The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
I’ve noticed tons of outdoor showers around the web lately, but I think I might prefer an open-air tub. It would be a whole new level of decadence, wouldn’t it? Baths are so much more leisurely; it’s almost impossible to end one before your fingertips and toes are prunes!
Have you ever? Would you ever? Weather and privacy permitting, of course!
Galvanized “pool” as seen in Pacing the Panic Room‘s backyard. So sweet.
My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six. We currently live in a farmhouse in the French countryside. I post on where design and motherhood intersect.
New to Design Mom? Here are 10 posts to get you started:
What to Wear To Middle School
Napoleon Dynamite
Our Birth Announcements
Potato Print Clothing
Having Another Child
Young Einstein Birthday Party
Little Red LightHouse Outing
Porch Makeover
Waving Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean
Build Two Toddler Beds for $75
Pimp My Ride: Family Edition
Our Living Well column is full of posts that will help you up the quality factor in your every day life. And Spring is the perfect time to learn a new skill or freshen up an existing one. Which post is catching your eye?
Extend the Life of Your Cut Flowers.
How to Care for Your Unmentionables.
Five Secrets to a Perfectly Hard-Boiled Egg.
Eight secrets to Perfectly Polished Shoes.
This is what's in an Ideal Art Supply Cupboard.
How to Properly Wash and Store Your Fruits and Veggies.
Secrets to the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.
The Skills you need for a Well Mended Wardrobe.
How to Put Together a Fabulous Cheese Board. For your next dinner party!
Do you know how to Properly Iron a Shirt?
I wonder what we'll learn next! To see more of the posts in this series, click here.
Wow! Time Magazine named Design Mom a Top Website of the year. I'm blushing! See the write up about Design Mom here. And see the full list here.
I write a weekly column called Inspiration Scout on Cafémom. Find new posts on Thursdays.
I write a column for Babble called Celebrations. All about parties and gatherings and holidays.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh Yes! Taking my two favorite things.. being outdoors and soaking in a hot tube (with aromatic herbs) would be a real haven. I think in some parts of the world people actually put a a tube over a fire and heat the water that way… imagine a steaming hot bath whilst looking up at the stars….
*tub ;)
I am not a bath person, but would loooove an outdoor shower!
My husband and I gave our kids a bath last summer in their kiddie pool. It was more amusing than relaxing.
i have dreamed about an outdoor shower for years! i might not necessarily go totally nude but I love the idea if you had a pool or maybe after a beach day. so neat!
After living in the Peace Corps and taking outdoor bucket baths for 2 years, I am constantly dreaming of an outdoor shower/bath in our yard. Houses are taller here though, making privacy more complicated. :)
Japanese Baths are outdoors. And are, according to one of my sisters, divine.
ok, i’m buying one of this on the summer instead of the crappy inflatable tub for my kid that lasts only a few months!
I love baths and while I would love an outdoor tub I just LOVE outdoor showers. I find them so romantic!
PS: I grew up swimming in a galvanized tub like the one above – that was my wading pool!
Am I crazy to wonder how you’d monitor the temperature? I don’t think I could handle a cool bath for very long. I love the idea of a warm outdoor bath though.
We stayed at an amazing resort in Kerala, India for a friend’s wedding a few years back and all the rooms had outdoor bathrooms. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to our own little cottage which not only had an outdoor bathroom but an outdoor bathroom with private swimming pool. It was so nice showering and bathing outside while looking up at palm trees. Our two year old daughter absolutely loved it, especially when birds or geckos visited. The outdoor toilet took a little getting used to though!
Outdoor showers are vacation beach house staple – there is nothing better!
We do it all the time, and have the same one as pictured above. Love them. Lots of work if you don’t have an outdoor hot water tap. kettles, and kettles and kettles of boiling water.
We have an outdoor shower. When the weather is warm enough we put a kiddie pool under it and the kids are busy for hours. After their “bath” they water the plants. If you can swing it I would really recommend one, especially with a flash water heater.
Here in China they sell wooden bath tubs, the long kind and the short, round kind with a seat in them. We have no tub in our current home, so I’m thinking of getting one since our bathrooms are plenty big.
Love this!! So much fun!
I grew up in Santa Cruz, CA and many houses had an outdoor shower for the surfers in the family. We had an old victorian that we plumbed an outdoor shower for my brothers in the side yard. It wasn’t very luxurious but it did the job of getting the sand off and keeping it out of the house.
Later we moved up North a little and had an outdoor tub on our side porch. It was very private and I remember what fun it was to take a bath under the stars, especially on a cold night.
I now life in San Francisco and have no room for outdoor bathing but we try to escape to Santa Cruz every once in a while to visit a spa there where you get a hot tub with a view of the japanese gardens through huge, open, shoji screens. It feels like outdoors and reminds me of all the fun of outside bathing as a kid.
I’ve been plotting an outdoor tub for a couple years! I’m waiting for a clawfooter that’s just the right price!
I think I would love this! When I was thirteen, I washed my hair outside with the garden hose every day, all summer long. I think I’d seen a picture in a magazine of people using outdoor showers in the wilderness that inspired me :) I would put on my bathing suit, grab the shampoo, and enjoy the cold water on my head on a hot day. Such fun!
I used to, as a kid. On rainy days, my brother and I would put on bathing suits and “bathe” in the rain. Fun times.
We had an outdoor shower when I was growing up in S. California. It was called a hose. It was not an easy task keeping both kids and the bathroom clean, but my mom was a practical and ingenious woman and this setup kept everyone happy.
It’s a favorite fantasy of mine to have an outdoor shower (a bath is nice too). There is something very refreshing about the c0ntrast of the steamy hot and outside air. It would be exhilarating.
Absolutely! I have one and it’s connected to a chofu stove for our own ofuro. It’s lovely! Highly recommend! :)
When I was about 8 years old, there was one glorious summer when my mother had an old claw foot tub on our back patio. My parents were slowly remodeling their bathroom, but my mom wouldn’t let my father install the bathtub until the fall. We would hook a hose to the laundry room sink, fill the tub with warm water and have an amazing, summer evening bath…facing the national forest, of course. What a wonderful idea to use a galvanized trough!
Perhaps this is too much information but we have a camp shower and I absolutely LOVE it! The best shower I had is when we were camping on the edge of this mesa and you could see the whole valley. Camp showers are just the best after a long day of playing outside.
I grew up in Las Vegas and the year my parents remodeled our one full bathroom they installed an outdoor shower until the bathroom was finished. I was pretty young but I remember loving taking a cool shower in 90 degree heat outside in a bamboo stall!