DESIGNERS CREATE STRESS FREE SPA & SALON HAVANS.

By Diana Rohini La Vigne 

How can you escape the wake of a progressive high tech world?  Interior designers put their first-class abilities to work in the $10+ billion[1] spa and salon industry. The challenge is to create a setting that advocates stress reduction, relaxation, and serenity.  Salons are a great way to make a quick getaway for that much needed retreat.

Owners of the Tall Grass Spa & Salon of Colorado wanted a spa that incorporated the tranquility of the outdoors with all the amenities of a full service spa in order to foster feelings of harmony and quietude.  Having an outdoor spa is not possible when weather is unpredictable.  Tall Grass designers undertook the challenge of offering clients the combination of wildlife and luxury and brought nature’s splendor to the interior of the spa.  Stone walls, wooden beams, a roaring fireplace, potted flowers, floor to ceiling sized windows, which bestow a sweeping panorama of the nearby emerald splashed mountains, compliment the earth tone colored furniture.  Protected from the elements while surrounded by the exquisiteness of the natural world is the ultimate equilibrium of comfort and nature. 

“Our parent company, Aveda, has always been a leader in spa and salon services but we had a new challenge to face at Tall Grass.  We wanted to merge nature and indulgence into one,” a spokesperson from Tall Grass explains, “This is a place where individuals come to rejuvenate their mind, body, and soul.”

Boston Salons tackle a different dilemma. Salons suffer a dramatic reduction in business during the summer months.  Clients prefer being saturated by sunrays over wasting an instant indoors.  Acote Salon owner, Gaston Safar took the dulldrums of summer business on as a personal challenge.  This establishment took advantage of their rooftop to devise an open-air salon that promises to lure clients from their beach chairs to the salon.  A translucent glass door with imported French designer windowpanes wrapped by enchanting original colonial woodwork makes the opening to this rooftop extraordinary.  Stainless steel seating with harmonizing tables accented by means of the ashen pebble floor establish a “Fun in the Sun” mind-set. Patrons bronze their skin while welcoming their hair coloring and processing. 

 “The interior designer mapped out her likes and dislikes about going to the salon during the summer.  She created something that would change her image of a salon visit,” comments Mr. Safar.  “I suspect that the new addition to the salon will formulate innovative notions of what to anticipate from a salon.”

Designers use different techniques to construct an environment that is filled with boundless positive energy.  According to Stilo Salon owner Manuel Roces[2], lighting is often considered a way to minimize design costs.  Recently winning a lighting design award, this salon believes lighting is the most important element of design.  Designers combined natural light with mood lighting to develop an overall scheme that met the salon’s needs while remaining soothing for clients.  The lighting drastically changed the environment.

Lighting designer Gary Waisman from W.Y.S. Design Partnership in New York was assigned to develop a lighting setup for John Delleria Salon in Manhattan.  Presented with the challenge of making the lights functional and beautiful, Mr. Waisman uses a variety of different lighting for different areas of the salon.  Track lighting in the cutting area made it easier for stylists to adjust levels of lights, color-corrective florescent lights in the color area, and bright, reddish halogen lights in the entrance accentuated the posh waiting area.  Function first is Gary’s motto but creating anything short of a completely stress free salon would have meant failure to him.  He was able to achieve both through meticulous research and planning. 

Salons and Spas want to utilize their interior design to set the tone for their entire image and atmosphere.  Interior designers are essential to the industry. 

“Hire the best experts you can find, who understand the industry and help you successfully integrate the architecture and interior design….” Offers Merrill Williams of Ojaai Valley Inn & Spa in California, who is considered one of the top 100 spa and salon industry experts. 

Whether it is working on the lighting, the furniture, or layout, it is the interior designer that crafts a stress free zone.  It is that zone that each one of us strives to find and escape within.