By John Washburn
Spa Design Spreads Its Wings
New York spa designers have been so successful in creating environments in which even the most aggressive, overheated emotional types cool out that it’s not surprising that spa design has become a noun that New York interior designers use to describe spaces that are quiet and soothing. We saw this at first with bathrooms. Almost any bathroom that doesn’t have red and purple wallpaper is now described as “spa design” by Manhattan interior designers. The well-designer New York spa bathrooms are truly works of art – sometimes resembling Finnish saunas; other times, the quiet chic of an Armani outfit. But the term spa design has now spread throughout the house and when a New York interior designer promises a client that her home will “feel like a spa,” he has a client who feels so mellow that she doesn’t have to go anymore to expensive spas. She has her own!—Karen Fisher