One day, in addition to the Playground, I will also run a yoga studio.
A very unconventional yoga studio. There will be nap time and yoga nidra and old Turkish lady yoga, and plenty of Shiva Nata and related shivanautical goodness.
And, of course, there will *not* be barbie doll instructors in leotards. No mirrors. It will be more like the Playground (playful! magical!), but not hidden to the general public.
Anyway, I’ve been working on this for a while but it’s still mostly in gwish form. Gwish!
The thing I’m paying attention to right now is bathrooms. The thoughtful kind.
What is a thoughtful bathroom?
The experience of being there tells you someone has put conscious effort into figuring out how to make you feel cared for. And welcome.
At Michelle’s lovely studio in Sacramento (Selma and I were just there in December to teach a segment of her teacher training program), she has a little bowl of hair bands.
In case you have lots of hair and you forgot one and now your hair is in your face. This happens to me all the time.
I thought this was the sweetest thing. We have one in the Playground now — in the Treasure Room, right next to the orange tray of orange ear plugs.
So I’ve been collecting.
Every time I visit a washroom, I am keeping watch for objects and symbols: whatever is kind, generous, considerate.
Then I try to figure out how we can use this in some other context at the Playground, and what I can plan for when we open the studio.
At New Seasons, they have a bowl of tampons in the ladies.
At the Playground we have a box of lady supplies, donated by a generous Friend of Playground. It currently resides in the Galley (in the cabinet under the sink).
They also have a little foot stool, perfect for a kid to step up and dry hands.
And a respectful, well worded sign. Most signs tend to either be bossy or begging. Whenever I find a really clear and sovereign sign, I jot it down in my little notebook.
Looking for congruence.
A place I love to visit in Portland is the Tin Shed. Mostly because the food is amazing — if you come to a Rally, we can totally go.
If you are a past Rallion, weigh in. Is this place not marvelous?
But I just love the restroom. Plenty of space. The lighting doesn’t make you look half dead, which I appreciate.
And then the changing table. It’s not some plastic thing that needs to be pulled out of the wall.
It’s this nice wooden piece of furniture that looks and feels like a real thing. It’s not just a nod to people who have kids live in Bolivia. It’s really lovely.
More important, it is congruent, to use a Hiro-ism.
The changing table matches the essence of what they do, and it feels harmonious with the rest of their business: homemade, friendly, unpretentious.
Speaking of Hiro.
Speaking of Hiro, I love visiting her. And not only because I love her to pieces.
When you are her guest, everything is welcoming.
And the bathroom is the best. There are always flowers. Delicious smelling lavender body wash. Plenty of everything you could possibly need.
You can’t help but think, this is the most incredibly hospitable place in the world and I never want to leave.
And it makes sense, because Hiro’s work is all about helping you belong in your life. So it’s a loving space, because that’s how she lives.
How to apply this to everything.
Being the owner of a business, I’m constantly thinking about how to apply everything to business.
And being a conscious, mindful destuckifier, I’m also trying to think about how to apply these concepts to everything else in life.
Obviously you don’t need to have an actual bathroom to have a thoughtful bathroom. I’m thinking about things like this:
What would a thoughtful contact form on a website look and feel like?
Or a thoughtful welcome packet for an online course or program.
A thoughtful policies page for your Etsy shop.
Or if you do have a bricks and mortar space, how to look from the outside like you might be the kind of place that has a thoughtful bathroom.
Where to start.
I’m looking at what the qualities of my business and the essential personality of its culture, so that I can make everything more congruent.
And examining my gwishes to get more information about what their essence is.
I think there’s something so powerful (and also marvelously subversive) in making business be about congruence and essence, instead of focusing on things like “how to build a list” or “what headlines make people click”.
Because when you’re paying attention to the feeling/experience/qualities you want both you and your people to have, that other stuff gets easier.
It becomes both less essential and more do-able.
This kind of practice also makes goals and wishes less elusive. More tangible. I may not have my studio for a while, but I know exactly how my people will feel once they’re there. And let me tell you, they will freaking love the bathroom. I can’t wait until you see it.
Play! And the comment zen blanket fort.
Here’s what I would love:
Stories or bits of information about bathrooms you adore, or other ways that businesses you like radiate qualities and make you feel at home.
