The Elegant Shower Upgrade That Makes Your Bathroom Feel Like A Spa

Whether it's adding mood lighting, a wooden chair, or plush towels, there are a lot of ways to make your bathroom feel like a spa. Luxury bathrooms are on the rise, largely due to an overall wellness movement that has many homeowners investing in features like steam rooms and chromotherapy. Incorporating natural materials like stone is yet another way designers are creating bathrooms that feel more like an elegant retreat. In designs like these, real stone is the timeless bathroom look that's taking over tile. However, you don't need to drench your bathroom in this natural material just to get the same feel you would at a hotel spa. Simply using a stone accent wall is enough to give your bathroom more of a resort-like feel.

Creating a stone accent wall in your bathroom is one of the easiest remodeling upgrades you can make to bring this spa-like feel into your home. In an interview with Better Homes & Gardens, stone was something that designer Greg Blee of Blee Halligan Architects mentioned when he was asked what people enjoyed about The South Bank Hotel that his firm worked on. "What truly captivates guests at our hotel are the fossilized corals embedded within [the natural stone]," he explained to the outlet. It's small, natural details like this that can elevate interior design, showing us that even just a small amount of stone in your design can make it feel more natural.

When it comes to spa-inspired bathrooms, the final result comes down to understanding more about why stone works so well and how you can use it in your home. Beyond being an investment in your property, upgrading your bathroom with a natural stone accent wall is an investment in your overall wellbeing. There's substantial evidence linking mental health to nature, including a 2021 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, which found an association between nature exposure and brain activity and cognitive function, in addition to sleep and blood pressure.

Essentially, this is biophilic design, which focuses on the integration of people and nature. This type of design brings outdoor elements like stone into indoor spaces to make us feel better. Research suggests that biophilic designs like natural stone accent walls in your bathroom can support everything from cognitive memory to a better quality of life. A 2025 study in PLoS One discovered that exposure to biophilic design led to a positive impact on the self-reported psychological states of the participants. But even without the research, it's easy to recognize that the tactile sensation of stone feels grounding and reassuring, or that it pairs well with soft lighting to create a more relaxing, stress-reducing shower experience. These are the type of design influences that experts use to turn bathrooms into a space where daily routines feel more immersive and luxurious.

Natural materials add depth, visual impact, and texture to your design, and whether you use layered ideas like small stone accents or a medley of stone and tile covering an entire wall, you can create a striking focal point that strengthens the connection to nature in your space.

When creating a stone accent wall in your bathroom to make it feel more like a luxury spa retreat, start by deciding which wall to upgrade. Usually, a bathroom accent wall is the one you see when you first enter the room, but it could also be a surprise accent wall in the back of the shower. Since bathrooms can take many shapes and sizes and have a lot of different walls, it could even be the wall behind the vanity. If a toilet or sink is in an alcove, you could also use stone there. Wherever you put it, layer in things you need to create the perfect spa-like bathroom, including wood benches, warm metallic accents, and muted lighting that reinforces the spa-like atmosphere in your bathroom.

For stone accent wall upgrades, consider the function of the wall before choosing materials and deciding how much stone to use. You can make a full accent wall, go halfway up, install a horizontal accent strip, or create a stone niche. If your accent wall is behind the vanity and mirror, another idea is to create a stone mosaic backsplash above wainscoting. Whatever you decide, you have a lot of different types of stone to work with in the bathroom, including popular choices like marble, travertine, flagstone, slate, and granite. You could even use natural stone tile with fossils to achieve a more natural look.