I am a very, very, practical person. Ask anyone who knows me. When designing a a space for a client practicality is as high on my list of important features as good looks or style. To me good design requires that form follow function and when one chooses an all cream color palette for a family home, or a bathroom faucet that can’t easily be cleaned, they are not following the most basic of design principles.
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It drives me absolutely nuts to see items or spaces where the practical realities of life are not recognized and honored, and it makes my heart sing when something works as well as it looks. There is still lots of room for style in a smoothly designed space.
A good example that I see a lot in my Feng Shui and Design practice is when home builders don’t have the simple courtesy to include a bathroom door on an en-suite bathroom. This bizarre decision is seen by some builders to be a ‘feature’ of the modern home. Are you kidding me?
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Since when is it a bonus to hear your partner, who gets up two hours before you, fuddling around in the bathroom, with the light on, performing bodily functions that no other person needs to be privy to? Seriously! Since when did going to the potty become something to be shared?
Even as beautiful and well appointed as many bathrooms are today, their main function is still pretty primary. Despite the lovely fixtures, rich textures and comforting textiles the bathroom is still a place where most of us would like to do our business, whether it be our business or our bath, in seclusion.
Our bedrooms are places where we sleep, rejuvenate, and get intimate. Bedrooms should be clean, bathrooms often aren’t. Bedrooms are for relaxation, bathrooms are for elimination. Bedrooms should be warm, and dry, bathrooms are cool and wet. Bedrooms are best a bit subdued, bathrooms are best with good lighting. Energetically bedrooms support, bathrooms drain.
The function of these two rooms are distinctly different and each one should be designed to beautifully perform its own distinct duty. The reality is that many bathrooms, no matter how pretty, end up looking like this one…
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Please builders, give us our bathroom doors back! I don’t care how pretty you make the loo, it is still the loo, and I don’t want it in my bedroom.
Do you?