And it would be neat if we could do some brainstorming about ways we can all apply this, whether to online business or life in general.
Business is a full-of-triggers thing for a lot of us, so we make room for everyone to have their stuff and we comfort our monsters as best we can.
We share our own experience without giving each other advice, unless people ask for it, in which case go for it.
And I need to end this post now because trying not to make the just one guy joke about Thoughtful Bathrooms is killing me. I need to save a fake band for tomorrow, right? Kisses!
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I love bathrooms that include really luxurious and nice-smelling (not chemically) lotion. Real towels. Warm lighting. Pretty sink hardware that glides along and is a pleasure to use. Water that actually gets warm somewhere before the next millennium dawns.
Something my old yoga studio had that I loved was a place to sit down to take your shoes off when you got there, complete with little cubbies for your shoes and stuff, so they didn’t have to sit on the floor. It felt like I was welcomed that way, that I wasn’t hopping on one foot trying to get rid of shoes with laces that were so essential to the day getting me there in the first place.
But I love this concept! I love thinking about what makes spaces (literal and metaphorical) warm and welcoming.
It’s making me think about how I make my own bathrooms at home for my own use. And my bedside table. And my kitchen. Basically my whole house. What would it look like if I designed it for generous and warm hospitality?
I like when places like restaurants and shops have a little dish under the soap dispensers in their restrooms. Whoever gets stuck cleaning the washroom, I know it makes their life easier. And there’s no odd puddle of soap on the counter.
Also, yummy-smelling soap or a nice bottle of hand lotion that smells good, not the ginormous Costco-sized generic thing. Like someone real went to the store, saw it, and thought we would want to try it. The food always tastes better for some reason in places where I look forward to washing my hands.
Also, the Tin Shed is amazing. Unrelated: I now have an odd craving for macaroni and cheese.
The very bestest bathroom sign (for ladies) that I ever saw was this:
“Ladies, please remain seated for the entire ride.”
It says it all w/o being icky, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate. 🙂
Also, given the intimacy of what goes on in the bathroom, I love the idea of starting there as a means of making the whole (of your Self or your space) welcoming and thoughtful.
I don’t have an awesome bathroom story, but I love this idea.
When I sit down to figure out what I want from my business and what I want it to look like, I make lists of words of how I would like them to feel.
I have a difficult time translating those words into things like a website design or whatever. I think it is important though.
Because when you’re paying attention to the feeling/experience/qualities you want both you and your people to have, that other stuff gets easier.
YES. I am finding this to be true with my Secret Project. Which makes me incredibly happy.
Thanks for this post (and every post!), Havi. As always, I love reading. 🙂
Oh, also? I am always the most impressed by bathrooms that invest in actual, quality toilet paper, instead of stuff that is a half-step above thin tracing paper.
Just sayin’.
One of my favorite bathrooms is in a Japanese restaurant near Philadelphia. Very clean, comfortable and uncluttered, softly lit, with a wall of dark polished stones that I always loved to caress. It was such a beautiful room — like a meditation room, really. I don’t live near that restaurant any more, but I still miss that bathroom!
Then, too, I always think a basket filled with hip and diverse reading material is a nice touch. 🙂
Oh, yes, shoe-places are lovely. And plenty of blankets. Without the enormous blanket mountain and the example of everyone else I’d’ve just thought that you were supposed to get cold while meditating sitting still and suck it up.
I also loved the squishy sofa (near the shoes) outside my once-regular meditation hall where I sometimes snumpfed under a blanket during the break, when I’d had a lot to deal with in the sitting – before I even knew that that was a normal process, I think – and was feeling too made of goo to talk to anyone. It wasn’t designed that way, but the whole building made me feel that that was somehow an okay thing to do. I’m very thankful for that.
Actually, notices that are honest about the places they’re there to help with quite often make me feel better about a place. I think it’s that they invite an accepting relationship to a bathroom, for example, that might be old and rickety but work fine if you approach it with approachingness instead of rigid expectations. My favourite is the notice I can only half-remember in a community kitchen which says the water is heated by lots of tiny little Welsh dragons… it’s twee, but it suits me, and has the approachingness-inducing effect. Plus makes me laugh.
