Turn Your Bathroom Into a SPA!

For as long as I can remember, I have been a spa lover – I honestly would spend my very last dime on the spa! To my dismay, when I married Chad, he was not into going to a spa at all. Desperate times call for desperate measures; I knew I had to scheme together a little plan. I booked an appointment for both of us to go to a spa and secretly took him there without telling him the destination. At first, he was resistant, but then he got into it and now he loves spa days just as much as I do. We now both use spas as that special place to go relax and recharge. The thing is, you can’t always go to the spa – it’s expensive and it’s time-consuming – so, how do you bring that spa experience home? I want to share seven ways that I’ve created the perfect DIY home bathroom spa!

DIY Bath Bombs

If you look at the treatment menu on spa websites, you’ll see that most of them have specialty baths. These can involve anything from mud to oatmeal, champagne to milk – I’ve even had a cedar enzyme bath before. If you want to bring that bath experience home, all you have to do is make your own bath bombs! They’re really inexpensive, they’re simple and they infuse your bath water with all kinds of great moisturizing products and even things to help detox and clarify your skin.

Start by adding your dry ingredients to a bowl. These include 1 cup of baking soda, a half cup of citric acid and 3 cups of Epsom salts. Next, you’re going to mix your wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. You need 1 teaspoon of water, 2 teaspoons of essential oils and 3 teaspoons of castor oil. You can use other oils but I’ve tested it, and I find castor oil works best. Optionally, you can add food coloring as well for a fun splash.

Next, slowly, add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients. It will start to form a thick consistency and then you can start forming shapes. You can get yourself some fancy DIY bath bomb molds, or you can go old-school and use cookie cutters or ice-cube trays. You can also take my approach (which is basically the meatball approach), I simply just mush them together in my hands. After you have shaped them allow them to dry fully this might take a few hours. Check on them every now and then; you’ll know it’s done when it’s hard.
When you’re ready to use it, fill your bath with nice hot water and then, just drop in a bath bomb and let it do its thing. It will start to fizz and infuse your water with all of the nice essential oils and ingredients. All you have to do is slip in and enjoy.

Smells Like Relaxation

One of the first things I notice when I walk into a spa is how amazing it smells and nine times out of ten, spas smell like eucalyptus. At least, that’s been my experience and I’ve come to associate the scent of eucalyptus with being calm. I like to bring it into my own bathroom and there are so many ways to do it. You can grab a eucalyptus-scented candle or pick up eucalyptus essential oils. You can dash about 10 drops into your tub before you turn on your shower and that way, when the water hits the tub, it will start to infuse the little-enclosed area that you’re going to be showering in with that nice scent.

You can also get yourself an ultrasonic essential oil diffuser, which basically allows you to put water and essential oils in, turn it on and it creates a mist that’s infused with essential oils. A small area will be filled with this wonderful Zen-like smell (and if eucalyptus isn’t your thing, there are so many other great scents that you can try).

Flower Power

Other things that make me feel calm that I notice a lot of spas have are beautiful plants and flowers. Yes, flowers can be a little bit high-maintenance, but plants are a super simple thing to incorporate into your bathroom to make you feel calmer when you get in there.

You can put them on your windowsill or just check out the different lighting requirements that they need. Some might even be fine sitting on your counter. Hopefully, it will be easy to remember to water them, since they will be right beside a water source! Regardless, having a plant or two or even a couple of fresh cut-flowers in your bathroom will really help bring the spa experience home.

Musical Interlude

Never has a pan-flute sounded so good to me. When I’m at the spa, honestly, relaxing music is my jam; I don’t want to listen to anything besides classical guitar and gentle piano. While it’s not what I would normally want to listen to, it certainly helps me to get in that mindset. To bring the spa home, get yourself a portable speaker or even use your phone to play music. Calming, ambient music, classical piano or guitar, all of that can make you feel calm. If you play that while you’re getting ready in the morning or in the evening you can easily add more tranquility to your life.

Minimal, Organized, Clean

It’s hard for me to imagine going into a spa, walking into the bathroom and seeing all kinds of clutter and things on the counter. No! I don’t need that at a spa. I need minimal, I need organized and I need clean.

So, when I think about bringing the spa home, I try to take the same approach to my own bathroom. I will have a look at everything on my counter and decide “Ok! What do I use on a daily basis and what do I use every now and again?” If it’s something that’s occasional, it either goes in my medicine cabinet or under my sink. If it is something that I use daily then I will put it on a tray. Grouping everything together is just a very spa-like thing to do. That’s why they do it at hotels as well. It just looks organized and clean.

If you have something like cotton balls and Q-tips and you want those to look pretty, you can re-use a candle jar that has a lid on it and store them in it. Along those lines, you can also use mason jars, or pick up apothecary jars. It gives your bathroom that nice zen feel.

Shower Upgrade

While I’m not normally a fan of showering in public, I will definitely take advantage of showers at spas because they are so luxurious. They feel amazing and it’s typically because they have a big rainfall showerhead. If you are not looking to do a $10,000-bathroom reno (neither am I), you can upgrade your shower by picking up a luxurious rainfall showerhead. You can usually find them at big-box stores and simply replace the ones that you have. It means spending a little bit of money, but it really does bring that spa-like shower experience home.

Feels So Good

Everything at the spa literally feels good, they have really comfy, cozy materials that you can use to make you feel even more relaxed. They’ve nailed plush towels, as well as luxurious robes. They usually have comfy slippers and they even have nice comfy bath mats that you can stand on. Bringing that home is so simple. Get yourself some super plush, good quality towels, bath mats, even a robe. They will be game-changers in your bathroom.