Sweat the Small Stuff

Make over your bathroom with a few little luxuries – no contractor required.

By Michelle Taute
CTW Features

Increase the “cushy” quotient: Here, pillows and dramatic vases add a soft touch to a contemporary bathroom. Image courtesy American Standard

After poring over the gorgeous, spa-like bathrooms featured in every home design magazine, it’s hard not to be a little envious. You want to feel more pampered in the bathroom, but you’re not quite ready to rip everything out and start over. Luckily, it doesn’t require a skilled contractor to make a big impact in this space.

It just means thinking on a slightly different scale. A few well-chosen upgrades can radically improve the appearance – and experience – offered by your bathroom.

“Accents make all the difference in the world,” says Mary Lou Kalmus, an interior designer with Designing Edge in Clarendon Hills, Ill. “You can change a sterile bathroom into a very personal space.”

In fact, there’s almost no limit to what you can add to the bathroom. Kalmus worked with one client who chose to warm up the floor with a wool Oriental rug. Since it’s a fairly large space, this gorgeous piece doesn’t get wet. Plus, it adds a soft touch to a room normally dominated by hard surfaces.

If you’re willing to break out the paintbrushes, you can add an unexpected touch by changing the ceiling color. Kalmus recommends introducing a little sparkle to the décor with metallic or pearlized paint. But, if you don’t want quite so much shine, deep colors are another good bet for drawing the eye up to the ceiling.

Even something as simple as fluffier towels adds luxury to the bathroom.

“I go home and my mom has the fancy guest towels out, but you’re not supposed to use them,” says New York City interior designer Laura Kirar, principal of TRU Design. “I’m a fan of having some really nice hand towels and using them all the time.” For a few extra dollars, you’re gaining a tactile pleasure every time you wash your hands.

For Kirar, lighting and scent also create a better bathroom experience. Her favorite splurge suggestions include a dimmer switch and nice candles. “I’m a big bubble bath person, and I like to have the lights dimmed,” she says.

An even easier choice for softening the room: Hang a Roman shade. The fabric provides a nice contrast to hard countertops and tile.

To add an accent in the shower, change the showerhead. “It’s so easy to take a wrench and undo an old showerhead and put on a new one,” says Judy Riley, vice president of design at Moen in Cleveland, Ohio. She’s a fan of multi-function showerheads that might offer anywhere from three to seven different spray types. Choose the massaging option at the end of a long day or opt for gentle water drops when you’re lingering on a Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell from the package what any given water delivery method actually feels like. “Go to plumbing showrooms with working displays,” says Gray Uhl, director of design at American Standard in Piscataway, N.J. Put your hand under running water to compare products and spot any potential drawbacks; for example, the water flow may be gentler or stronger than you’d like.

There’s also a painless way to make your shower feel more spacious. Simply switch out your straight shower-curtain rod for the curved style rod you may have seen in hotels. This easy change gives you an extra six- to eight-inches of elbowroom. “The shower curtain never gets near your body,” Riley says.

If you’re the DIY type, you might go one step farther and install a glass shower enclosure. While many people choose frosted or pebbled glass, there’s at least one benefit to transparency. “Clear makes the whole bathroom look larger,” Uhl says.

Preening at the mirror is another opportunity to up the bathroom’s style quotient. Rather than a typical wall-to-wall mirror, Kalmus says it’s more fun to go with a decorative one. Look for rectangular or square shapes rather than oval, which can cut off your reflection. And if nothing at the store catches your eye, buy a plain mirror and have it custom-framed like a piece of artwork.

For another interesting touch, consider replacing those ho-hum cabinet and drawer pulls with whimsical hardware. You can pick everything from animal shapes and starfish to little branches. Plus, it doesn’t have to cost much to look great. “Even the less expensive hardware can be painted to look like a more expensive metal,” Kalmus says.

Then there’s one of the easiest changes to make the bathroom a more relaxing spot: Clean up the clutter. “For me, it’s important to have all the counters clean and all the things I’m using everyday out of the visual area,” Kirar says. So stash those toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet and put the hair products back under the sink.

When she does leave something on the counter, Kirar stores it in a pretty antique box or other attractive container. She’s also partial to putting the liquid soap into a beautiful antique bottle. “I think that small touches can make a big impact,” Kirar says. “Primarily what you’re dealing with in the bathroom are surfaces. It’s like adding one element to a minimalist painting.”

Now you just need to decide which idea to run with to add to your bathroom masterpiece.

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