I was thinking about the quality of abundance one day, and how I could bring more of it into my life, and the thing that came up was to always have a thicker bar of soap in the shower. I tend to use the soap until it’s almost entirely gone and that teeny tiny piece of soap at the end is always falling out of my hands and getting lost and making the whole experience full of frustration. I know my intent is good (not wasting things, sustainability ..), but somehow I think a good intent can be negated if I am feeling bitter and resentful and frustrated while I am doing the thing. And it feels so lovely to always have a decent sized bar of soap.
Yes, the Tin Shed is amazing. @Shannon: now I also want mac ‘n cheese. 🙂
Oh! Speaking of bathrooms. I took a class with my BodyTalk person a couple of years ago. I went in to use the bathroom and the bottom of the sink was covered with rocks – the size you might collect on the beach and put on a tray of candles. It was so beautiful that I didn’t want to leave and it made the whole act of hand-washing feel so special. I think about it all the time.
Sink rocks! Yes! El Pisces pooh-poohs them but I think they’re great. Might reinstall that today, actually. Thanks for the idea Elizabeth 😀
Oh, thoughtful bathrooms! I love them so much. And bathroom thoughtfulness is very important to me, as I’m the sort of person who pees a lot.
I really like a bathroom that smells nice. And I very much like it to have soft rugs underfoot.
Oooh sink rocks! That sounds soooo lovely.
I always appreciate it when I can use a non-gendered, private bathroom in a public place. Too many of my friends have to make the decision between risking being gender-policed in public bathrooms or not using a public bathroom at all when they need one. In fact, I make it a point to thank establishments with non-gendered, private bathrooms for having them!
My favorite public bathroom in Brooklyn is at Bark Hotdogs on Bergen Street. In addition to decent lighting, nice fixtures, privacy, and a high-flow super-efficient hand dryer (love those!), they have a funny sign that says “for the complete private bathroom experience, use the bolt lock in addition to the lock on the handle.” I think “the complete private bathroom experience” is a hilarious phrase.
I have to comment a third time to agree whole-heartedly with Emily here about the non-genderification of bathrooms. I use the bathroom that matches my biological sex, but it always makes me feel a little uncomfortable, especially when the bathroom’s decor and coloration is so heavily gendered (paintings of shoes hung on pink walls, photos of guns and chars stuck on blue or grey walls, that sort of thing). Not everyone in a female body is a girl, nor is everyone in a male body a boy.
Non-gendered bathrooms, in both usability and decor, make my friggin’ day.
I love it when I walk into a building and I know where to go and what to do! Not knowing where to go = eek! doubt! = enter Am-I-Doing-It-Wrong Monster, stage left.
I also have an inordinate love for places with pretty hooks for coats. They make me feel like whoever put them there thought of even this detail.
You’re so right!
There is nothing worse than a cold, flat, lifeless bathroom – for guests, or for ourselves. Too often, people focus on what looks nice rather than on what feels right. Comfort is about convenience as much as ambience, so a space that makes life easy and enjoyable is a thoughtful one. The small touches that you and others have noted do make a tangible difference.
Same is true in business.
And, I couldn’t help but think of a story I heard on cbc radio a while ago about washrooms in the workplace. I went looking, and found this post by UX designer Kate Rutter, which was the impetus for the piece.
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/office-bathrooms-as-key-indicators-of-team-culture
Anyway, a producer experimented with many of Rutter’s ideas, and the results were then hilariously recounted on air.
Thoughtful bathrooms and business. An interesting combination of ideas indeed!
The bathrooms at the American Visionary Art Museum had funky shrines and such in them, each one was different. At Quilt Surface Design Symposium one year, the women took over the men’s room so we’d have a spare restroom, they draped the urinal in a sheet and turned her into a goddess for the duration of the conference. 🙂
Thoughtful bathrooms are awesome.
Though I do sometimes wonder why people store their “lady supplies” elsewhere which would force a person to seek them out in a more public fashion which seems counter to the intent in having the supplies in the first place. Just me?
Two bathrooms immediately come to mind: one had a huge purple clawfoot tub which was somehow reassuring. The other, the women’s lounge at Nordstrom’s in San Francisco which was handy for a bit of a freakout. 🙂
Also a sucker for anywhere with beautiful light that isn’t claustrophobic.
I recently switched employers and the thoughtful bathrooms at my new job are a wonderful reminder that I made a good decision.
