Le Scandinave Archives - The Curated House

Designer Dream House: Bathroom Diaries | How Good Design Can Improve Your Health

It only took a few hours on the Modenus BlogTourKBIS for me to be nicknamed Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. It’s true. I’m kind of an alternative health nerd, always reaching into my purse for an essential oil to cure whatever ails you. I’ve learned through my own health journey that it’s possible to address stress and health challenges naturally and achieve better results than what most drugs can accomplish.

As a designer, I’m always looking for ways to integrate this passion for healthy living into my approach to luxury residential design. To me, home should be a sanctuary, a place where the stresses of the world melt away as we restore and refresh. We’ve all been striving to recreate the look of a spa bathroom in our own homes with beautiful design finishes, but what if we could recreate the spa experience too?

Image via Le Scandinave

BRINGING OUR SPA RITUAL HOME

For years now, our favourite spa ritual as a couple has been to head to Le Scandinave to celebrate our anniversary. It’s a 2 hour drive from home, but entirely worth it. We haven’t found anything that equals the decompression we experience there, and we always walk away breathing better, thinking more clearly and glowing from the inside out.

Image via Le Scandinave

Based on the Scandinavian hot/cold bathing ritual, we start by spending 10-15 minutes in something hot (either the dry sauna, the outdoor hot tubs or the eucalyptus steam room) and then plunge in ice cold waters for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Next, we find a quiet place to rest for about 10 minutes in one of the adirondack chairs scattered around wood burning fires on the property, and then we do it all over again. It’s nothing short of magical, and I’ve been dying to recreate it at home since I first experienced it years ago.

Image via Le Scandinave

FROM FAILED DREAM TO DESIGNER DREAM HOUSE WISH LIST

Not one to let a dream like this just waste away, we invested in an infrared sauna a few years ago thinking we could achieve the same detoxifying, decompressing and rejuvenating hot/cold experience at home. I’m sad to say it was a total designer fail. I would sit in the heat and then shower off with ice cold water and wait for my breathing to get easier and the stress to melt away, and it just didn’t happen.

What I didn’t realize (until my recent Hammam experience on BlogTourKBIS) is that it’s the specific kind of heat that matters most. You see, I always spend all my time in the Eucalyptus Steam Room at Le Scandinave. I’m just naturally drawn there and always experience the deepest health benefits when I spend all of my “hot time” in that beautifully foggy round room.

Image via Le Scandinave

I was reminded once again of the power of steam during our Hammam Spa experience on BlogTourKBIS. I walked away with the that same powerfully decompressed, de-stressed, rejuvenated and fully alive feeling I get when we go to Le Scandinave. The common denominator? Both spas are outfitted with Mr. Steam.

Image via Mr. Steam

This is wonderful news for all of us, because in addition to creating commercial steam units for spas, Mr. Steam allows us to bring the beauty of healthy living home.

I wish you could have seen my (designer nerd/health nerd) face light up as Martha from Mr. Steam explained to me how easy it is to install a Mr. Steam unit in a home environment. The steam unit can be stored in a closet or even an attic space as much as 120 feet from the enclosed shower space, can be integrated into an existing enclosed shower, and the cost is very approachable with units starting at 1000 USD and costing only pennies a day to operate.

FIVE REASONS TO BRING STEAM THERAPY HOME

Turns out my body was leading me in the right direction all along. Here are just some of the incredible health benefits to be experienced from steam therapy:

Image via Mr. Steam

1/ BREATHE BETTER My experience of breathing better after steam therapy isn’t all in my head. It’s a real thing. In fact, steam therapy can help dramatically for those who suffer from asthma, allergies, bronchitis and sinus infections. Choose a unit that includes the dispensing of essential oils for even greater health benefits.

2/ GET YOUR GLOW ON My skin never looks better than after a steam therapy experience. My pores are smaller, my skin glows and it is perfectly balanced and hydrated. Like a good facial, the steam opens up my pores and uses my body’s largest organ – my skin – to detoxify me from the inside out, releasing toxins from head-to-toe while relieving my skin of blemishes and my body of impurities.

3/ RELIEVE YOUR PAIN As someone who lives with rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, I can tell you that steam therapy is incredible for relieving pain. My muscles become pliable and agile again, and my circulation is always way significantly improved. The night we went to the Hammam Spa on BlogTourKBIS I was beyond spent. My muscles were screaming at me after days of walking the show floor, and our exciting but exhausting itinerary was catching up with me both physically and mentally. Magically, I left the spa feeling alive and totally ready to engage in our next event. This is just one reason why steam therapy has to become a part of my daily at-home health ritual.

4/ LOSE WEIGHT On average, steam therapy burns 150 calories in 15 minutes. Who couldn’t use a little boost to their metabolism? Lose weight while relaxing? I’ll take it!

5/ SLEEP BETTER I am here to tell you that I never sleep better than after a steam therapy experience, and this is coming from someone who struggles with sleep. After a steam spa experience, I always sleep deeply and wake feeling truly rested and refreshed. Knowing that getting REM sleep nightly is one of the most anti-aging, health-promoting habits we can have, I’m dying to recreate that experience every day!

Image via Mr. Steam

After reading all I’ve shared, I’m sure you can understand why a Mr. Steam steam therapy unit is officially at the top of my Designer Dream House Master Ensuite Wish List. Oh yes, and we sold our infrared sauna this weekend. Why hold onto what’s not working? Time to make room for what we really want.

