Interiors: Now the clock has sprung forward, treat yourself to a smart tech shower that’ll make you want to get out of bed
Have you showered today? We might not talk about our hygiene habits, but the daily shower is a mark of modern respectability. Many of us won’t even remember a time before the morning shower – all that luxurious steam, shampoo aromas, maybe a song. But now with technological advances, some of us are having a morning shower we do want to shout about.
Mira Showers is one of the most recognised brands in showering and can trace its roots back to 1921, when bathing was done in a tin tub in front of the fire. Today, showers come in all forms – electric, mixer, power and digital – but what we want from our showering experience is very personal. So what techy advances are out there now?
The smart home has even made it possible to personalise showering with an app and voice control via home hubs such as Alexa. “However, for me, voice control has to do more than just react to me saying ‘shower on’,” says Roland Boal, head of industrial design at Mira Showers.
Mira Mode Dual shower
“Mira Mode has a bluetooth app that, amongst other features, can learn your bath depth and temperature preferences”
“If voice control could recognise that it was specifically me and was stitching together a meaningful experience just by me saying ‘relax me’, that would be exciting; the shower comes on to my preferred temperature, and activates a sequence of my preferred sprays, adjusts the ambient lighting to warm white and dim, and fades in a favourite music playlist.”
On the journey to fulfilling these advances Mira Showers has launched the Mira Mode. “Mira Mode has a bluetooth app that, amongst other features, can learn your bath depth and temperature preferences,” says Boal. The digital Mode Maxim might look like a regular shower, but the experience of the spray gives a central mist and outer drench.
Dornbracht also loves pushing the boundaries of high-end tech. The German bathroom and kitchen specialist has created a horizontal shower as a quirky alternative to a bath, with over-mounted jets at different pressures – its compact shower suites have both horizontal and vertical showers.
Dornbracht’s digital Aquamoon ATT shower
Dornbracht’s latest invention is the digital Dornbracht Aquamoon ATT – a smart-tech statement shower with touch-screen options to “choreograph” water flow, lighting and fragrance to boost mood (£5,736 from dornbracht.com or visit CP Hart in Waterloo). It’s spa-quality showering worth waking up for.
Visit mirashowers.co.uk to find a stockist
Urban black
Want your new shower room styling to be simple, but not boring? Here’s the answer – matt black brassware and a monochrome scheme, especially striking for small spaces. Sought-after interiors studio Tara Bernerd & Partners was ahead of the curve with its Crittal-style shower screens at The Kimpton Fitzroy hotel in Bloomsbury, and now this urban, modern-retro look has really taken off – as seen in the MetalCraft showerscreen by Majestic at West One Bathrooms. Or visit CP Hart for the Victoria screen by Drench (from £1,653) and Dornbracht Tara matt black mixer (from £2,070). Developers love to exploit the power of subtle-yet-striking design – at Postmark in Farringdon, Conran & Partners is using Crosswater matt black shower heads and taps, contrasting with white gloss ceramic tiling.