Spa style bathrooms have become more and more popular in recent years; it’s an attempt to recreate the open, airy, relaxed look and feel of bathrooms found in high-end hotels. But this design certainly isn’t a cookie cutter one. While there are similar features you can point to (like the prevalence of open shelf bathroom vanities, stone tile, or steam showers), the real point of a spa style bathroom is to combine simple, sophisticated design with a relaxed, casual atmosphere. That’s something you can do no matter where your design preference leans. Don’t believe me? We’ve got six bathroom vanities that can set the mood for a totally different type of spa bathroom to help you find one you’ll really love.
Perhaps the most popular type of spa style bathroom vanity is the open shelf vanity. These pair a small cabinet or set of drawers with a wide, open shelf base. You’ll see them a lot in hotel and spa bathrooms because they allow communal items like towels to be stored out in the open. Nothing quite says “spa” like plush, white towels, and open shelf vanities are great for putting them on display. With a sleek, contemporary design like the one above, your choice of faucet can really change the way you see the vanity. If you want the look to skew either more traditional or more contemporary, try swapping out the faucet.
Even among open shelf bathroom vanities, though, there’s a lot of room to play with style. Take the exact same design, but swap from a sleek, contemporary dark brown to a more rustic-finished walnut? And you’ve got a vanity with a totally different feel. Even smaller changes, like opting for decorative hardware, different cabinet door panels, or other detail work can make a huge difference on a simple open shelf vanity. Natural wood finishes are great for evoking a more organic spa style, but even then you can tease out the details to get a look you love.
Switch again from wood to a simple white finish with turn style legs and small cabinets rather than drawers? Once again, the look and feel of the vanity is entirely altered. This slightly tweaked design has a more old fashioned cottage style appearance. Here, the white evokes the prim cleanliness of a spa style bathroom, and helps brighten and enhance warm neutral colors to give a spa style bathroom a bright, sunny appearance.
On the far opposite end of the spectrum, consider lopping the legs off the vanity entirely. If you want a more modern look, opting for a wall mount installation is a good option. Technically speaking, these aren’t “open shelf” vanities at all; they admittedly don’t offer a lot of space to stow big cushy towels out in the open. But what they do is create a lot of white space, which makes the bathroom feel wide, open, and airy. And that’s exactly what a spa style bathroom is all about. Add the white color and sleek, minimalist lines and you’ll get a vanity that’s crisp, clean, and bright to boot.
Hesitant to give up a lot of storage space? Whether you’re in a master bathroom without much room for supplementary storage, or if you just have a lot of toiletries you want to keep in a closed cabinet, you aren’t out of luck. It’s possible to find vanities that offer the best of both worlds. Look for an open shelf design that has lots of shelf space on it, rather than a flat bottom. If you can find them, vanities with open storage cubbies are also great for storing and displaying cushy spa towels.
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For any type of spa style bathroom vanity – open shelf or otherwise – the best way to evoke a natural, earthy feeling is with lots of natural wood. Actual hotels and spas put wood everywhere: in saunas, the floors for showers, ceiling beams, and so on. Bare wood is a riskier choice for a home bathroom, and one that can be a little harder to find. But if you want a relatively safe (read: waterproof) option, look for blonde or natural finished vanities. The soft sandy wood color pairs beautifully with white towels, natural stone, and green glass (or even live plants!) and offers its own warm, natural presence that’s perfect for a spa style bathroom.
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