Inn-Inspired Bathrooms

A Bath for All Seasons

Here's how to make your hotel-style bath personal and serene — and easy to change when you're ready to sell.

When it comes to bathroom luxury, says New York-based designer Amanda Nisbet, you can't beat the Four Seasons Hotels. So when Nisbet was ready to renovate her own bathroom recently, she adopted many of the luxury chain's beautiful bathroom touches.

"Just like a hotel bathroom," she explains, "my own bathroom has lots of good lighting, clean lines and marble surfaces. I splurged on beautiful monogrammed towels and all my favorite creams, and installed a great big mirror, just as you would find at a luxurious hotel.

Like hotel designers, who must create spaces that are beautiful and distinctive, but not so unusual that they might be off-putting to paying guests, Nisbet wanted to create a bathroom for herself that was serene and personal — but not so very individual that it would affect the resale value of her apartment.

"This whole room is translatable to many tastes," she says. The one very personal choice she made was the wallpaper in the bath niche — Manuel Canovas's "Pali" pattern in Rose. "But that could easily be removed and the walls repainted to transform the feeling of the room," she points out.

Because hotels have to make a first impression on new guests every day, they pay extra attention to maintenance and upkeep — and you should, too, Nisbet advises. "Wallpaper can peel over time if the room does not have proper ventilation," she says, "so if your bathroom is damp, stick to paint, rather than wallpaper. Choose a favorite color that makes the bathroom entirely yours for as long as you live in your home, but can be changed easily when you're ready to put the property on the market."

Photograph by Amanda Nisbet