Bath Design: Renew Body and Mind With Colorful Light
Take one tired, stressed-out self. Rinse in a shower bathed in blue light (or any color you like). Repeat
I'm a bathroom builder, a Houzz Contributor, a blogger (http://www.no-curb.com), a linear drain salesman and "Coach" to about 24 North Shore Girls Soccer players.
A dream client for me is someone looking to build their dream bathroom - not someone looking for a cheap fix.
I live for snow days and love the work we do. My newest love is LED lighting and we are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in a high end shower!
If you are looking for inspiration come check out my Ideabooks on Houzz. I have a ton of them - http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/users/johnfrwhipple
I'm a bathroom builder, a Houzz Contributor, a blogger (http://www.no-curb.com),... More »
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When we're blessed with good weather, we view the sun's warm rays as bright white. On early winter mornings, the sky is almost pink, and in the summer, warmer colors like red and orange can be seen at sunset. The spectrum of white light is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet — and these seven colors have an incredible impact on our physical and mental health.
Chromotheraphy has been studied and practiced for more than 4,000 years. Once reserved for the pharaohs of Egypt, this healing technique is now possible in our own homes to help improve our health and daily outlook. Often, the shower can be the best place to get a dose of healing light without breaking a daily routine. A multitude of colors can be produced with the aid of low-voltage LEDs (light-emitting diodes). This little bit of extra lighting does wonders for a small shower or bathroom — the ability to layer the light to suit morning routines or lazy weekend soaks is key to enjoying the bathroom at different times of day. Add in a little colored light, and you have a whole new space.
Let's take a look at colored light for bathrooms and cover a few pointers for successful installation.
Chromotheraphy has been studied and practiced for more than 4,000 years. Once reserved for the pharaohs of Egypt, this healing technique is now possible in our own homes to help improve our health and daily outlook. Often, the shower can be the best place to get a dose of healing light without breaking a daily routine. A multitude of colors can be produced with the aid of low-voltage LEDs (light-emitting diodes). This little bit of extra lighting does wonders for a small shower or bathroom — the ability to layer the light to suit morning routines or lazy weekend soaks is key to enjoying the bathroom at different times of day. Add in a little colored light, and you have a whole new space.
Let's take a look at colored light for bathrooms and cover a few pointers for successful installation.
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| Blue light has many documented health benefits. It helps reduce blood pressure and calm breathing, and makes relaxing easier. Blue light has also been shown to be an anti-inflammatory and improve circulation — all good things as we age. |
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| Look how this blue light brings the walls to life — at first you see the blue, then you notice the stone and the light reflecting off the water in the tub. When you're picking a tub with a chromotherapy package, get one with at least four lights. Sometimes two lights just doesn't cut it. |
Red light energizes and stimulates. The effects of red light can increase your pulse rate and get you charged up for a big game, pumped for a big meeting or in the mood for a little romance.
This shower has a wonderful iridescent tile that sparkles. With regular lighting, this room itself must be a real energizer both in the morning and at night. To highlight iridescent particles in the tile, multiple sources of light should be used. Three or five small halogens would work perfectly.
A tiled wall washed in light like this should be set perfectly so that the wall is smooth and flat. The closer the light is to hitting the wall, the more it will show flaws in the installation. Also, make sure the LED lighting, task lighting and fixtures are in place during the tiling process for complete accuracy.
This shower has a wonderful iridescent tile that sparkles. With regular lighting, this room itself must be a real energizer both in the morning and at night. To highlight iridescent particles in the tile, multiple sources of light should be used. Three or five small halogens would work perfectly.
A tiled wall washed in light like this should be set perfectly so that the wall is smooth and flat. The closer the light is to hitting the wall, the more it will show flaws in the installation. Also, make sure the LED lighting, task lighting and fixtures are in place during the tiling process for complete accuracy.
| If you're not brave enough for sparkly red tile, choose a safer tile and stick with LED lighting for color. When the mood hits, you can choose any color you like. You can always switch out regular light bulbs for LED versions in your standard fixture or build a custom light feature out of LED strip lighting for a similar approach. When working with a professional, make sure your installer doesn't underestimate the light needs of a room and add in too little lighting for a huge impact. When you're planning your lighting system, make sure it can be dimmed and build it brighter than you think you need it to be. The ThermaSol light featured here has six high-intensity light generators per color for intense and adjustable lighting. |
This steam shower has a chromotherapy setting that allows all the colors to change slowly. This is a real treat when you're taking a long steam shower. Many of my clients stretch in their showers before and after exercising, or to relax before bedtime. Clearing your head and detoxifying at day's end can produce a deeper sleep and help keep your nerves in check. Color can help improve this experience.
