In the world of interior design, no rooms have changed more dramatically than bathrooms. They have blossomed over the last decade, growing from tiny utilitarian areas into spacious, handsomely appointed rooms, often with whirlpool baths, steam showers and other fixtures designed to pamper and soothe harried residents.
Bidets; oversized showers with seats and multiple shower heads; exercise areas; entertainment centers, and expensive materials like marble and granite are becoming more and more visible as Americans upgrade old bathrooms and add new ones.
All this bathroom attention makes sense. Bathroom additions and redos are near the top of the list in value, just a few percentage points behind kitchen projects. Ninety-two percent of the building cost of a bathroom addition will be recouped if a house is sold within a year, reports Remodeling magazine.
But value isn't the only motivating factor for building new bathrooms or remodeling older ones. Having a luxury bathroom is like owning a Mercedes -- status is guaranteed. The credo seems to be bigger is better. The once-standard 5-by-7 bathroom has all but disappeared. Instead, interior designers routinely create bathrooms that are 100, 200, even 500 square feet.
A strong trend in the design of these larger rooms is allocating space for specific functions, such as bathing or dressing. The goal of such planning is to allow two people to use the bathroom at the same time -- highly important when husbands and wives both work and leave the house at the same time each morning.
In a small but growing number of homes, bathroom plans also include a completely separate room -- sometimes called a water closet -- to house the toilet. Still rare, but showing up with increasing frequency, are adjoining his and her bathrooms -- the ultimate in space and privacy.
Following are three designer master bathrooms that highlight trends for the 1990s.
Joan Eisenberg, J. M. E. Consulting,
bath designer
Sue Miller, interior designer
When Joan Eisenberg, a certified bath designer, was hired to help with the remodeling of an older Colonial home, she discovered the project included redoing three bathrooms and adding three new ones. The master bath was a major concern. "Basically it was a typical early 1950s bathroom with a tub, a toilet, a sink and a small dressing area," recalls Ms. Eisenberg.
Working as a team with interior designer Sue Miller and architect Allan Hitchcock, Ms. Eisenberg created the basic layout of the bathroom and served as a liaison between the clients and the contractor. Her specific concerns were "making the bathroom functional and making it easy to take care of," she says. She also wanted to design a bathroom that would be a nice place for her clients to relax.
Ms. Eisenberg divided the space -- approximately 200 square feet -- into three distinct areas. The smallest space, directly off the master bedroom, houses a makeup vanity with a sink. To the right is a large walk-in closet/dressing area. To the left of the vanity, through a door, is the main bathroom. Highly dramatic with black fixtures and walls of mirrored glass, this enclosed space contains a large corner Jacuzzi tub, a glass-enclosed, site-built steam shower with a seat, a vanity with sink and the toilet.
Safety features are a major part of the design. The glass surrounding the shower is safety-glazed; the ceramic tile flooring is slip-resistant in a matte finish; the electrical outlets have ground fault circuit interrupters that cut off if touched by water. Grab bars are installed. "It doesn't matter how old you are, grab bars need to be in every bathroom," says Ms. Eisenberg.
Joe Bowers, interior designer,
Rita St. Clair Associates:
When Joe Bowers planned the bathroom in a new home designed by Baltimore architect James Grieves, one problem he didn't have to worry about was lack of space. The bathroom had plenty of it -- 502 square feet.
Working closely with Mr. Grieves and the clients, Mr. Bowers used the space to create a sophisticated and extremely functional bathroom geared to busy lifestyles. "Our primary job was to plan for all the interior finishes and to design the storage cabinets and closets," says Mr. Bowers, who has worked 27 years in the design business, all of them with Rita St. Clair Associates Inc. in Baltimore.
Situated just off the first-floor master bedroom, the bath is carved into specific areas, each geared to a specific function -- bathing, dressing and personal hygiene. The room has two dressing areas, each with its own closets and vanity sinks surrounded by Italian marble. A Jacuzzi tub, sandwiched between the two dressing areas, is backed by a wall of windows that edge the tub and overlook a private courtyard.
