Day spas in the backyard, and other luxury home design trends for 2025

Elite home owners are not just installing infrared saunas and ice baths at home, they’re building entire day spas in their backyard.

Nina Maya of Nina Maya Interiors has designed a standalone wellness centre that’s separate to the house for a home owner in Sydney’s Vaucluse, with a sauna, steam room, plunge pool and water feature. It’s due for completion in June.

Also trending in high-end homes are pulsed electromagnetic field therapy panels, sensory showers, indoor cycling rooms, bespoke leather-bound treadmills, intelligent cooking appliances, and colour drenching in living spaces.

It comes as official figures on Wednesday showed the cost of building a new home fell to its lowest in three and a half years, although it’s of little worry to some top-end home owners.

Maya revealed some of her eastern suburbs’ clientele have requested pulsed electromagnetic field therapy panels to be built into walls and used as mats in the gym.

When charged, the mats/panels deliver pulsed electromagnetic fields to aid in the body’s natural recovery processes. Devotees believe that benefits include strengthened immunity, improved sleep, detoxification, pain management and mental clarity.

“There’s a huge global trend around longevity and lowering your biological age versus your real age, and it’s not just wellness influencers that are interested but older businessmen too,” Maya said.

“At the higher end of the market, 100 per cent of our clients are asking for some form of wellness to be integrated into the home.”

Maya said ice baths just touch the surface when it comes to wellness trends. “There’s a whole world out there and clients are after something on a cellular level that offer deeper healing processes.”

While dark-panelled gyms have been a mainstay in high-end homes, Maya has noticed a shift towards lighter hues.

“Think totally bespoke leather-bound treadmills in a light palette,” Maya said.

“Clients want to create a serene environment with skylights, natural light and full-scale windows. There is also a seamless indoor/outdoor flow with indoor trees in wellness areas. There’s a real sense of connection to nature.”

Interior designer David Hicks said many of his clients are incorporating sensory showers and massage rooms into their homes.

“The body used to be the temple, now the home is. The home has become a sanctuary, a place to exercise, rest and unwind,” he said.

A sensory shower, also referred to as an emotional shower, has coloured LED spotlights, a fragrance diffuser and varying modes of water pressure. Red light therapy is said to have anti-ageing benefits, while blue is said to aid in skin purification.

Wellness areas are designed to be soothing, while the main living zones are set to be dramatic in 2025.

Interior design guru Darren Palmer said colour drenching is a trend that will infiltrate high-end homes in 2025. Palmer is a judge on renovation TV show The Block, which airs on Nine, owner of this masthead.

“It’s where the ceiling and walls are all in one colour, and it’s a saturated hue,” he said. “We’re talking plum, indigo blue and dark green. Very saturated colours for a dramatic effect.”

Palmer said it’s a common misconception that dark colours can make a space appear smaller.

“It’s how you use colour that changes the proportions of a room, rather than whether it’s light or dark,” he said.

“If you put a dominant colour on the rear wall, it will jump forward and make the room feel like it’s coming towards you. But if you use a colour on all walls, it blurs the boundary between the walls and the ceiling.”

Dulux colour and communications manager Andrea Lucena-Orr said any colours will work for colour drenching.

“Colour drenching can have a beautifully dramatic effect and envelops your space in the desired colour. Just consider your existing palette of furniture, fixtures, fittings and accessories when choosing the colour,” she said.

Lucena-Orr said for those who aren’t keen on darker ceilings, they could go with a lighter version of the colour on the walls.

“A colour close to the depth could be used for the ceiling, cornices, trims, windows and doors to really accentuate the colour,” she said.

Intelligent cooking appliances are another trend, and take the hassle out of housework.

Gaggenau’s The Essential Induction cooktop is concealed beneath the surface of a stone benchtop with no visible frames and just three sleek control knobs on the side. A dot lights up, indicating when it’s ideal to cook, and vanishes when it’s safe to touch.

Some home owners are also installing smart home tech products that allow them to, for example, use an app to preheat the oven, start the coffee machine remotely, or inspect the contents of the fridge while they are at the supermarket.