Design in Depth: Bathing in Luxury

January 26, 2012

By Stacy Kunstel

Our latest New England Home’s Connecticut cover was a departureÂ of sorts for us. It is the first time a bathroom has appeared on the cover of any of the New England Home family of magazines. You’d never see something as radical as a toilet (even if it was a Kohler Hatbox)Â on the cover of a consumer design magazine, but why not an elegant tub? I doubt that the decision of our editor and publisher to put a bathroom on the cover was meant to stir up any controversy, but this being the first cover of its kind for us, I have to say something.

Have you EVER seen a more beautiful space?

Photo by Robert Benson

Hats off to architect Jack Kemper of Kemper Associates and interior designer Anthony Como of Luxe Interiors for creating a space so compelling, so sparklingly beautiful that it is absolutely covetable. The architecture of the room immediately gives you the coziness and warmth so necessary in a space where you’re bound to be naked most of the time. The curve of the tub mimics the arch, there’s a beautiful upholstered chair on which to rest, and on the edge of the curtains (whose fabric is as sheer as pantyhose) there is the most spectacular glittering trim befitting the ball gown of a duchess.

Photo by Robert Benson

It got me thinking about past bathrooms I’ve seen and what makes them compelling enough to shoot for a magazine. Here are a few.Â The black and white bath of Vermont-based designer Wendy Valliere of Seldom Scene Interiors is as dramatic as it gets.

Photo by Michael Partenio; click to see more

I adore the French doors leading to this second-floor master bath designed by Nancy Serafini of Homeworks Interior Design. The space was once a porch.