Small Bathroom with Big Impact
Small bathrooms don't have to be boring. Take for instance the bathroom of our suite at the Glacier Canyon Lodge at Wilderness Territory in the Wisconsin Dells. Each mini-apartment is designed to be a home-away-from-home, and although the bathrooms have ceilings much higher than a typical home, the decor would fit in in any home with a Southwestern theme.
Here is a view of the shower. It is a basic tub/shower combo as found in the typical "kids bathroom" in many a home, but with an upgraded look. The slate-tile surround and contrasting shower curtain look rich together:
The shower curtain has kind of a "Christmas-y" look to it... I wonder if they switch them out for the seasons.
The ever-popular rain shower head is found in this small bathroom:
To be honest I was not entirely impressed with the rain shower head. It worked all right, but I didn't notice any benefit over a regular shower head. I prefer the versatility of a hand-held in my own shower at home, and when there's one in a hotel room, I at least can deceive myself that the housekeeping personnel use it to wash the walls of the shower down. What I really noticed was how hard the water was! I am spoiled, I've lived with water softeners all my life, and I can really tell when the water is hard. The soap sticks to my skin, and my hair won't rinse out. If you look closely at the walls of the shower and the shower head itself in these pictures, you can see the lime scale build-up. That just does not look clean. I think that a lodging facility associated with a water park ought to spring for soft water, but then that's me.
Here is a view of the nice granite countertop (or maybe it is quartz like my kitchen countertops) for a dual vanity. Your typical small bathroom may not have room for a dual vanity (I know ours doesn't) but I strongly believe that it's worth spending money on the vanity countertop in a bathroom. It's so small that it is not that large of an expense, but it really packs a huge impact.
(I could do without the silk flower arrangement though.)
One of the features of a Southwestern decor for a bathroom or kitchen is painted cabinets. You can see a little of that here, and the pewter drawer-pulls.
So have fun with your small bathroom. What is your favorite look? I might not choose Southwestern, but I wouldn't mind something that looked up-scale. For such a small bathroom, you can afford to splurge!
