Homeowners want their bathrooms bright, big

Advertiser Staff and News Services

If you're thinking about redoing your bathroom or creating a new one as part of a master bedroom suite, you might want to think twice about putting in a large whirlpool or one of those dramatically dark-colored basins.

The showy, multi-person hot tubs that once were so trendy are giving way to personal vanities and large glass-enclosed showers. Advertiser library photo

And if it's tubs you prefer, you'll notice they've become simpler and more elegant, often claw-footed or set within a deck.

Other hot style elements include vessel bowls — sculptured-looking basins that sit atop vanities — plus retro-style fittings for sinks and tubs, and walls and floors clad in square glass tiles that "lend themselves to the cleaner way we're doing design," said Joanne Hudson of Joanne Hudson Associates, a destination kitchen and bath showroom in Philadelphia.

In fact, bathrooms overall have risen in relative importance, being seen as full-fledged rooms for living, designed with lots of natural light, vanities and storage pieces frequently made to look like furniture, and a few lovely accessories to create a finished look.

"People are thinking more about what goes into ... (the bathroom) than what goes into the living room," contends Barbara Sallick, co-founder of Waterworks bath stores, which are spread across the Mainland.

The trends have carried even to Hawai'i, where bathrooms are increasingly seen "as a relaxation center now, where people refresh and relax. It's not just a lav, a toilet," said Roberta Warnken, design technician with Details International. The Honolulu company has been designing and supplying for kitchens and bathrooms since 1989.

Clean lines and simple functionality are very sought after, Warnken said. Hawai'i homeowners are going for a spacious feeling in the bathroom, she said. "They'll enlarge it and have a bath suite with a large shower, custom glass doors with hinges — not framed. And not sliding, because you want the access."

In Hawai'i, the trend toward spacious shower stalls also seems to be rooted at least partly in a practical consideration: accessibility for elderly and disabled people, she said.

At upscale Waterworks, the style focus is on classics and updated classics.

Twenty-three years ago, when the business started, customers were seeking an Edwardian look, said Sallick. Now, customers want "cleaner lines, sleeker profiles, just cleaning out the space — keeping it as simple and elegant as can be."

Catalogs from the Sharper Image, Frontgate, Pottery Barn and numerous others are filled with the specialized shower heads, furniture pieces that do double-duty as storage, and other accessories to create that comfortable, functional look.

That sophisticated look also can be seen in a Kohler idea book for kitchens and baths, showing product partner Robern's mirrored bath cabinets with a "floating" glass sink, which, the book says, "create a focal point while occupying less visual space."

That approach runs counter to the image of large whirlpools and two-person tubs, once showy features of huge master baths that probably got little use, said Philadelphia area architect Richard Buchanan.

"We've gotten away from the Jacuzzi tub as the throne or centerpiece," agreed Peter Archer, his partner in Archer & Buchanan Architecture, noting also that today's showers seem like distant cousins of the old cramped booths.

More and more, showers are less constraining, more relaxing, even luxurious.

"Sanctuary" is the term Suzie Hill uses to describe her elegant Ardmore, Pa., bathroom, with its graceful claw-footed tub and soft pendant lighting.

"I wanted the art form of the restored tub without shower," she said, noting that her renovated bath now looks like "an old-fashioned bathroom that could have been in the house 70 years ago, but with updated touches."

The family — including Suzie's husband, Crawford, and two teen-age children — resides in a three-story stone colonial built in 1910. Its six bathrooms were renovated two years ago as part of an addition and renovation designed by Peter Archer.

The couple had a clear idea of what they wanted their home to look like and were actively involved in choosing materials, said Julie Hoffman, an architect with the firm that worked on the project.

"Our bathrooms are not big, huge monuments to bathing," said Suzie Hill, standing near the tub, which is catty-corner to the windows in her bathroom. Besides affording a view of the backyard treetops, its placement makes the corner area above the tub prime display space.

A far cry from Suzie Hill's bathing retreat is her husband's combined bathroom/dressing room.

At first, you notice the formality of the built-in mahogany wardrobe and moldings, then the comfort of an overstuffed leather armchair. Photos on the wall showing California's mountains and Mount McKinley in Alaska reflect Crawford Hill's mountain-climbing background, while carved teak masks made by Costa Rica's indigenous people.

To the left, a large, frameless glass shower set against dark marble walls contains both a handheld shower head and a mammoth fixed head, as well as a built-in seat. Visits to Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel with his family when he was growing up, where the shower "felt like a waterfall," inspired an urge to stand under a magnum force of water, he said.