The Water Works

Showers rule in today's luxury bathrooms. But not just any showers. Power showers. Vertical spas. Body jets and fiber-optic rain heads. Pulsation interval sprays controlled by fully programable, push-button, electronic valving. Frameless doors and couture hardware. Showering systems.

The bathtub, at least for the moment, is dead. Long live the shower.

"Everybody wants to take a bath, but nobody has time," says Donna Easton, certified kitchen designer, of Karr-Bick Kitchen and Baths in Brentwood. She recently completed a bathroom that cost the client $83,000--and didn't include a tub. "If space is an issue and there has to be a trade-off, they'll take the shower," she says.

Today's shower systems are refinements of the walk-in showers that proved, once again, bigger is not always better, says Kris Keller, president of The Design Source in Chesterfield. Those room-size installations often proved drafty, required extra hot water heaters to supply the multiple shower heads and lacked adequate water pressure "to make it a happening." The versions now installed--often with the same number of showerheads in a much smaller space--deliver a bigger impact without the logistical problems. A shower, says Keller, only needs to be big enough for two people.

Vertical spas, say designers, provide the luxury of a whirlpool bath, without the hassle of the tub's care and maintenance. With the shower system, there is no wait while the tub fills (and, quite possibly, cools).

Shower spas are popular both in new construction and remodeling. Many homeowners in older homes with small bathrooms are replacing their tub/shower combinations with shower systems. The conversion is possible at a reasonable cost because some systems are completely pre-plumbed, outfitted with multiple shower heads and controls that manage water flow and temperature. These units don't require extensive behind-the-wall plumbing or extra water heaters, and as more become available, the power shower will move from the luxury market to mass market.

Roeser Construction, a design-build firm in Kirkwood, specializes in remodeling and add-ons to older houses, so they often work in limited bathroom space. Nonetheless, homeowners want the up-to-date amenities, says co-owner and partner Cindy Roeser.

"They want separate showers, they want the hand-held showerhead that can be adjusted for height, and they really like the seamless glass shower doors, I think because they let in a lot of light," Roeser says. "They want bigger showers. They want a bench seat so they can sit down and shave their legs, with an accessory ledge for shampoo and soap."

At the luxury end of the market, says Chris Berry, owner of brooksBerry & Associates in Frontenac, customers are installing sophisticated systems that may include fiber optics to create the illusion of a shower of light. "It appears that the water is a rain of color," Berry says. Many installations also include steam options and comfortable seating. One client, she adds, wanted a shower that would "beat him up."

There is some hope for tub aficionados. Soaking tubs--with champagne bubbles--are gaining ground, replacing whirlpools. (Whirlpools, says Berry, are "a dead issue.") Rather than creating bubbles with jetted water, the soaking tubs use air to create fizz. That allows the bather to experiment with aromatherapy. "You get action in the water, but the real benefit is that you can put all kinds of oils in and do aromatherapy," Berry says.

Overall, tubs have doubled in size, expanding from 60 inches by 30 inches to 60 inches by 60 inches. Again, bigger isn't necessarily better, says Keller, "otherwise, you're going to look at [your tub] and think, 'I don't feel like filling it up.'"

If there's a tub in the destination bathroom, it tends to be a "signature piece" announcing its owner's style. Jacuzzi makes a claw-foot tub available with whirlpool jets--as well as a TV and DVD/CD player. Salt of the Earth in Webster Groves has sold at least one $5,000 hand-hammered, free-standing copper tub from Mexico.

Copper and other "living finishes," such as oil-rubbed bronze and unlacquered brass, have moved out of the kitchen and into the bathroom. Satin nickel and brushed nickel have surpassed polished brass as the second most popular metal finish in bathrooms, after chrome. Copper sinks, once found mostly in kitchens, now are often found in the bath.

Sinks are carrying a lot of design weight in the bathroom. The pedestal sink is yielding to the vessel--a decorative container perched on a table or ledge, usually under wall-mounted fixtures. The look ranges from seemingly delicate glass bowls to carved stone basins, as well as the popular metal looks.

Bathrooms are taking on more personality, say designers. And those personalities tend to be more daring than those found in kitchens. Asian influences are much more likely to be found in luxury bathrooms, for example, than in luxury kitchens. Keller says people are more willing to take risks with bathroom design, experimenting with unusual materials and less traditional looks, because bathrooms are not as readily on display to visitors.