12 little changes that turn your bathroom into a home spa

When we moved into a new home this winter I resolved to make my bathroom into a spa.

Taking a shower always makes me feel better, and when we moved into a new home this winter I resolved to make my bathroom into a spa.

Is it expensive?

It doesn’t have to be.

Is it cheaper than a spa visit and do you get to enjoy it every day and not just whenever you can fork over the time or cash?

Yup… in hindsight, why wouldn’t you spend a little extra time making your bathroom feel like a luxurious place to unwind?

I daresay I have been so successful that I actually find my bathroom the most relaxing, beautiful, good-smelling room in our home. It beats out our bedroom as the room where I feel the most re-charged. If that’s not a strong endorsement, I don’t know what is!

Two very different but equally inspiring bath destinations: a room at Maison de la Luz in NOLA, the beautiful "home" floor at the world's second largest Zara in Lisbon.

Here are a few of the things I found helpful and inspiring, and a bit more about what I’ve done at home…

• Ambiance is the easiest and most obvious change. It helps that I love the tiling in my new bathroom, but I made sure to add art that added some personality and cheekiness.

• Candles are an easy and obvious addition! I keep the Nest Eucalyptus and Mint candle (twin to the soap below!) on the sink, which I’ll light before a bath or shower. I also added a diffuser, the London scent by Hotel Lobby Candle, on a vintage glass and silver tray atop the toilette, if you will. (I like this diffuser even more than the candle, hard recommend.)

  

• I also made the decision that I was going to be a fancy soap lady now. Just in this one room of the house, I can splurge on the most divine, heavenly scented hand soap. My favorite picks so far have been…

  • The Nest Eucalyptus and Mint actually smells like a spa. I huff it whenever I’m washing my hands, so clean and refreshing. Really, really love this one and the small bottle lasted me about 3+ months with frequent hand washing, should you need help justifying the price.

  • The evolvetogether Taormina scent is also so visceral and lovely— it smells like jasmine and orange groves and it is so incredibly fragrant. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the next status brand we start seeing in fancy hotels. The soap comes in a glass bottle that’s quite large.

  • I mean, I’m not going to not mention Aesop. I have one sitting under my sink, waiting for me after I finish the evolvetogether scent…

  • Honorable mention: want to fill up a reusable vessel or an old soap jar that you can’t justify splurging on again? One of my favorite sustainable brands, Element Brooklyn, does soap and body wash refills that are a great match for popular scents from Le Labo, Loewe, Aesop and others. I love the Hinoki one, personally.

• When I claimed the guest bathroom for my seflf and respectfully banished my fiancé, I knew that my first edict would be no clutter in the shower! I don’t want a ton of mismatched half-used bottles in there. This is a me thing, it doesn’t have to be a you thing, but the peace it brings me to see my in-shower shelf looking organized and visually clean… I can’t overstate that peace. It does, indeed, contribute to ambiance.

• One day when I was in a mood at TJ Maxx I bought the Bliss shower tablets that dissolve in your shower steam and scent the bathroom. They worked pretty well, but my all-time go-to is the Aura Cacia ones that are a bit harder to track down— try Whole Foods! These zero-waste ones are great too.

• It goes without saying that this is a reminder that you have free will and can choose to use a better bath towel at any time. For maximal spa effect, I’d go plush and monogrammed.

  

• Bathmats are meant to be clean, fluffy, and divine. I hate when they start to look trampled or grody, so I invested in a new one that didn’t tend to look as trodden on, and moved my old one to another part of the bathroom. I wash and fluff them both once a week! A freshly washed, ultra-plush bath mat brings me the same delight as sliding into a pair of fresh sheets at night.

• The bathroom robe is an essential part of the spa. I have this one, as classic as they come.

  

• This may sound silly, but I always keep a spare, clean set of guest towels in the bathroom at all times— I like the contrasting patterns and the depth they bring and it just adds a little more plushness to the room, which ultimately I want to feel like a heavenly-scented cocoon. (Because I am over the top, I also have a vintage basket loaded with clean towels and linens in the guest room. God forbid someone not have a dry thing to wipe their body on when they visit my house!)

• I did something wacky (for me) and bought an in-shower bluetooth speaker so that I can listen to my Tudor history podcasts or the new Lily Allen album while I shave my legs. It is such a silly little thing but it makes my bathroom feel all the more like a destination of luxury.

• To me, the “spa edit” is less about having every single product under the sun and instead a tight cohort of stuff that you know works excellently, you look forward to using, and that smells great. For me, this is…

  

  • The Rosemary shampoo and conditioner from Necessaire, in the large pump top bottles. No notes. Really fantastic work from the Necessaire team here.

  • The Necessaire eucalyptus body wash, also in the large pump top. (Sometimes I refill this with the Element Brooklyn Hinoki body wash refills.)

  • Malin & Goetz grapefruit foaming cleanser, which is a new-er addition to my line up. After using up many, many travel sized samples, I decided that I— an adult woman— am allowed to buy myself the full-sized nice face wash. Smells heavenly and cleans like a dream.

  • The Hanni in-shower body moisturizing balm. This one messes with the shower aesthetic a little bit but nothing works better and I love not having to apply lotion once out of the shower. The scent is also fantastic, if anything I wish it were stronger.

  • The Soft Services buffing bar is the only thing I use for exfoliation. No cloth, no mitt, no sea sponge! This has both physical (it’s rough) and chemical (it’s got acids) exfoliants in it, so it’s a 2-in-1 homerun every time. I have been loyal to it for years and whenever I stop, I regret it.

  • On the rare occasion I take a bath in my home-spa, I swear by a gallon of the Dr. Teals Lavender Bubble Bath.

• Storage is of the utmost importance, of course. Given my bathroom is now a working spa, all equipment must be stored out of sight when a treatment is not in session. I have no medicine cabinet, shelving or built-in storage in my bathroom, so I built a small bamboo shelving rack and invested in some rattan boxes and felt bins (all with LIDS! This is crucial!) to keep my skincare, hair care and body care out of sight. I also bought and built two pull-out under-sink organizers that have made a world of difference.

Okay, your turn! What makes you feel the most spa-like at home, in or out of the bathroom? Is it making your closet area into more of a “dressing room”?