The Portaluppi Bathroom is the New “It” Loo

So long, white marble shower. Designers are going big on bathrooms with serious Milanese swagger, including moody stone in green or oxblood, walnut paneling, and Art Deco fixtures channeling iconic architect Piero PortaluppiInspired by early midcentury Milanese bathrooms, AD PRO Directory talent Summer Thornton designed this opulent San Francisco bathroom swathed in green malachite for a client whose late grandmother had collected jewelry boxes of the same stone.Photo: Annie SchlechterThe dominance of the gray-and-white “spa bathroom,” may be waning. You know the ones—spare, mostly white, flooded with light, and sheathed in acres of Calacatta Viola marble. The new look involves dramatically veined stone in dark green or dusky red, sculptural Art Deco-style fixtures, and rich woodwork. Think: the bathrooms of AD cover stars like interior designer Athena Calderone and supermodel Paloma Elsesser. The reference point is 1930s Milan, where bold material combinations and precise geometry turned these utilitarian spaces into showpieces.Few designers are as identified with this look as Piero Portaluppi (1888-1967), the Rationalist architect behind the iconic Villa Necchi Campiglio and Casa Corbellini-Wassermann. While his dramatic entry halls and sweeping stairs have inspired designers for decades, it’s the rooms with plumbing that are currently having a moment.The Inspiration: Piero Portaluppi's iconic bathroom at Villa Necchi Campiglio, built between 1932-1935 At Villa Necchi, mirrored walls multiply the swirling patterns of Arabescato Orobico marble, while at nearby Casa Corbellini-Wassermann, Portaluppi set vibrant green Verde Challant marble against graphic black stonework. “He frequently used contrasting materials to frame hallways, thresholds, and architectural elements, allowing these moments of juxtaposition to draw the eye and bring a sense of ceremony to the space,” explains Calderone, who visited Villa Necchi with architect Danielle Siggerud while reimagining her own Tribeca apartment.Gregory Rockwell's design for model Paloma Elsesser's bathroom Photo: Frank FrancesAD100 designer Gregory Rockwell says he is drawn to the period’s unconventional palette. “What I love about Portaluppi is how controlled everything is architecturally, but then he’ll do something extravagant with the marble or an unexpected color,” the designer says. For the primary bathroom of Elsesser’s Brooklyn townhouse, Rockwell and colleague Hester Hodde layered burgundy Rosso Francia marble, walnut-and-mirror paneling, and pistachio-green walls. “It’s a slightly strange combination when you think about it, but I love the colors together,” he says.Brizo Roccesco Sconce Showerhead Brizo Faucet CompanyFor Calderone, the magic is in the stonework. “There was such ingenuity in the way Portaluppi clad entire bathrooms in stone, often using smaller, individually composed pieces,” she says. For her primary bathroom, she edged sweeping expanses of pale stone with intricate inlaid tile borders and added Art Deco-inflected fixtures and geometric mirrors. Looking back at Portaluppi’s examples, she observes: “It feels almost at odds with how we approach stone today, where expansive, perfectly bookmatched slabs have become the prevailing ideal. He embraced the irregularity and variation in the veining.” That appreciation for the individuality of natural stone is also on display in her powder room, which features a pedestal sink in deeply veined Verde Alpi marble.Athena Calderone's own powder room features a custom pedestal sink in deeply veined green marble, sconces by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and a 1940s Italian mirror. Photo: Rich StapletonAnother view of the malachite-wrapped San Francisco bathroom designed by Summer Thornton, Photo: Annie SchlechterAnother sink in the same deep-green stone can be found in the powder room of a Milan pied-à-terre Giampiero Tagliaferri recently designed for a young art collector. “The custom pedestal sink takes its bold, geometric form from Rationalist architecture, but we kept the lines clean and the layout modern,” Tagliaferri explains. As the designer explains, revisiting 1930s Milan isn’t about exactly replicating a Portaluppi bathroom. “Reinterpretation is about extracting a period’s core DNA, not literal replication.”That thinking extends beyond bespoke interiors. New bath collections are borrowing from the Portaluppi bathroom vocabulary, offering ways to incorporate patterned stone, geometric forms, and saturated color without a full-scale renovation. Artistic Tile’s Calacatta Gold marble mosaic brings the intricacy of Calderone’s inlaid borders to walls and floors, while Kelly Wearstler’s oxblood-hued Treillage tile for Ann Sacks puts a dimensional spin on the burgundy tones of Elsesser’s bathroom. For Clé Tile, Reath Design created marbleized patterns that evoke the movement of natural stone. The influence extends to smaller details: Charles Edwards’s alabaster dish light has an Art Deco–inspired silhouette, while Crate & Barrel’s Verde Green marble soap pump and tissue holder bring the distinctive color and veining of those Verde Alpi sinks down to countertop scale.Whether it’s an entire room wrapped in marble or a single well-chosen detail, the impulse is much the same. “I’ve never really understood why bathrooms should be any less interesting than the rest of the house,” Rockwell says. “They might as well be beautiful and exciting.”Read MoreAxel Vervoordt Transforms a 1980s Chalet Into a Serene Mountain Retreat That Feels as Though It Has Always ExistedUsing centuries-old woodwork and ancient stone, the AD100 designer balances art and architecture to achieve peak zen in the Swiss AlpsA 750-Square-Foot Home Gets a Fresh and Fun Look, Thanks to Colorful Floors and a Pink BathroomA compact attic apartment is transformed into a lively Monza, Italy, home where bold colors and unique furnishings come together naturallyIn This Midcentury Home the Terrazzo Floor Creates a Color Palette That Explores Femininity, Nature, and SoftnessAD100 firms Geremia Design and Terremotto worked with Marsden Architecture to restore the glass-walled, postwar Joseph Eichler house for recent empty nestersThis Midcentury "Treehouse" Is Tailored for Its Tech-Founder Owner—Right Down to the Velvet Conversation Pit and Dry-Erase BoardAquilo Interiors and Butler Armsden Architects collaborated to preserve a historic Berkeley, California, home while infusing it with personalityIn This Elegant Paris Pied-à-Terre the Interiors Are Inspired by a 1960s Novel and Model Betty Catroux“There’s a passage where the protagonist says how much she loves the silence, the warmth, and the freedom of the night," designer Giampiero Tagliaferri saysThis 538-Square-Foot Paris Pied-à-Terre Is Designed to Feel Like a Cabinet of CuriositiesFor two homeowners who work in the sciences, AD100 designer Jessica Helgerson turned their interests into a design narrativeThese Full-Length Mirrors Are Worth a Second LookReflect your personal style with our design-forward picksStained glass gets a secular spin as designers and homeowners opt for colorful, handmade panes that deliver us from dull decor. 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