel.

Then, you can factor in earthy tones in the form of plants and other accessories that can create this feel. Think about prints, towels, storage containers, and more that can help to add natural elements to the space.

Mirrors are a must for a spa-style bathroom. Not only are they essential for doing your morning and nighttime routines, such as doing your skincare, but they can also add to the appearance of your bathroom. Mirrors make a space look bigger, so make sure you choose the right one for your bathroom. You could even indulge in a mirror with lights that surround the frame.

Although it can be beneficial to add a few decorative touches, you’ll ultimately want to strive for minimalism over maximalism. Not only will this help you maintain a more refined and calming feel throughout the space, but you’ll also benefit from a hygiene point of view. The last thing you’ll want to face is the prospect of cleaning up endless objects that create clutter.

What tools and equipment might you need?

While large-scale bathroom renovations are best left to the professionals, that’s not to say that you can’t add your own touches to finish off the job. For example, you might want to do the painting and decorating yourself.

A big part of refining a spa-like bathroom involves adding furniture, shelves, and decorative pieces to pull everything together. This could range from finding the perfect house plants to putting up shelves. Smaller maintenance tasks will keep your bathroom in top condition – this could range from installing a new shower screen to updating grout and sealant.

Often, DIYers will choose to put up their own tiles. Tools that use hard-wearing tile drill bits will help you refine the shapes and sizes of tiles you plan to put on the wall. Meanwhile, plumbing tools like pipe wrenches can help fix fittings on pipes beneath the sink, for example. The majority of plumbing work should be left to professionals, however, it can be handy to have these tools in the house in case you need to tackle a leak in the short term.

Other power and hand tools you might want to have handy include:

• Tape measure
• Hammer
• Cordless drill
• Screwdriver set
• Pliers
• Spirit level
• Painting rollers and brushes

To conclude

The main takeaways for pulling off your spa-style bathroom include taking a good amount of time to plan and ensuring you have the tools and equipment to help maintain it. Keep on top of cleaning and refining your spa-style bathroom so that it continues to look and smell wonderful.

Install an extractor fan if possible, and don’t forget to routinely open the window to air the space and prevent limescale, mold, or damp from entering the entering the building. Give the space a weekly clean by cleaning the toilet and wiping down surfaces regularly. Less regular, but equally important tasks, include cleaning your showerhead and any shower curtains.

In the meantime, take the time to enjoy your indulgent new space.