Enter the home spa: how to turn your bathroom into a soothing retreat

How often do you finish a vacation, however enjoyable, with a trip to the hotel spa? Chances are the answer to that is “As often as possible”, and it is the reason the global spa industry was worth approximately US$100 billion in 2015 (according to the Global Wellness Institute).

The growth of the wellness-focused lifestyle has led to the organic food boom, the rise in natural cosmetics and a robust wellness tourism industry, which includes spas. There is nothing more decadent – and satisfying – than pampering oneself with a spa visit, but those can take hours, sometimes days, which isn’t always feasible. Enter the home spa.

For many years, consumers were under the impression a good knife was the purview of professional chefs only.

But anyone with even a modicum of interest in cooking has a Henckels knife in their kitchen now. The same can be said of the way the spa experience is making its way into our homes.

As is the case with many luxuries in Hong Kong, the space to create the ideal home spa comes at a premium, but the situation is by no means hopeless.

A respectable home spa will need a roomy shower stall, ideally a freestanding bathtub, a sitting area, a basin and a vanity. The shower is where the most therapeutic indulgences will occur, and if space is an issue, start with the shower and add elements in order of preference. Depending on the shower stall, designing the seating area may be moot; the bathtub may have to be sacrificed in favour of a vanity, but some of us may be happy with less room to gaze at our reflections. Bathtubs can also accommodate a shower function, so the first step is to consider how much room there is to play with.