The shower, bathed in light
To the pantheon of indoor activities that have moved outside, it is time to add the shower. Once an exotic indulgence in tropical islands and at certain aggressively romantic resorts, showering alfresco is making a bigger splash.
Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware offer outdoor showers in their catalogs. Even Target, the bellwether for when upscale trends settle into the mainstream, recently sold out of the $99 model it offered. It’s time to shuck off your clothes and bathe under the stars.
Southern Californians are “increasingly being lured outdoors — even into the shower,” says Michael Eserts, an architect with Los Angeles-based KAA Design Group. “People are finding that the outside living space is just as important as the one inside.”
Eserts got his first order for an outdoor shower in 1987 when designing a house in Malibu. Then, it was a specialty item used mostly in beach communities. Today, clients from all parts of Los Angeles ask him to add an outdoor shower.
When client Suzanne Ascher updated the outdoor living space in her family’s Manhattan Beach home, an outdoor shower was on the wish list.
“I knew we had to have one — I’m hugely neurotic about getting sand in the house, and my husband’s a surfer,” Ascher said. “That shower gets used every day on weekdays and three times a day on weekends.”
Ascher’s shower is plumbed with hot and cold water and drains into the city’s sewer system. Because laws regarding outdoor showers in Southern California are not uniform, however, homeowners need to check whether their communities allow them.
Homeowners zoned out of the hot-shower market can make do with several cold-water options. Front Gate sells a French-made solar shower for about $300, which can, on a sunny day, take off some of the spartan chill. More stunning — and more expensive — is Les Jardins’ teak Émoé shower for $2,300. It connects to a garden hose and offers warm water from a tank that is heated by the sun.
To Rick Morgan, director of public works for Hermosa Beach, adding an outdoor shower was a way to maintain a connection to some of the places and things he loves — the Hawaiian islands and surfing. He added one to his Malibu home a decade ago and has scarcely showered inside since.
A lifelong surfer whose wife comes from Hawaii, Morgan crafted a shower with a tropical vibe. He sheathed the plumbing in bamboo and nested the shower head into half a coconut shell.
“Shower time can be a meditative experience and you can either be in a stark, little, white box or you can be outdoors among the plants,” Morgan said. “I choose the outdoors.”