I’m a sucker for a bathroom or a kitchen that doesn’t quite look like a bathroom or a kitchen. I appreciate it when these über functional spaces read cozy and not so, well…clinical. It’s actually a pretty easy feel to achieve if you employ this three part formula:

One part lamp + one part (unexpected) framed art + one part seemingly obscure and expensive products.

The first two should be procured according to one’s own personal taste, but I tend to think (and I’m following the tried and true “mix it up” approach here) that a really glittery lamp and an ornately framed portrait of some sort look great in a modern space while a more traditional room needs, say, a little paper Noguchi table lamp and a kid scribble (a.k.a. abstract art on the cheap) in a clean-lined gallery frame. That’s just my take.

But as for the products, there’s really one universally awesome approach for kicking things up a notch: Santa Maria Novella.

The 600-year-old (!) cult Italian brand was founded by Dominican friars in the 1200s (they used medicinal herbs grown in the monastic gardens to make medications, balms, and pomades for the monks’ infirmary). Today, under the ownership of Lafco NY, Santa Maria Novella continues to produce a limited and meticulously controlled line of products using the same traditions, natural ingredients and procedures as the pharmacy’s founding fathers.

The mere placement of one of these products (and really anything will do —  a bar of soap, a tube of toothpaste, some powder), with their elegant packaging and subtly lovely scents, instantly catapults a kitchen or bathroom into “wildly chic” territory. It’s quite a feat.

Lucky for us, theLafco NY boutique in Highland Park Village carries the entire line.

You’re bathroom will never be the same.

(Image via Mohawk General Store)