What Are Standing Garden Bathtubs?
The term “garden bathtub” may be new to you but it’s actually hundreds of years old. Standing garden bathtubs today mean various things to different people. It may be taken literally, or imply bringing the outdoors inside. Or it may even mean a specific tub style. Hearing the words may conjure a multitude of images for you as well. Here we'll explore a few different meanings of the term and where it comes from in the first place.
History of Standing Garden Bathtubs
Apparently, more affluent landowners in the 18th century in France actually kept bathtubs out of doors in their gardens. After they used the standing garden bathtubs, they would drain the water into the garden to feed it. From this standpoint, the garden worked out to be a pretty convenient place to set a bathtub.
In a later period, the English had, according to legend, a variation of this concept. Instead of placing the standing garden bathtubs outside, the wealthy had rooms with large windows that overlooked the garden. This way, they could appreciate the outdoors from inside while they soaked. They called them garden rooms.
Standing Garden Bathtubs Today
Just as the French and English had different takes on a similar idea so today do standing garden bathtubs have varying explanations. Here are three definitions for a garden tub in the modern world.
Bringing the outdoors in. Like the supposed garden rooms of a bygone English era, one way to describe standing garden bathtubs is to bring some of the outside into the bathroom. Garden tubs are sometimes just a tub that's good for soaking surrounded by an indoor "garden" of sorts. Instead of bringing the tub into the garden like the French, you bring the garden into the bathroom. This mimics the serene environment of an outdoor garden without the drawbacks of placing the tub out of doors.
Looking out over the outdoors. Sometimes standing garden bathtubs still carry the same connotation as the legendary garden rooms of older English homes. A garden tub can mean simply a tub in a room with a garden view. While not as dramatic as the French version of this concept, it's a much more practical way for most of us to have the serenity of a country environment without the difficulty of moving a tub outside.
Soaking in a roomier tub. In some cases, the term garden tub just means a tub that flares out on the top sides so it's wider and therefore more comfortable to soak. Standing garden bathtubs are an attractive way to implement this style in your bathroom.
In all three cases of the definition of standing garden bathtubs, the idea involves a relaxing soak, not just a quick rinse. Whether you set up a tub outside, surround your indoor tub with the outdoors, place the tub in front of a garden view, or just buy a tub with a greater width, you'll appreciate it more doing things the way the French, and possibly English, did.
