Simplicity is the new luxury: bathroom design as narrated by the magazines

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Wondering what to expect at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022? Interested in trends in the bathroom world? We find out what’s going on via Salabaño, The World of Interiors and Il Bagno oggi e domani.

In the third article on design covered by publishers around the world, we look into what’s on the horizon for our domestic spaces: the top objects, materials, finishes and decorations, and what they’re likely to mean for contemporary living.

“Define what’s trending in the bathroom?” José Luis González wonders, trying to imagine what we’ll be seeing in 2022 in the most intimate space in our home, the room that copes with daily frenzies and the occasional (long yearned for) moment of relaxation. González is the editor of Salabaño, a Spanish magazine dedicated to decorating and renovating bathrooms, self-contained temples dedicated to caring for the body (and – why not – the mind?), spanning the latest technical, functional and technological developments and styling trends.

“Some may say the trend is black as a colour or even bronze, rose gold, or the other finishes we’re seeing in accessories and faucets; others might suggest that the current trend is to use more sustainable and natural materials to develop evocative and serene environments; others still would tell you the latest trend is integrating new technologies into this space, or point to approaches known as new minimalism, industrial style, or even a reinterpretation of the classical, all with the subtle caveat, ‘that’s what’s in now.’ Personally, I think all of these are correct. Ultimately, every furnishing project attempts to strike a balance between aesthetics and comfort. It is the client’s taste that tips the balance towards one style or another. For a long time now, people have been carefully choosing what details and elements to put into their bathrooms, seeking a personal space designed for well-being in which harmony among the various elements is key. The current trend is, in the end, to create bathrooms in which simplicity is the new luxury.”

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The May issue of The World of Interiors focuses on this area of the home (alongside the kitchen, the space most packed with technical innovations and changing lifestyles) in a special issue, The World of Kitchens & Bathrooms, whose cover makes a splash: a close-up of a toilet paper holder in “Nicole Hollis’s chimerical powder room in a San Francisco mansion.” In this issue, Hamish Bowles, the British magazine’s editor-in-chief, reflects on the idea of the home as a sanctuary. after the letter from the editor, the magazine zooms in on washbasins, reports on retro-style decorated ceramic tiles, presents an article on taps and fittings shot among plants in natural light, and features bathtubs and toilets, closing with a meticulous selection of bathroom textiles immortalized in the spaces of old swimming pools and Art Deco bathroom suites with gold and blue mosaics at the 1929 Maison Blue apartments.

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We like our homes to be safe, intimate, and meditative places, and that’s especially true of its most intimate and private spaces. Above all, our homes are a place to start building and imagining our future. Building is the buzzword for Cristina Mandrini, editorial director of Il Bagno Oggi e Domani. In the April issue, she remarks on how, due to tragic international events over the last few weeks “we’ll be going to the Salone del Mobile.Milano with a heavier heart than we would have liked, but we’ll still be motivated and curious. Perhaps less chatty and more attentive to substance, but we will be there nevertheless, in this corner of the world that will surely have something to say about how we imagine and build our future. As an overarching container, alongside its more usual cultural and economic issues, this year’s Salone del Mobile.Milano will have to embrace and focus on social and political issues. As well as being such an excellent showcase and stage in the limelight, this year’s show will likely reposition as an observation post and ideas lab. Climate change, the pandemic and now this international crisis are setting the agenda for a global revolution in top-down systems and a series of small, everyday revolutions that are affecting us all. Lifestyles and people remain central themes against this backdrop. In short, Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022 will be a Salon of beauty, intelligence, business opportunities and respect for values. Running this year for the sixtieth time, the Show is quite rightly celebrating this milestone anniversary in style, commemorating the past and lauding the future in an approach that seeks beauty beyond borders, not to mention peace... the one condition required for humans to keep on building.”