hellobeautifulcreatures

Your extra long showers are ruining the environment and Elisabeth Buecher wants to do something about it.  The textile installation artist can’t flush the toilet or throw cold water on every excessive shower taker , but she has found a way to keep people on a tight schedule: inflatable spikes. Part of a series of creations called “My Shower Curtain is a Green Warrior,” the Spiky curtain pushes people out of the stall if they’ve been in for too long. From the moment the water starts running , you have four minutes to do all your scrubbing before the spikes make it impossible to remain in the shower. An additional installation, titled “Trap,” offers a similar concept, though with double the claustrophobia. As the shower head rains down, the curtain begins to inflate around the user. If you surpass four minutes of scrubbing, the curtain closes entirely and traps you inside. It makes every morning feel like an escape from the Temple of Doom. Buecher’s installations play off the sugge...

Image caption The survey challenged assumptions about how long people spent showering each day A survey, using innovative technology, has offered an insight into people's showering habits. The average shower lasted eight minutes - much longer than previous studies suggested , using almost as much water and energy as the average bath. The information was compiled from "data loggers" that recorded 2,600 showers by 100 families over a 10-day period. The survey was carried out by producer Unilever, which wanted to find out how people were using their products. According to the data, an eight-minute shower used 62 litres of hot water, compared with an average bath's 80 litres. And, it suggested, that if people were using a power shower - an appliance that adds extra pressure to the water flow - then an eight-minute shower would require twice as much water and energy as a bath. Hilde Hendrickx, a behavioural scientist in Unilever's R&D department, said that the...

Steam showers have become very popular in North American homes over the last 20 years. When most people think of a steam shower they think of a custom tile or stone room similar to a small scale Roman bath . This isn’t the case however. Modular steam cabins are becoming very prominent in New Construction and recently remodeled homes . Modular steam rooms have been all the rage in Europe for years are starting to make their way to the North American market . For the price of a regular tile shower or acrylic unit consumers can have a luxury steam shower with features they never knew they could afford such as chromo therapy lighting , FM radio and sound system, hands free telephone and the list goes on. With all new products on the market there is some buyer skepticism and with good reason. There are many unscrupulous importers out there who run sub- par operations selling products that are not certified and are made with cheap materials. Here are some tips to help cons...

Installing do-it-yourself acrylic shower walls can be easy as long as you select the right acrylic shower set . (Tim Carter) I’ve had it with ceramic tile in my shower. It’s hard to clean, and I love the sleek look of some of the modern acrylic shower units . I want to do this job myself, so the installation needs to be DIY-friendly. What’s been your experience with these easy- care shower units ? Would you be kind enough to share some installation tips so I don’t goof this up? — Alice W., Xenia, Ohio I can hear you loud and clear about ceramic tile care . When I was younger, I seemed to have plenty of energy to wrestle with cleaning tile and grout. I did discover years ago that using powdered oxygen bleach made the job easier and less smelly, but I no longer have to deal with cleaning tile because I’ve switched out all the showers in my home to acrylic. I’ ve installed countless acrylic tub and shower units over the years, as I’ve been a master plumber since before I was 30. I...

Marrying practicality and style to get the most out of the bathroom, whatever its size, will make soaking up the effort all the sweeter, writes Kya de Longchamps. THE bathroom is a crucial room to get right, but most of us have to deal with a rather small space which can make it difficult to squeeze in those big ideas in styling and luxury. Marrying practicality to good looks is a matter of scaling a good quality suite correctly to the room, making every available centimetre work. Baths — the secrets of scale The bath is generally the largest element to accommodate in a bathroom. Variations in bath design tend to be minor size differences (1700mm or 1800m in length) plus shaping in the shower area to accommodate a wider standing position . A rectangular wall- mounted bath remains popular as it fits well into a niche. Freestanding bath s with straighter sides can slip neatly against even a slender length of wall, but consider something you can sit in rather than lounging full length...

This is the final part of a three-part series that looks at green hotels — what that means , how it works and what consumers can do. In real life, you probably don’t launder your sheets every day, recklessly tear through individually wrapped snacks and toiletries, single-handedly consume a 12-pack of bottled water or let the shower run for 30 minutes. But forgoing real life in favor of indulgence and escapism is often considered acceptable — or even expected — on vacation. This goes far beyond not replacing your towels and linens every day, which has become largely ubiquitous. “At home, we don’t all wash our sheets every day,” Ave Bradley, Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group’s creative director and global senior vice president of design, said by phone. “So when you think about it, if people are staying with us for 2 1/2 nights on average, obviously there’s no reason to change the linens.” Today’s hotels are finding creative new ways to softly coax guests into becoming greener by be...

Our pick Delta In2ition 58480 This efficient showerhead combines the benefits of a handheld with a full- featured traditional model to give you a unique set of advantages, like richer spray patterns and easier installation, than some competitors. *At the time of publishing, the price was $130. The Delta In2ition 58480 combines the simplicity of a wall-mounted showerhead and the utility of a handheld—switching between them is a matter of holstering or drawing the handheld unit. At 2 gallons of water per minute, it meets the strictest federal efficiency guidelines , yet delivers satisfying results on multiple spray settings , from a gentle “rainshower” to a powerful massage. The 58480 replaces this guide’s former handheld pick, the similar Delta 58471, an excellent product many of our readers and a few editors use and love. This new Delta is more efficient than the other one’s 2.5 gpm, and its gentler spray options are more comfortable, which really helps when bathing kids or pet...

Twenty20 / laurfant24 When one of your best friends get engaged, it’s just the best. The most exciting. And when she lists off the names of “her people”, the girls she couldn’t imagine not having standing by her side on her special day, you notice a few names that you don’t know. Or don’t know well, at least. You show up to the engagement party or the first few showers and there they are, the 6-10 other girls who are equally as excited to watch their friend live out her dream of marrying her prince charming. And for one weekend, you spent an absurd amount of time bustling dresses and sipping on mimosas until you’ve convinced yourself that your shoes don’t hurt, and the only thing you’re left with is following each other on social media and hearing little bits and pieces about each other’s lives from our mutual friend. And you know, that’s just not enough. We went through a weekend-long affair together and it doesn’t feel right that it just ends with a hug after a sparkler brigade as ...

The key to successfully redesigning the bathroom lies primarily in the planning stages and in the correct assessment of your particular problems. Redesigning a bathroom is not something that should be undertaken lightly, not because it is likely to lead to considerable expense, but also because once the work has been done there is little you can easily do should you be unhappy with the results. There are four main categories with regards to bathroom problems: congestion, layout and fittings. All too often, a single room combines all four, but if you consider each of these problem areas carefully , you may find that solving one may make the others far easier to deal with. Congestion Too many people wanting to use the bathroom at the same time can be a major source of family friction. The best solution here is to see whether it is possible to provide extra facilities elsewhere in the house so that the whole family does not have to rely on access to a single bathroom. A small guest toi...