Travel in Time with Bathroom Design

Cleanliness and hygiene are two aspects not to be taken for granted; other than the importance from a physical point of view, protecting us from body odours and illnesses, there’s also the spiritual one which explains why humankind has had cleansing habits and rituals for millennia.

This goes to show the essence of the bathroom in a household, and having in mind we start and end the day in it, it’s one of the most crucial rooms in the home. Of course, what we know of as bathrooms today is different from the concept of bathrooms centuries ago.

Before the ingenuity of indoor plumbing in the 1850s, people used to wash up in public bathrooms where they would also have the opportunity to socialise, or for a more private experience, fill up wooden tubs at home (mind you, not in a separate room but other rooms, like the kitchen) warming up water first from the basin.

Simply said, home bathrooms, in the sense of the word today, didn’t exist until the 19th century. You would be right in saying hygiene and bathing in particular were a hassle once! Thankfully we live in a time where the bathroom isn’t only the room of utility since it also serves as a room of relaxation, so apart from its functional role it’s aesthetic too.

The wide selection of bathroom sinks, bath tubs, shower cubicles and toilets you can find at specialised homeware stores is the proof of this and allows us to go beyond the basic hygiene needs to the needs to express ourselves and our style with the choice of bathroom fixtures.

We’ve certainly come a long way from the most basic of bathroom vanities, that were actually part of the bedroom, to the beautiful and versatile bathroom sinks of today so I would say the sink itself could serve as an example of the perfecting of indoor plumbing.

As soon as the hygiene routines got transferred solely to one room, the bathroom, designers saw it as an opportunity to work on style instead of only focusing on function. This explains why sinks were designed with such intricate details, full of ornaments and carvings.

With time, more specifically onward from the 1930s, the so-called modern design period, the need for simpler designs appeared, stripping the sinks of the extravagant details, so that was the beginning of what we know of minimalism today.

No matter what your style is, you can be sure you’d find your sink, or any bathroom fixture for that matter, in the design that’s up to your taste and budget. With the change of a bathroom fixture, it’s easier than ever before to transform your bathroom décor, no grand makeover project needed!