From functionality to focal point – the evolution of bathrooms

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

When was it decided to promote the bathroom from a room that wasn’t always necessarily indoors into what might well be described as a new private living room at the heart of every house?

It used to be a room for your ablutions that you got in and out of as fast as you could – now it’s all about quality time for relaxation, where you light candles…even read a book in the bath.

People drink wine in the bathroom now, and not because they’re hiding away, too mean to share it with everyone else.

There are magazine racks where you can enjoy a read in case you get bored while doing what nature intended – although why you’d want to handle a paper that was perused by previous occupiers of the ceramic throne is probably not something to think too deeply about.

Today’s bathroom has under-floor heating, ‘his and hers’ sinks, and roll-top baths on a plinth with Jacuzzi jet streams to tickle the places that nature never intended.

The shower is no longer a white rubber tube attached to the two bath taps – looking like the original implement for an enema; it now has a rainshower head that recreates a downpour in the jungle…albeit with loads of hot water and soap.

There are bathrooms with armchairs in them, in case you need to sit down after the trauma of your bath or powdering your nose – if we had an armchair in our bathroom growing up, we’d have had to take out the bath.

A survey commissioned by Barratt – the big UK builders – recently showed that, when it came to purchasing a new home, en suite bathrooms were the second most desirable feature after off-street parking.

High-end buyers like to have dressing areas with fireplaces so that one person can lounge and chat while the other person goes about their more normal business.

Perhaps it’s the practical side of the brain kicking in, but showering and dressing were always seen in our world as solo pursuits and most definitely not a spectator sport. That’s why we got televisions instead.

And speed used to be of the essence – quick in, quick out, before getting down to the real business of the day. Now it’s a place of quiet contemplation, and quite possibly the only room in the house with a lock on it.

Or maybe it’s a male/female thing because the same survey found that men wanted privacy and silence in the bathroom – particularly early in the morning – while women admitted they found it annoying that men leave the washbasin grubbier than they found it.

Bathrooms now have themes – a nautical feel, illustrated by the presence of sailing collectibles on the window sill, white floorboards and blue and white striped tongue and groove walls.

We have wet rooms, where the water flows through a drain in the middle of the floor – something that we also had but it was more of a leak than a design feature.

There are houses with more bathrooms than bedrooms, although if you have armchairs in there, it’s probably comfortable enough to sleep in as well.

You almost grow nostalgic for the old days when a home had one functional bathroom with a sink, a toilet and a bath – and that was a huge step up from the outside loo and the tin bath in front of the open fire, filled with water from the kettle, on a Saturday night.

Lino was the height of luxury when it came to bathroom floor coverings – although that material too has gone the way of the dodo.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.