Tin Shed! I ate there almost every day. (Okay, once I ate there twice in one day. Maybe even with people who are hanging out on this post but who shall remain nameless 🙂
Also, I had a happy memory of you offering me that plate of orange ear plugs during a fire drill. A happy memory of a fire drill! The Playground is really something else.
Mostly, I love this post. Lately I’ve been thinking about how affected I am by businesses that share their essence through stories. This morning I was moved by the story on my yogurt container. I started drinking Anchor Steam after reading Small Giants. And now I’m thinking that these stories are especially resonant for me when their essence is congruent with mine. Hmmm… Love.
In our island there’s a restaurant in the middle of nowhere that has a growing fan base basically because of their bathrooms. The food is pretty good, but the bathroom… I’ve never seen a more thoughtful, considerate and spot- clean bathroom in my life. Certainly not in my house with all the toys lying around. Anyway, the bathroom has been the key to make people get out of their way, just to use THAT bathroom, and therefore eat and drink there as well. Is a lovely surprise to find a place like that.
Definitely a good point to consider, the congruence and love we should bring to all parts of our business, art and life.
Maybe not so much thoughtful as interesting, I love the kind of pubs that have interesting toilet graffiti…redeems even the grottiest loos. (for me anyway.)
I was in a bathroom once with fish living in the tub, you know, with stones and logs and plants, too. That was nice. I also like unisex bathrooms (or as my fave bar in New Orleans calls it, the bi-sexual bathroom).
I live in a cubicle. Well, I spend most of my day there, and I try to make it homey and comfortable with trinkets, posters, and silk flowers. But,,what if I tried to make it comfortable and friendly for my co-workers, for those who come to visit me at my desk? A thoughtful cubicle. (ha!) A thoughtful desk and a thoughtful attitude.
I love bathrooms that have a place for me to put my ginormous purse. And my coat. And whatever other layers I might have on that need to be removed. I also love the private bathrooms because then I can wash my hands before picking up all of my things. I also like chairs or tables that I can put my things on, not hooks. I inevitably have too much stuff to hang on a hook and I have this thing about not putting anything on the floor of a public restroom.
Yes, a place to put the ginormous bag and long coat (if winter) and I love the idea of sink rocks. Real flowers that smell great – I love those everywhere.
Also, family bathroom, with real changing table and small toilet next to large one. When my kids were small and we found one of those, it was amazing! No need to smush us all in a tiny stall (it was big enoough for a stroller/wheelchair) or worry about a young child standing alone outside it. It honored the humanity and needs of my family.
I really like those bathrooms that have floor to ceiling walls and doors – not stalls. And those soft thick paper towels that almost feel like they’re not paper that I’ve gotten in fancy restaurant bathrooms. I definitely don’t like bathroom attendants, makes me nervous in oh so many ways. Has anyone been somewhere where the disposal of “lady products” is clever and feels safe and clean instead of cringe inducing?
The whole idea of congruence and those extra touches that make us feel welcome is such a wonderful idea to put into my head as I embark and my secret thing. Thank you.
Who new I had so much to say about bathrooms!
The best bathroom I have ever had the pleasure to be in was at the excellently named Bloody Mary’s Barefoot Bar on the gorgeous tropical island of Bora Bora. Bloody Mary’s is a great place…the floor of the entire bar and restaurant is sand and there are palm fronds everywhere. The food was amazing and the service was excellent, but the bathroom is infamous; my favorite part was the sink- not in fact a sink at all, but a small waterfall! The thing it is really famous for is the handle on the pull chain of the urinal- it’s a giant wooden dildo about 15 inches longs and it is common for women to walk in to have a look- a little disconcerting if you are using the urinal at the time! Still, my favorite bathroom in the world, hands down.
i love bathrooms with spaciousness and warmth. my favorite had a comfy arm chair in it!
I’ve been looking forward to this post.
I have a thoughtful bathroom. Plush mat. Big counters with things I need within reach (not in drawers, but on a tray.) And baskets under with Things I Need Sometimes.
My yoga studio has yummy natural mint foamy soap, that I love. And the companion mint spray, that I sometimes just spray for kicks.
Hooks are thoughtful on a bathroom door. Lots of them in a yoga studio, in case I’m changing in there and need to hang all my clothes up while I change.
