The bathroom as an erogenous zone.

No room is more intimate than your bathroom. There is nowhere better to relax and get in the mood … to succumb to the sheer sensuality of soaking in scented water, indulging fantasies and anticipating future pleasures.

Your bathroom should be a place to feel beautiful in. to lacquer your toenails or finish a novel, henna your hair, water your plants or even paint a picture. No reason why it shouldn’t be your bathroom-boudoir-dressing-room-studio all in one. Even better if there’s room for a bed .. .

The bathroom is where you imprint your personality. Dare to be exotic with jungle prints, orchids growing in glass tanks. Or keep it cool with ice-white decor, stark modern art, a Japanese Bonsai tree.

Whatever your style, remember the importance of warmth, the comforting feel of thick pile rugs and heated towels. There’s no greater turn-off than getting goose pimples in a chilly cheerless bathroom. We photographed three highly individual bathrooms designed with great flair, and each styled perfectly for their owner’s lives. But all with a single thought in common—comfort.

The lure of the East for international fashion designer, Thea Porter. She designed her Mayfair bathroom with a Moorish interior in mind . . . wide built-in seats with heavily embroidered cushions. a little arch cut into the wall to display treasured objects. Thea doubles her exciting room as a studio, hangs her paintings around the walls.

If you want to please a man, model your bathroom on the one good-looking London businessman David Evers owns, with handsome polished mahogany fitted units, ivory backed brushes and green plants. David says the atmosphere reminds him of a St James’ men’s club.

The third is a fiery red hideaway, a fantastic design by Richard Ohrbach for New Yorker Cynthia Peltz. There’s more than a touch of the womb about this room—very comfortable after a hard day at the office …

Text by Joan Prust-Walters.

Photographs by Tim Street Porter.

Scanned from Cosmopolitan, January 1974.