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Hundreds of years ago, stained glass was often used for chromotherapy purposes. Leonardo da Vinci believed that the power of meditation increased tenfold under the rays of violet light shining through a church's stained glass windows. Green light has been found to reduce irritability and insomnia, and can be used to help a person recover from a nervous breakdown. Yellow lighting can help with digestion and simply make us feel happy.
Stained glass, whether filtering natural or man-made light, produces amazing results. If the glass is beveled and used in conjunction with beads, crystals or different types of glass, the result is even more amazing.
Stained glass, whether filtering natural or man-made light, produces amazing results. If the glass is beveled and used in conjunction with beads, crystals or different types of glass, the result is even more amazing.
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| If you use your master bath every day to get ready for work, shower after soccer, bathe the kids and wash the dog, how can you make it feel like a spa when you have the time to relax? When general lighting or task lighting is switched off (the downlights, or pot lights, in the photo), ambient lighting can take over. Pendants and accent colored lighting (here, on the vanity toe kick and shower ceiling) can be set to a slow scroll to completely transform the mood. If you're on the fence about whether or not to install some chromotheraphy lights, just do it. It's easy to leave them off most of the time, and the benefit they offer when they're turned on is invaluable. |
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by Tracy Stone AIA
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| How could you not feel great taking a sunshine-filled shower? Harvesting the sun's light is easier with a large skylight like this one. We have started working more with 4- by 4-foot skylights, and the added light is always welcome. Consider locating your master en suite on the east elevation of a new home if you want to shower early in the day, or on the west side if you want to shower at day's end and catch the sunset's final rays. |
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| It doesn't matter which form of chromotheraphy you decide on for your next bathroom renovation; any and all are wonderful ways to bring your favorite color into your daily routine. For thousands of years, people have used colored lighting for healing — see if it improves the quality of your life. More: The Low-Down on LED LightingGet the Light Right for a Healthier House |
Ideabook updated on May 8, 2013.
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mike.straw@thermasol.com (404) 695-8219
I'll be showcasing the ThermaSol steam shower in a couple weeks at Build Ex if any Vancouverites want more information on the ThermaSol Chromatheraphy showers we build.
You can sign up here;
http://www.buildexvancouver.com/mediaedgewest/exhibitor/manual/pdf/exhibitor_comp_reg_form.pdf
We just installed this shower glass panel in our most recent project. You can see the picture to the right is with the blue light on and to the left the LED light off.
Another shot with the red lights. You can see the shower niche on the back corner. For some reason the red light does not travel through the 48" glass panel. There must be some science here that I don't understand.
The glass is likely float glass which has a natural green tint. The green pigment will absorb light in the red spectrum and limit the passage.
Green filters are placed on medical instruments to view parts of the body that are usually red in naked light, they are known as "red free."
If you wish to understand more try here: http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/2010/05/04/how-do-color-filters-work/
www.thermasol.com. Or, email me at. Mike.straw@thermasol.com and I'll hook you up with more info. That is what John Whipple uses in his shower installs. It will even hook up to our steam system or you can just get the light by itself. You can even control it from your smartphone or tablet. It is by far the coolest thing you can get. Imagine streaming music right from iTunes or pandora. Setting the lights right from your phone. It's even Bluetooth so you can take calls in the shower..... I could go on, just check it out and you'll be sold. Let me know what you think.
@ Cailikym - I'd email Mike, he is the only one more excited about steam shower construction than me. You can see one of his steam shower light/speakers above. The niche lighting is custom and I work with many different suppliers to achieve this look. You need (Heat sink, shrink wrap, LED, 3M, Diffusers, Kerdi Fix, Kerdi, 8+9, White Laminated glass) many things to pull off that.
The speaker/light just needs access and three nuts tightened. The Thermasol lights are easily controlled from inside the steam shower where as the other need remote control from outside.
@ Superstraw - I love the easy pairing feature with my IPhone. I had some reggae (Shaggy) and some rock (Bon Jovi) playing in no time. You need to change the pairing name from the default used to something more fitting.... How about "ThermaSol Rocks!" lol
When pairing any device be it your truck, your ThermaSol speaker, your buddy's T.V. remember to keep your device's volume around 50%.
All lighting in these pictures is custom controllable. Pretty slick! JW
More pictures on the designers Houzz Profile here; http://www.houzz.com/pro/hhoos/holger-hoos-design
We used a basic 3.5" stud cavity and sexed it up as bit.
Mitered tile corners
Down lit color RGB lighting
What do you think? JW