Cleanliness is thoughtful. I need to ask my office landlords to clean our bathrooms. They are not very thoughtful right now.
If there are stalls, making sure that there aren’t big spaces so that the person walking in can’t see through the space at the person on the toilet.
One of my favorite bathrooms in town is at the upscale mall – lots of room, good lighting, marble countertops with the sunken sinks, automatic water and soap dispensers (which is nice considering how many people are in and out of there in a day!) and each of the stalls has real louvered hardwood doors that go from the high ceiling all the way to the floor. So much better than the typical public bathroom!
I think a lovely yoga studio bathroom would be alive with color, although more in a healthy, natural, and soothing way with greens and blues and purples. Not so much of the super bright, almost aggressive colors. Yummy smelling foamy soap – I especially like those little automatic dispensers you can find these days. To be a little more “green”, maybe a stack of hand towels made out of soft and colorful flannel with a nice basket near the sink to place them once used. (ooh, I sense a weekend craft project coming on…)
(Hmm… is the Tin Shed home of the “tot-chos?”)
If there are stalls: locks that work. Sturdy hooks for purses. A cheerful color for the walls. Redundant toilet paper reserves in each stall. Air fresheners. Lady-product disposal in each stall (not having to carry your used lady-products to one central bin).
Space enough for people to set their things; also, space enough between two sinks (if there’s more than one sink) that people aren’t cramped. Soft bright lighting. Thoughtful traffic flow . . . I am so bewildered by the bathrooms where there is only ONE paper towel dispenser and it’s far away back BEHIND the sinks, opposite from the door, and people are running into each other and their hands are dripping water. And I love it when the decorator/designer makes it easy to do the right thing. (rather, than, say, become impatient that there are no paper towels available, just only one hand-dryer-blower-thing that’s loud and electric and takes too long and someone else is using it anyway and thus you are compelled to just leave and dry your hands on the sides of your clothing.)
A full-length mirror somewhere, if you need it. Really really thoughtful.
Lysol or similar and hand sanitizer — they don’t have to be made compulsory, but people will appreciate them being around if needed.
Artwork. I always marvel at the lost chances we get every day when we’re in the most mundane of activities but we *could* be learning something new, if only someone would be thoughtful enough to include it. Instead of staring at a blank metal stall door, we could be experiencing a new piece of artwork, you know?
Haha! You remembered what the post-it note meant! Excellent.
Things I love in a bathroom:
Flowers
Lovely fittings and products (natural textures)
Extras of everything you need
Yes – thoughtful stocks of things you might need!
Clean, dry, smells good (no overpowering scented things though)
Taps that deliver water INTO the sink and not all over the bench all around it
Hooks, benches, chair
Quiet but effective fan. (Surely it has been invented).
Appropriate design – I like private bathrooms but would take stalls and communal sinks over queues.
I’ve always thought that I’d like to paint the inside of stalls with chalkboard paint and leave a supply of coloured chalk so that people could indulge the urge to graffiti. And because *wherever this imaginary bathroom is* would be full of lovely people it would be clever, pretty, funny, arty, cool and fun. Wash it off once it’s totally full and start over.
A lounge area on the way in is always nice too…
What a great post. I love that you want the essence of the experience to come through. If we all thought like this the planet would be so much more comfortable.
The most amazing bathroom I have ever seen is in Lucca, Italy. It took my breath away when I went down the stairs. It was open and there was a man at the sink. Then on one stall was a picture of a man from the neck down without a shirt and just showing the top of his belt. On the other stall was a beautiful woman’s chest. It was pure art and so gorgeous. The sinks were like the Kohler ad – so amazing that I wanted to stare at the whole place. I took photos. It was an art experience.
I love to put out shampoos, conditioners, qtips and things for guests. Giving guests a sensory experience is a pleasure.
I love Yoga Nidra. Richard Miller, PhD, author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga is a friend now. I hope to take his workshop in CA this year. Would love to come to your someday studio to practice. I’ve been listening and practicing now for 17 months daily. It’s brain changing.
I love all these glorious ideas for considerate, welcoming bathrooms. One of my favorite features (must be a throwback to high school graffiti marked stalls) is something engaging to read. There’s this great restaurant that has a cork board and a page of the NY Times in each stall. I’ve seen chalkboards for writing down epiphanies, fun facts (at a science museum). I also like those hand driers that blast warm air and warm/dry your hands in seconds.
