How do memory, sentimentality, and customization play into bathroom design? Hotel Noucha offers lessons in narrative-driven hospitality, while new products reveal how innovation can support it.
When it comes to bathroom design, ‘functionality’ is often the starting point. In 2025, the conversation is shifting. Bathrooms are increasingly treated as sanctuaries, spaces where personalization, and mood matter as much as practicality. From spa-like retreats to touchless digital systems, clients now expect every detail, no matter how small, to reflect their individuality. In just a few square meters, a bathroom can offer a canvas of opportunities to design.
This change seems to be driven by two things: technology, which makes it possible to integrate wellness features and smart systems seamlessly, and design culture, which now places greater value on storytelling, heritage, and emotional connection.
This growing emphasis is evident in both residential and hospitality projects. At the newly opened Hotel Noucha, located in Paris’s 16th arrondissement, memory and storytelling drive the design approach, making its way to the bathrooms, which are natural extensions of the hotel’s narrative. Together with new product releases, projects like these reveal how personalization is reshaping one of the home’s (and hotel’s) most intimate spaces.
Hotel Noucha: A Parisian Home Reimagined Through Generations
Hotel Noucha offers a case study in how storytelling can drive bathroom design. By blending personal narrative with architectural heritage, the project demonstrates how utilitarian spaces can achieve emotional resonance.
This is felt upon entering the charming hotel; there is an immediate sense of calm and integration. Its design is elegant, polished—without ever feeling intimidating—and thoughtful, its details making guests feel right at home. According to Samuel Gelrubin, Chairman of the Board of the Terrot Group, evoking a feeling of familial comfort was entirely intentional. The entire project was conceived as a tribute to his grandmother, Noucha.
“The hotel was inspired by my Polish grandmother, who integrated into life in France with grace. The goal was to design Noucha as a family home inhabited and transformed by three generations, each generation leaving their mark while respecting the heritage,” Gelrubin shares. “I think she would have loved a hotel like this, one that is fully integrated into its neighborhood.”
Balancing memory and transformation, the 27-room, 4-star hotel tells a story in every space. It blends Haussmannian elements–think moldings and herringbone parquet floors–with custom-made furniture, high-end textiles, and secondhand items to give each room a lived-in feel. Interior designer Jordane Arrivetz translated this narrative into design choices throughout the hotel, including in the bright, luminous bathrooms. Each one features a toilet, shower, and bathtub, but avoids uniformity by drawing on contextual inspiration.
“In addition to the family history, we wanted it to be familiar and comfortable, like it was local,” she explains. “We worked with warm greens and soft beiges to echo the surrounding streets, parks, and architecture,” Arrivetz shares.
Since opening last spring, Hotel Noucha has attracted international travelers seeking an authentic Parisian experience. By rooting the project in both personal memory and the character of its neighborhood, the team was able to design bathrooms that demonstrate how weaving narrative into the smallest spaces can elevate guest comfort while reinforcing a project’s identity.
Interior designer Jordane Arrivetz embraced this narrative wholeheartedly. The familial atmosphere is felt in every corner, even in their bright, luminous bathrooms, which come with a toilet, a shower, and a bathtub. When asked about the inspiration behind the bathroom design, she shares that in addition to Gelrubin’s family history, they were also inspired by the charming neighborhood the hotel is located in, the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
“We wanted it to be familiar and comfortable, like it was a local. We worked with warm greens and soft beiges to echo the surrounding streets, parks, and architecture,” Arrivetz shares.
Since opening last spring, Hotel Noucha has been attracting many international travelers seeking a more personal and authentic experience of Paris. Elegant, subtle, and comfortable, it is ideal for long stays or those who want a personalized experience.
Personalization Through the Smart Bathroom
We leave Hotel Noucha, with its emphasis on heritage and narrative, and step into the other half of personalization, tucked in a bed of technology. Today, wellness and smart systems show how aesthetics and storytelling mingle with technology to quietly enhance well-being.
From touchless fixtures that improve hygiene to digital shower systems that let users fine-tune details like temperature and water pressure, wellness is increasingly integrated into the experience in both private and boutique bathrooms.
Smart Mirrors by ad notam have many possible features from in-mirror touch, task lighting, integrated TV. The most interesting bathroom-specific features, though, are the mirror defogger which prevents steam condensation on the mirror and the UV disinfection patented design allowing for automatic disinfection without human intervention.
Featured on iF Design Award 2025, Rainshower Aqua Pure by GROHE SPA combines wellness, beauty, and technology through user-centric design in the most exquisite way. The Pure rinse function filters out chlorine and odors from the hand shower, delivering exceptionally gentle water for skin and hair.
For architects and designers, the key lies in balancing technology-driven personalization with narrative and heritage. Smart systems can quietly support the same goals that narrative storytelling achieves, making bathrooms more human-centered and personal at the end of the day.
3 Great Essentials for Personalized Bathroom Design
What makes a bathroom personal? The answer lies in the details. From wallpapers and sensorial textures to ambient lighting, here are new products to keep an eye on:
1. SYS Collection by Relax Design
Debuting at Cersaie 2025 in Bologna, Relax Design’s new SYS collection extends the possibilities of color and material customization. Made entirely of their Luxolid® solid surface, the minimalist collection includes Sanitari–candy colored toilets and bidets in either matte or glossy finishes. The collection also includes AquaSync™, an integrated experience designed to optimize and simplify the management of all electronic devices integrated into whirlpool bathtubs. With functions from chromotherapy to hydrotherapy, this gives users full control of the spa experience.
2. Textured Wallpapers by SpaghettiWall
A quick way to refresh the bathroom is by changing the color of its walls. SpaghettiWall has expanded its range of wallpapers with designs specifically engineered for wet areas. New 2025 additions include Willow, with soft leafy motifs, and Flower Thief, a bold floral pattern. Printed on fiberglass wall support and sealed with the brand’s latest Waterproof Finish treatment, these wallpapers can now be applied even inside a shower stall, turning surfaces once limited to tile into fully customizable canvases.
3. Celino Collection by Progress Lighting
New for Summer 2025, Progress Lighting launched its Celino Collection, which draws inspiration from hand-crafted crystal wine glasses. The range, which features elegantly shaped glass fixtures with softly curved metal arms, includes chandeliers, pendants, and wall lights. This collection allows designers to introduce sculptural, refined lighting into bathrooms, balancing elegant aesthetics with function.
