Bathrooms can include saunas, exercise rooms, lounging areas, sunbathing facilities, soaking tubs, dressing areas, and steam rooms. Fixtures are improving and at the same time becoming more decorative.
For close to 40 years the bathroom remained basically unchanged. But now a spectacular change is taking place. The emphasis is on more space, division of the bathroom into compartments so that the facilities can be used by more than one person at a time, and a general feeling of luxury, if not sheer opulence.
Many of the features going into new bathrooms are equally applicable to remodeling. Add a skylight in the bathroom and it becomes a sun room. Replace a wall or two with glass and it becomes a garden room. Put in infra-red lamps, sauna, hydro-massage, and exercise equipment and the bathroom becomes a home health spa.
Don't limit your thinking. Whether you are remodeling, redecorating, building, or buying, keep your mind open to new ideas they may not be as expensive as you think, and the benefits may be greater than you can imagine. Home are becoming more and more aveare of the features that sell homes, and bathrooms in these new homes are receiving a good deal of attention.
The bathroom should be viewed from the standpoint of the needs it must serve both today and in the future. Consider the individual members of your family. Are there small teenagers? How many boys, and how many girls? Remember, too, that families change – children grow up; teenagers go away to college.
Most changes in a bathroom also should be made with resale of the home in colors for fixtures and tile offer the most
flexibility in decorating and afford the same for the next owner. *Many bathrooms today still suffering from the deep maroons put in so plentifully a few years ago and tile and fixtures are expensive to change.
On the following pages, examples show how pleasing a bathroom environment can be. Although many of the bathrooms shown are in custom-built homes, a good share of the credit for changes in bathroom layout and design goes to enlightened home builders who realize the value of innovations that help sell homes.
INGENUITY IN ACTION
If you're the owner of a 5 by 8 bathroom you might well ask, "What's in all this for me?" The average family in the United States moves every five years, so there is a good chance that you'll be looking for different housing soon. The size of families is continually changing, too. This means different needs in bathrooms. Small children grow up, and young people leave home.
To many people the bathroom is largely a functional room. The only time that it comes into its own is when guests are scheduled to arrive. Then, all of a sudden, each room of the house is seen through the eyes of the guests, and pains are taken to make each room look its best. In the bathroom, this may mean fresh guest towels and new soap. The floor, walls, mirrors, and fixtures are made sparkling clean. Perhaps a scent or a candle burning low is added. It may be at a time like this that a decision is made: We need to redecorate the bathroom.
But to redecorate or remodel a bathroom, ideas are needed, and current trends should be studied. This chapter is but a sampling of the changes occurring in bathrooms, and later chapters will provide more detailed information.
It should be noted that fiberglass as a material in bathrooms is coming into its own, and in the not-too-distant future more and more fiberglass will be used in bathrooms. Most fiberglass fixtures at present are found in the shower and tub area, but some water closets and lavatories are being manufactured from fiberglass-reinforced plastic. Many model homes in suburban tracts are showing fiberglass fixtures in the bathroom.
More carpeting is being used in bathrooms, and more different kinds of materials are being used for walls and flooring. Cultured marble, made from crushed stones and resins, is being used to produce glamorous Roman-like bathrooms. Entire walls are being constructed of this material, which virtually eliminates moisture damage to wall surfaces.