Bathrooms where the faucet reaches far enough out from the wall of the sink that your hands don’t touch the wall of the bowl while you wash them. An unfortunate amount of bathrooms have this, and it just doesn’t seem hygenic.
My favorite bathroom is in a pancake house in New England and it has a (working) lava lamp. YAY!
Also, I love bathrooms that have changing tables in both the ladies’ room and the gentleman’s room (I once had to change a friend’s baby for him because the table was only in the ladies).
Windows! Natural light and fresh air!
Soft paper towels instead of awful scratchy ones or LOUD air blowers.
Art on the walls.
Some years ago I loved the bathroom in a cafe / night club. It was like a cave but in a good way. Like a sanctuary. With a spring coming out from the rocks. It felt like this although it did not actually look like this. Pretty shocking for a place like this to have a bathroom like that. Very nice.
So I absolutely hate wallpaper. I think I had a traumatic experience as a child or something, because I seem to have this really weird aversion to all things wallpaper. HOWEVER, visiting Bath, England a decade ago, I was in the bathroom of a lovely little inn for, well, the duration. And on the walls of this tiny little bathroom was the most lovely wallpaper with little blue flowers and green stripes and it was hung PERFECTLY. And I was in awe. And I cried a little. Because someone had taken the time and made the effort to make sure that every stripe was perfectly vertical. You know, there’s a lot of time to contemplate things like sloppily hung wallpaper when you’re in the bathroom. No slop there.
I took away from that this lesson: spend more time making small spaces perfect and lovely and clean. Your whole house will make someone smile if they use your carefully decorated, impeccably clean bathroom. Just thinking of that wallpapered bathroom makes me smile even now.
This just reminded me of a toilet (English word) in a pub (‘nother English word) just outside Oxford (in England). The actual toilet had a high-level flush, which means that there is a cistern holding the water for the flush at above head height and you have to pull a chain. But if you happen to look at the cistern you will see that it contains goldfish!! Real ones swimming about. It’s bit disconcerting until you realise that there is a smaller cistern within the goldfish one, so they don’t really get flushed away. Anyone who’s been to that pub knows about the goldfish!
DH and I were in Laguna Beach about 18 months ago and stopped for late lunch in a stylish cafe/grill. Their ladies’ room had beautiful tile work … such that I actually took a photo of it with my ever-present camera. It was an inventive mix of big-box glass and ceramic tiles with a few stone tiles, and a few handmade tiles that looked like they contained sea fossils.
I like a bathroom that gives you something to look at. And preferably has flattering lighting.
In my mom’s bathroom there is a sign with picture of a line 20’s-style dancers in a swoon position (back of hand on forehead). The note says,
Ah, the perils of vintage home-ownership! We ask that you flush at least once and probably several times during eliminations of the solid variety. The embarrassment you save may be your own!
I just love it.
I also love bathrooms with reading shelves 🙂
Former PDXer weighing in: the Tin Shed ROCKS.
Also: my abdominal massage therapist used to give me water with rosewater in it to drink afterwards. It felt so good.
I just love real towels, instead of the paper variety which destroys trees. They make me feel special; that I’m considered worthy enough to have the real thing, like.
And it should have enough space to liberate oneself from all-we-have-with us: hooks to hang your handbag, a space in front of the mirror or elsewhere which is not dripping wet or soapy and generally comfy chairs to sit children in if I have to dash to the loo!
Off the top of my head, two thoughtful things here in Pittsburgh:
1. The bathrooms in Trader Joe’s. They have been painted, floor to ceiling and everything in between, to look like you’re in a submarine cruising the world’s most fantastic coral reef. It’s like a little oasis/cocoon/retreat/sanctuary to go in there. The facilities themselves aren’t anything super special, but as a longtime resident of Bolivia, the sheer kid-distraction factor of walking into another world (with a door that closes and locks, hee hee) is SUCH a blessing. Getting out of there to go back to shopping, however, can sometimes be tricky!