Opposite the tub space is an enclosed 5-by-5 space containing a toilet and a bidet. To eliminate the claustrophobic feeling often associated with compartmentalized toilets, Mr. Bowers designed a door that is open at the top and bottom and paneled it with etched glass. The glass lets natural light into the space, yet completely screens the small area for privacy.
Adjacent to the toilet area is a glass-enclosed separate shower, which is encased -- floor, walls and ceiling -- in marble. An interior seat and shelves make the custom-designed shower especially comfortable to use.
In keeping with the ambience of the home, a stone and timber contemporary on a wooded lot in Baltimore County, Mr. Bowers created a design scheme that rests heavily on natural colors and textures.
The floors and tub decking are covered in a patterned design of Italian marble in two colors, a dark green and a rosy beige. The walls are rosy beige, the ceiling white and the trim is mocha. The custom-made cabinets, designed by Mr. Bowers and built by Ober Woodworking, are cherry wood with ebony trim.
Originally left bare, the windows are now covered with handsome woven grass shades from the Philippines. For convenience, they can be raised and lowered by a hand-held remote control unit. "Our clients wanted as much light as possible in this room," says Mr. Bowers, who augmented the natural light with track and recessed lighting on the overhead exposed beams.
Storage was a major concern of the clients, so Mr. Bowers designed several cabinets with compartmented drawers to hold all types of bathroom necessities.
"What really pleases me most about this bathroom is that is very functional," says Mr. Bowers. "It does what it is supposed to do and meets all the criteria set down by the owners."
Stu Dettelbach, SD Kitchens, bath designer
Ed Stough, interior designer
After being single for a number of years, Dee Fried was used to having lots of privacy and space in the bathroom. So she wasn't quite sure she wanted to share a bathroom when she married a few years ago and began planning for a move into a new home with her husband, Marvin Marks.
"Since we both work and leave the house at the same time in the morning, I just didn't want us to be running into each other in the bathroom," says Ms. Fried, a real estate appraiser. Her solution was to create his-and-her bathrooms off the master bedroom. The concept sounded good to Mr. Marks, a medical products distributor. He liked the idea of his own bathroom designed to his specifications.
Working with interior designer Ed Stough, the couple completely changed the second-floor layout of their contemporary home in a private Baltimore County community. By moving the stairway and transforming interior spaces, they created a master suite that included two adjoining bathrooms separate in function and design. A pocket door closes off the two rooms when complete privacy is desired, but "when we want to talk, we just open the door," says Mr. Marks.
Gray marble flooring, streaked in pink, runs through both rooms and provides a unifying element to the two distinct spaces -- one strikingly masculine in colors of black, gray, white and cranberry; the other very feminine in pink and gray with old-fashioned floral wallpaper.
"Originally, Ms. Fried's bathroom was the master bath of the house and Mr. Marks' bathroom was a walk-in closet," says Stu Dettelbach, a certified bathroom designer with SD Kitchens who became involved with the project while he was helping the couple redo their kitchen. "Her bathroom stayed pretty much intact, but we ripped out the old shower and replaced it with a glass-walled shower that visually opened up the bathroom space."
A custom-made, granite-topped vanity, built to a height of 36 inches rather than the standard 31 inches, replaced the old vanity. The additional inches make it easier to use the sink and faucets, says Mr. Dettelbach. A marble platform was built around the existing soaking tub, mirrors were installed and special lighting was added.
Turning the walk-in closet into a bathroom required a total renovation -- the real challenge of which was getting pipes into and out of the space. Once that was accomplished, fixtures were chosen, including a 5-foot long shower stall.
The shower itself is a Kohler Master model. A low-voltage, electronic unit, it has five heads and preset temperature and anti-scald controls. A black Kohler Highline toilet, a black-granite-topped vanity and brass fixtures add masculine sophistication to the design.
Having lived with his-and-her-bathrooms for about six months, both Ms. Fried and Mr. Marks are pleased with the design and say it would be difficult to go back to a shared master bath.
Ms. Fried calls her room a "little sanctuary," a place where she can relax and unwind. Mr. Marks is equally enthusiastic. "When we shared a bathroom," he says, "there was always a race to see who could get there first in the morning. We don't have to do that any longer."