50 
House & Garden 
BEAUTY AND THE BATHROOM 
The Latest Equipment Gives the Bath Less of the Laboratory Air and 
More the Atmosphere of a Comfortable Boudoir 
ETHEL R. PEYSER 
P ROBABLY no de¬ 
velopment of the 
home has mirrored hu¬ 
man accomplishment to 
such an extent as has 
the bathroom. We have 
prided ourselves on our 
sanitary bathrooms; on 
the devices for comfort 
and idyllic perfection 
in this, the smallest, 
yet the most important 
room in the home. We 
have developed it to 
such a point that in 
new homes everyone 
has a bathroom to him¬ 
self with comfortable 
additions to fit the in¬ 
dividual whim. 
For a few decades 
this room has been a 
replica of hospital effi¬ 
ciency and that has 
sufficed. But today, the 
artist in home-making 
is bringing the bath¬ 
room back to the lux¬ 
ury and ease seen in 
the boudoirs of ancient 
days, the days from 
which we take our 
beautiful drawing 
rooms, chambers and 
general schemes of dec¬ 
oration. 
This reversion toward 
bathroom luxury has 
come about because the 
ordinary bathroom has 
been too cold. It lacked 
warmth, well-being and 
coziness. Then, too, 
bathrooms are always 
the smallest rooms in 
the home, and for that 
reason can be more 
easily dressed in glori¬ 
ous sheen and kept in 
harmony with the color 
scheme and general 
plan of the home. 
A French Bath 
A few years ago no 
one would have thought 
of having wood panels 
in the bathroom — we 
proudly felt that we 
had gone beyond that 
stage. Yet today in the 
elaborate combined 
dressing-bathrooms we 
find white wood panels 
giving a feeling of 
warmth, together with 
almost as rich an effect 
as when marble itself 
is used. 
The F r e n c h bath¬ 
room shown on this 
While it is none the less a bathroom, while it lacks nothing that makes for complete sani¬ 
tation, the element of beauty has also entered into the finish of this French bath. The 
walls are paneled in wood, the metal work is gold, the toilet is camouflaged and the 
lavatory is spacious 
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In the other side of this bathroom is the boudoir equipment—a wardrobe with carved 
panels of glass and wood and a generous dressing table placed in excellent light. A crystal 
chandelier, large mirrors and the light tone of the woodwork make this a real creation 
. in bath equipment 
page is as carefully de¬ 
signed as any room in 
the house, even more 
so, for here both utility 
and beauty are achieved 
together. Take, for ex¬ 
ample, the closet seat. 
Here an ugly necessity 
is beautifully camou¬ 
flaged to fit in with the 
entire scheme of the 
dressing room, and it 
gives no jar to the in¬ 
habitant who must, for¬ 
sooth, spend many 
hours of careful toilet 
making in this superb 
room. The fixtures here 
are gold of lovely de¬ 
sign, the woodwork in 
keeping. The floor is 
of large tile and spread 
with rugs to add 
warmth and the room 
is lit, not only by the 
regular bathroom fix¬ 
tures, but also by a 
crystal center chande¬ 
lier. 
Some bathrooms even 
have a comer for the 
bathtub which trans¬ 
forms it into a chaise 
longue. 
In modem bathrooms 
in luxurious homes we 
have a reincarnation of 
the art of Benvenuto 
Cellini in the gold 
wrought metal work. 
This is made to har¬ 
monize with the general 
style of the room in 
which it is placed, and, 
though expensive, it is 
easy to take care of. 
Besides, when one is 
really making a bath¬ 
room, what does it mat¬ 
ter if it goes into the 
thousands when other 
rooms go into tens of 
thousands ? 
Usually only one or 
two bathrooms — the 
master’s and the mis¬ 
tress’s— reach this 
height of gorgeousness. 
The others, however, 
conform pretty well to 
the highly convenient 
and thoroughly delight¬ 
ful rooms in the rest of 
the house. 
The Equipment 
An interesting devel¬ 
opment, too, is the 
shape of the bathroom 
—the departure from 
the rectangular. Some- 