2. The Penzey’s spice store. Well of course it smells incredible in there. Pretty much every herb, spice, and mixture they sell has a little glass canister next to it which you can open and sniff. They sell sometimes 3 or 4 different sizes of jars & bags of product, so you can get just the right amount for you. The floor plan is open and generous, and it’s decorated very cleverly – most of it is of the import/export/shipping boxes/exotic flavor of faraway places sort, but there are two other areas as well. All the baking stuff (vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa mix, etc) is in a little pseudo kitchen that looks like it should have been Betty Crocker’s, it’s that cute. And there’s also, on the other side of the store, a short table that looks like ship’s decking, with a giant canvas sail above it, surrounded by small plastic barrels made into chairs, where kids can sit and color on paper while the grownups wander about and shop. Oh, and one last thing! The standard, stern, unfriendly “No food or drink” sign has been transformed into “Please enjoy your food or drink before entering.”
Sheesh. When I started this comment, I only had one or two things to say about Penzeys, but then so much other stuff kept coming to mind. I tell you what, they have clearly got a stellar merchandising department.
Oooo ooo I love a nice bathroom! And I have a story about a particularly thoughtful one that inspired another.
I was at a wedding, and whoever was hosting the wedding had put together THE most amazing, most thoughtful, basket of helpful items in the bathrooms, it completely blew my mind. I can’t remember everything that was in it, but it was the idea of it that mattered most to me because my own wedding was coming up, and I was determined to put together one of my own care kits for each of the washrooms.
I included: Q-tips, cotton balls, breath mints, small paper cups and mouthwash with a pump dispenser, toothpicks, clear nail polish for the inevitable run in the stockings, small sewing kit, safety pins, a few plastic combs of various styles, a hand-held mirror, scissors, hair elastics, bobby pins, hairspray and gel, bandaids of various sizes, feminine products, condoms, little samples of perfume, spray deodorant, a real box of kleenex, a small bottle of painkillers (not enough that anyone could hurt themselves on if they abused the offering), hand lotion, …there might’ve been more, because I know I spent a few brainstorming sessions trying to think up anything that someone could possibly need in an emergency.
Is it bad that I was ecstatic to hear that my cousin got a huge rip in his suit and was able to sew it up, thanks to my foresight? 🙂
I like a lot of what everyone else has said… 🙂 For me, a place with soap options is very welcoming. I have some severe and random floral allergies (lavender, for example) and as much as I love a nice-smelling bathroom and soap, I don’t like the idea that the smell could come at the expense of someone’s health. Choices makes it so much better!
Sink rocks sound ridiculously amazing!
Ditto on quirky shrines, private non-gendered spaces, multiple hooks for hanging, chalkboards for note-writing and epiphany mentions, real flowers (just a few stems, plucked into a small vase), real art (not prints or blah picturescapes), and kind lighting.
Also: I’m new to your website and completely in love with your words, ideas, and honesty. I can’t wait to see what I discover next!
I concur with all the bathroom love that’s going on around here, as well as the general idea of how we can cultivate this in all corners of our world.
I was in a bathroom once that had the most beautiful faucetry (word? if not, it is now, I love it too much) and then, in the pretty copper sinks there were river rocks. All glistening and inviting, insisting I stick my hands in them. It may have just been me, since I love rocks, but I will pick that place to eat just because I like the rocks in the sinks…well, the food’s good, too.
I also love, despite my usual intention to be nice to the earth and not create too much waste, bathrooms that have paper towels to dry your hands with that are stacked, in a lovely basket, and are thick and delicious to touch.
And the very few public restrooms that have stalls which have real walls down to the floor. Safety.
Or one step beyond that, our favorite place in Deadwood, in which the first step into the bathroom is lovely and cozy and inviting, but the two “stalls” are their own little rooms that you step into off of the “lobby” of the bathroom. Each with it’s own pedestal sink and beautiful cozy feel.
And I’ve loved reading all these comments where other people noticed the lovely things I’ve noticed, and I’m not the only one that likes them.
Thanks Havi. As always.
Late post, but I had to share:
I went to a bathroom in a pub or restaurant somewhere – I have no idea where. All I remember is going into the bathroom and the sink was the bowl of a wok, and they’d done something inventive with the handle so when you pushed it a stream of water ran down into a ladle with hole punched into it, then sprinkled from there into the wok (also with holes to allow the water to drain).
It took a wee minute to figure out how to get water but, having done so, that sink has stayed in my mind for years.