When Bathrooms Become Spas
In an excellent Slate slideshow, Witold Rybczynski traces the evolution of the American bathroom to its current luxurious state. Reflecting a common equation, the headline writer mistitled the piece to suggest that today's fancy bathrooms are status symbols, when Rybczynski concludes otherwise: The trend is about pleasure--though it's easier to purchase that pleasure if you've got the dough (and, as I note in The Substance of Style
The widespread consensus that marble is the pinnacle of bathroom aesthetics is tough on people like me, who far prefer ceramic tile in all its gorgeous incarnations. The pursuit of resale value says put in marble, while current consumption argues in favor of tile. So far, I've stuck to tile.