Waterworks: Inventing Bath Style Book

Waterworks is not a guide for the do-it-yourselfer. Rather, Waterworks is a love letter to what is presumably the author's favorite room--a justification of that peculiar but widespread obsession that provokes the purchase of fancy lotions and potions, rich terry-cloth towels, and scented candles, and that stimulates dreams of oversized bathtubs and vintage-tile back splashes. According to Barbara Sallick, the mechanics of the bathroom are best left in the hands of experienced contractors--and, herself a professional bath designer and supplier, that approach is only to be expected. In no other room in the house, to be sure, is one in such close physical contact with permanent, immovable, functional fixtures and fittings: sink (called lavatory here), toilet (water closet), and bath (well, just bath). While those elements must be chosen with great care by the people who are to use them every day, they must be installed flawlessly, and professionals are the ones to do that. Sallick's book won't help you lay out a bathroom floor plan, install a shower, or choose tiles (though her brief glossary of terms provides the language one might need in order to communicate with a subcontractor). It will, however, help you figure out exactly what you want, organizing those grandiose dreams into something a contractor will understand. Here are some things you'll want, after reading the Waterworks bath supplier co-owner's book: handcrafted (most definitely handcrafted) faucet handles, an antique enameled medicine cabinet, creamy bone hair comb and blond-wood shaving brush, glass canisters for cotton balls and swabs, marble and lots of it, exposed plumbing under a vintage lavatory basin, and perhaps a towel warmer. The bathrooms featured here, whether that be the large ones or the small, glorious, luxurious, or austere, are not for the faint of budget. --Liana Fredley Read More