Here’s to your health and design dreams coming true! Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll share the most important elements to consider when designing your dream kitchen.

xx
s.

At-Home Scandinavian Spa + Body Beauty Ritual

What is the one thing you often find yourself desperate for, yet elusive of your grasp? For me, it is deep, restorative rest. In a culture that demands we define ourselves by what we produce, it is difficult to justify {let alone facilitate} time to rest, reflect and heal. And yet, it is perhaps one of our most important life skills.

In this context, one of my favourite places to decompress is Le Scandinave. Surrounded by the whisper of the wind through surrounding birch trees and the gentle laughter of a nearby running stream – savoured against the backdrop of an “absolute silence” policy – guests are invited to restore through a repeated 3-step hot/cold ritual.

FIRST: Spend 15 minutes in something hot: the outdoor, organically-shaped hot tubs, the Swedish dry sauna, or {my favourite} the Eucalyptus Steam Room.

SECOND: {and this is both the hardest AND the best part} PLUNGE into one of their remarkably cold {think glacial} pools for anywhere from a few seconds to two minutes.

THIRD: Rest for at least 10 minutes in the recline of one of the Adirondak chairs that are carefully grouped around wood burning fires, scattered throughout the peaceful property. Nestle into a hammock on the edge of the woods. Read. Sleep. Breathe deeply as your heart rate slows down and your body temperature normalizes. And then, repeat steps 1-3.

I always come away from Le Scandinave breathing better. The “full body exhale” kind of breathing. I feel wrung-out and relaxed, detoxified and de-stressed. And my skin fairly glows. The only draw back to the experience is the 1+ 1/2 hour drive home afterward, and the limitation this distance places on the frequency of my returning.

And so, I have crafted my own little at-home ritual that I have found to be almost as restorative. I have enhanced it with two amazing products to make it a decadent Body Beauty Ritual that I try to indulge in once a week. Yes, it takes effort to carve out the time. But the decompression and detoxification are worth it.

{Image via Pinterest}

STEP ONE: If a sauna is available to you, I highly recommend starting there. We are fortunate enough to have a small infrared sauna in our basement, so I start my ritual with 30 minutes of reading while sweating out toxins, sipping water and breathing deeply, soothed by the sound of ocean waves on CD. I choose to do 30 minutes here because I want to soak up the amazingly healing benefits of the infrared heat, but I have also broken it up into two or three 15 minute cycles on the days when time permits. This step can simply be done in a hot bath with Epsom salts if a sauna is not available.

STEP TWO: Next {and this is certainly the discipline of it}, I turn our shower to the absolute coldest setting and use the hand-shower to “refresh” myself from head to toe, paying careful attention to get into armpits and backs of knees where the heat likes to hide out. This step is where my silence is inevitably broken with some “Woot!” “Yikes!” “Okay!” “Just Breathe.”

STEP THREE: I start a very hot Epsom salt bath and lay down for 10 minutes while the bath fills. I use the 10 minute track on this restful nap CD as my timer.

STEP FOUR: Soak in the bath for 20 minutes while sipping water and relaxing.

{Spoiler alert: Steps Five + Seven are my favourite upgrades to the Le Scandinave experience, making this feel like a true at-home spa treatment.}

STEP FIVE: Using my Come Clean Exfoliating Mitt {pictured above}, I thoroughly exfoliate my body from head-to-toe. I am always amazed at how much dead skin gently rolls off with this magical mitt, leaving me with a radiant glow. My circulation is stimulated {amazing for detoxification and lymphatic drainage} and my skin is prepped for better absorption of the gorgeousness to come in Step Seven. This is my absolute favourite new {Canadian!!} body-beauty find.

STEP SIX: One more dose of discipline: a 1-2 minute ice-cold shower, washing off all of the exfoliated dead skin from head-to-toe.

STEP SEVEN: Massage a generous, moisturizing application of Tata Harper’s Revitalizing Body Oil all over. This non-greasy oil infuses my skin with botanical nutrients derived from Calendula, Arnica, Frankincense, Rose and Apricot Kernel Oil {to name a few}. My thirsty skin gratefully drinks it in and absorbs it completely, leaving my skin refreshed, invigorated and deeply moisturized. The carefully blended ingredients aid in healing and cellular repair, improve my skin’s elasticity and noticeably rejuvenate my freshly exfoliated skin.

Amazingly, I have also discovered {thanks to a beauty tip from Tata’s team} that the oil makes an incredible aid to shaving my legs, and I get the smoothest shave possible when I wait until after all of the detoxification and exfoliation! I now save this step in my bathing routine until after I have applied my oil.

Beyond all of that goodness, the scent is heavenly. I no longer wear perfume, in fact, but rather use Tata’s Body Oil as my decadent scent of choice.

And there you have it! My At-Home Scandinavian Spa + Body Beauty Ritual. If you are looking for a way to treat your Mom for Mother’s Day, here is what I would suggest. Buy her a Come Clean Exfoliating Mitt, a bottle of Tata Harper’s Revitalizing Body Oil, and {if you live in the area} a day pass to Le Scandinave. She can reclaim the art of self-care by learning the healing hot/cold ritual at Le Scandinave and then bring it home to make it a regular routine! What a beautiful way to celebrate your Mom and offer her the opportunity to nurture herself the way she has nurtured you. And remember to nurture yourself while you’re at it!