What goes into a state-of-the-art luxury bath

Here’s what it means to have a fancy bathroom these days. You control everything about temperature, from how warm you want floors to how cold you want your medicine cabinet. And everything does more: your shower is also a steam room, and your tub can make a color light show (really).

These are the latest luxury bathroom ideas you should know about before you remodel.

We surveyed hundreds of bathroom remodeling pros about the most popular trends in luxury bathroom remodels — their top choice was a large spa shower. And we’re not just talking fancy curbless entryways and top-tier fixtures. We mean chromatherapy, steam rooms, and hot tubs.

Chromatherapy is like aromatherapy, but with colors. In your shower, that means LED lights that cycle through warm color shades (intended to stimulate), cool color shades (intended to calm), or a constant color wash that can apparently make you more creative or relaxed, depending on the colors.

If a classic steam room is more your style, you can now build a shower that does that. Or just spring for a hot tub. Thumbtack data shows that it typically costs a few hundred dollars on average to install a hot tub, but depending on how much site prep, plumbing, and electrical work you have to do first, the cost could creep up into the thousands.

Heated floors mean you never have to step on cold tile after a warm shower again. They’ve been around for a while, but they’re still a staple upgrade (and the second most popular bathroom upgrade recommended by pros we surveyed).

Bathroom remodeling experts say all their clients are specifically requesting freestanding tubs. They’re a throwback to vintage bathrooms and they also make the bathroom feel bigger. But they can get pricey.

“We recently installed a freestanding Candide Iron Bathtub, coming in at $11,000,” says Thumbtack pro Michael Big of Big Brothers Development.

You know what’s luxury? A toilet that can auto-flush just the right amount of water, clean itself, warm your feet, and light up at night so you don’t have to fumble for the switch.

But all that comfort will cost you. Popular toilet brand Toto’s Neorest model costs almost $7,000 — before installation.

Make things hot when you want them to be, like your towels, robes, slippers, and sheets. But again, expect to drop lots of cash to get there. “For one project I installed a Sterlingham towel warmer that cost close to $7,000,” says Big.

You can install digital shower controls to fine-tune the perfect shower, including the temperature, water pressure, type of spray (steady stream or pulsating jets), and shower length. But it doesn’t stop there. Once you’ve found the preferences you like, you can save them so your shower is exactly the way you like it, every single time.

Some people like to watch the news while putting on makeup or taking a bath. If this is you, install a mirror that has an integrated TV that disappears when you’re not watching. This way, you can tune in when you want without sacrificing style or mirror space.

If you have prescriptions that you usually take during your morning routine, but have to store in the refrigerator, chilled medicine cabinets or “beauty drawers” are now a thing. You can keep your medicine where you usually get ready in the morning, so you don’t have to interrupt your routine to grab prescriptions from the kitchen. These drawers can hold anything temperature-sensitive, including high-end beauty products, and they typically cost between $1,000 and $7,000.

A touchless faucet that uses motion sensors to turn on and off is a great way to cut back on water consumption. It’s also a lot more sanitary. Some faucets can be programmed with a tooth-brushing setting that turns on and off for pre-determined amounts of time.

Marble-topped vanities will never go out of style in a luxury bath. Big Brothers Development recently installed a Virtu Caroline double vanity with a Carrara marble top for about $15,000.

But why stop there when you can deck out the entire shower in matching marble?

“We remodeled a shower to make it as wide as a bowling lane,” says Thumbtack pro James Tapia of Global Housing Contractors. “It was 10 feet long and 5 feet wide with no doors, just marble walls and marble ceiling. There were three sets of shower jets on the ceiling and three sets of body sprayers on the wall. Everything was controlled with an electric keypad panel.” The cost? $25,000.

The average mid-range bathroom remodel will cost between $7,500 and $11,000, according to Thumbtack bathroom remodeling experts. Thumbtack pro Forest Ponder of Beyond Boundaries Construction says you should expect to pay 25 to 45 percent more for luxury options — things like wall-mounted faucets, back-lit mirrors, custom cabinets, undermount tubs, special lighting, curbless showers, European shower glass, claw foot tubs, body sprayers, steam showers, in-wall toilets, or concrete countertops.

Luxury remodels are more expensive not just because the materials are higher quality, but also because those materials take more skill (and time) to install right. “Items like these have very low tolerance for error so not only is the labor very expensive, but the project duration is double what it normally would be,” says Big. So even if the sky’s the limit with your budget, remember your $10,000 toilet may cost quite a bit more with installation.

Costs will vary depending on where you live, what you want to get done, and what materials you choose. If you’re ready to get started, find a local contractor near you who offers an on-site consultation.