Creating a Spa Bathroom at Home

A spa bathroom is less about a list of features than about how the room feels at 6 a.m. on a dark January morning: warm underfoot, softly lit, quiet, uncluttered and pleasant to spend time in. Some of that comes from large features such as steam and soaking tubs. More of it comes from small decisions made early in design. This page covers both, and where spa features are worth the money. For the style itself (materials, colors, lines), see bathroom styles.

Materials and color

Spa bathrooms lean on natural or natural-looking materials and a narrow palette: stone or stone-look porcelain, wood or wood-look tile, matte or softly textured finishes and a few related colors. Glossy, busy or high-contrast surfaces work against the calm.

• Fewer materials. Two or three tiles at most, one wood and one metal. Carrying one tile across the floor and up the shower wall makes the room feel continuous.
• Soft contrast. Greige, warm whites, muted greens and stone colors. See bathroom color schemes for building the palette.
• Texture you can feel. Honed stone, handmade tile and wood grain read as warmer than polished surfaces.
• Practical stone choices. Polished marble is beautiful and slippery when wet, and it etches with acidic products. Honed finishes and porcelain look-alikes are easier to live with on floors; see natural stone in bathrooms.

Light

Harsh overhead light is the fastest way to lose a spa feeling. Plan light in layers so you can choose the mood:

• Task light at the mirror, at face height, for shaving and makeup.
• Soft ambient light on dimmers, such as recessed lights, a cove or a backlit mirror.
• Low night light, such as a toe-kick strip under a floating vanity, for trips in the dark without waking up fully.
• Warm color temperature throughout, which also balances our cool overcast daylight.

Lights in or over the shower need to be rated for the location. The full plan is on bathroom lighting.

Warmth

A heated floor earns its place in a Northwest bathroom, because tile is cold for much of the year. Electric mats or cables go under the tile on their own circuit with a thermostat, and the electrical code requires GFCI protection for them. JDI's planning range for a heated tile floor add-on is $2,000-$5,000. The details are on heated bathroom floors. A heated towel rail is a smaller addition that needs power planned behind the wall before drywall.

Quiet

A loud fan breaks the mood, so people switch it off, and the bathroom stays damp. A quiet fan gets used. HVI describes one sone as roughly the sound of a quiet refrigerator in a quiet kitchen, and says sones are linear, so a 3-sone fan is half as loud as a 6-sone fan. ENERGY STAR's current criteria cap bathroom fans from 10 to 200 CFM at 2.0 sones. HVI recommends leaving the fan on for 20 minutes after using the bathroom, which a timer or humidity-sensing control makes easy. Choosing a fan is covered on bathroom exhaust fans.

The shower

For many people the shower is the spa. Features that make the most difference:

• A walk-in or curbless layout with a clear glass panel. JDI's planning range for a walk-in or curbless shower add-on is $4,000-$10,000.
• A rain head plus a handheld, so you can choose between a soft overhead shower and rinsing without wetting your hair. Washington's plumbing code limits showerheads to 1.8 gpm at 80 psi, and caps the combined flow of several outlets on one valve the same way unless only one can run at a time (WAC 51-56-0400), which affects how multiple outlets are planned; see showerheads and body sprays.
• A bench, built-in or floating, for shaving legs, sitting in steam or simply sitting.
• A niche sized for bottles, so nothing sits on the floor or a corner shelf.

Steam

A steam shower turns the enclosure into a steam room. It needs a generator, a fully enclosed shower with a door that reaches the ceiling or close to it, a steam-rated waterproofing system and a dedicated electrical supply. TCNA says the waterproof membrane must meet ANSI A118.10 and be rated by its manufacturer for steam, notes that grout is not vapor impermeable even when the tile is, and says the industry cautions against gypsum wallboard in a steam room. HVI suggests a separate fan for steam rooms. JDI's planning range for a steam shower system add-on is $8,000-$15,000. Full detail is on steam showers.

The tub

A deep soaking tub, freestanding or built in, is a spa feature only if you take baths. If you do, check that your water heater can fill it with hot water, that the floor framing suits a filled tub, and that there is room to clean around a freestanding tub. JDI's planning range for a freestanding soaking tub add-on is $2,500-$6,500.

Storage that hides clutter

Clear counters do as much for a spa feeling as any fixture. Plan closed storage for everything you use daily: drawers with dividers in the vanity, an outlet inside a drawer or cabinet for a hair dryer, a recessed medicine cabinet, a linen tower or a closed cabinet for towels and spare supplies.

Where spa features are worth it

These are JDI's published planning ranges before sales tax, not quotes. How they fit into a whole-bathroom budget is on bathroom remodel cost in Vancouver, WA, and you can try combinations in our bathroom cost calculator.