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Say Goodbye to the Shower Curtain
Experts share tips on how to improve the guest bath.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
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Renovating your guest bathrooms? You might want to start by thinking outside the tub.
As more hotels get away from offering bathtubs, glass shower doors are becoming the popular alternative, according to design experts who participated in the recent Hotel Interactive webinar.
“Guests love it,” said Kimberly Miller, CEO Duncan Miller Ullmann Design. “It’s clean, it’s fresh. The shower curtain, if you can avoid it, is really something on its way out. It’s about opening up these bathrooms, not feeling confined. It is a great way to bring sparkle and energy to an otherwise dreary bathroom experience.”
Glass showers also can makes the light go further.
“People do not want to be in the dark,” she said. “We all want to be happy, lighter, fresher, cleaner, clearer. These are natural things that we want to incorporate.”
Bathroom lighting is essential. Miller offered a checklist:
- lighting beneath vanity that gives guests a glow.
- intermediate lighting from sconces.
- overhead lighting that doe not cast a shade on you when guests are shaving or applying makeup.
“If you put all that together in a nice little bow you will have a happy guest,” she said.
Other design touches make a bathroom seem more residential and less institutional. Rich Bennett, Vice President of Design and Supply at Best Western, suggested framed mirrors instead of wall to wall glass. Adding artwork, even small artwork, can make a bathroom more welcoming. And for any hotels that still have the stainless steel tissue holder installed in the front of the vanity, it’s time to rethink that.
Even the surfaces are changing, such as wood or tiled floors in the guest room.
“I’m all for it,” Miller said, but said they have to be appropriate for the property. Island properties may prefer porcelain tiles because guests often come in with wet, sandy feet.
Not every surface works in every space. Mario Insenga, president and founder of The Refinishing Touch, said he has noticed more wood product in wet areas such as the bathroom.
“It’s generally a failure,” he said. “If you put a new finish on it, it’s still susceptible to water damage. Water will inevitably seep into small areas.”
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