Someday, a fully sustainable bathroom. Today, an entirely salvaged one. 

Someday…

I hope to have a bathroom like this in the sustainable Concord Green Home. The designer, Lisa Kauffman Tharp has taken care to create a small footprint using natural stones and finishes. I love how the spacious, open design has such a calming feel. Please note: it’s also wheel chair accessible.

Water is one of the biggest factors when creating an eco friendly bathroom. An old toilet can use up to 200 gallons a day. Water saving toilets and low flow showerheads are an easy fix. If you want to go all out with accessories, you can use organic towels, recycled toilet paper and eco cleaners.

Today…

I can use some salvaged mismatched cabinets to create an eclectic vanity, the idea being to re-purpose and re-use instead of buying new. Substitute a vintage or antique furniture piece to do the job. The owner of this particular bathroom has salvaged wood side tables and cabinets of different heights and finishes and placed them under a modern sink. Such a great idea and so affordable.

Images: Buddha Interiors

Someday/Today is a weekly column that inspires you to dream big for your home, and scale it to your lifestyle, always keeping sustainability of the planet – and your wallet – in mind.

A long hot shower at the end of the day is a great way to relax, but the idea of wasting buckets of water pretty much negates the stress-reducing factor, ya know? Check out these five shower designs that look gorgeous and save water at the same time. You still won’t want to stand under the water flow until it runs cold, but at least you can squeeze in a few extra guilt-free minutes before drying off.

European faucet designer Grohe makes a fabulous shower fixture that comes with a thermostat that heats your water to the desired temperature in seconds – no more shivering in a corner waiting for the hot water heater to kick in. The shower head reduces water flow up to 50 percent, while bathing you in a flow reminiscent of a spring rain.

If you’re the type that loves to be enveloped in a gentle, warm mist instead of pelted with streams of water, you need to check out Pensar Development‘s Indulgence Mist Shower. The hidden shower head churns out mist as you stand in an enclosed cubicle of etched glass. It uses 56 percent less water than a regular shower and looks beautiful to boot.

Arkema’s solar-powered shower would look terrific next to an outdoor pool or in the backyard of a rustic cabin. As Treehugger correctly points out, the solar panel is “barely big enough to charge a cell phone battery after a day of sitting in the sun,” so don’t expect to use it for a long drench. On the other hand, it’s a stylish way to get a quick rinse after a dip in the pool.

Even the best intentions go awry once you’re standing under the soothing flow of warm water. To keep from staying in the shower too long, goose yourself out with the Eco Drop Shower. Once you’ve used too much water, circles in the shower floor begin to rise, making it too uncomfortable to stand on in bare feet. A genius idea, particularly if, as Born Rich suggests, you have kids that like to park themselves in the shower for long stretches.

Australian shower design company Quench offers a line of recirculating showers that can save up to 82 percent more water than conventional showers. It comes with its own heating and water pressurization system, and even sports a sanitizing feature to keep the entire enclosure clean. The shower does a good job saving water and energy – maybe a little too good. It automatically shuts off while you soap up, so clean water doesn’t flow needlessly down the drain. Intrigued? Well, you’ll need to watch this video on Showering for Beginners to really get what Quench shower systems is all about.

Image: stevendepolo

Porcelained out? Carve your niche with an alternative sink for soaking up greener materials like certified teak, bamboo, recycled metal and glass and friendly painted ceramics. You can even experiment with poured concrete with 50% recycled fly ash, as seen in the striking orange basin by Jeremy Levine Design.

Here is a handful of other options we rounded up:

From William Garvey’s Fusion Line of handmade sinks from certified teak grown in the mixed deciduous forests of South Asia.

Spotted at the Story Hotel in Stockholm, these decorative ceramic bowls make brilliant bathroom basins.

Recycled aluminum and brass vessel sinks from ECO round out the eco bath and are paired well with a bamboo plywood or stone tile counter top.

Handblown recycled glass emerges as sensuous craft for the bath with the clear tortoise trim Classic design (above) and Ocean shell (below) from Bear Creek Glass.

Main Image: Jeremy Levine Design