For years now, the shower drain has suffered the fate of an overlooked, industrial-style eyesore on the floor of even the most luxurious bath.

“It’s like buying a Mercedes and putting in cloth seats,” says Noah Taft, senior vice president of marketing and sale at California Faucets. “Or painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.”

But not anymore.

The California Faucets team of artisans, working in collaboration with interior designers, has developed a new series of drains that approach the realm of art. Patterns include fleur de lis, Craftsman and Mission Style, while others more modern seem to disappear into cracks in the shower floors.

And they’re built to last.

“The lifespan is a lot longer than anything currently on market,” he says. “It’s a complete step up – a completely different animal.”

The team worked on a two-part design, from the function of the drain’s throat up to the pattern of the grid itself. “We worked from underneath – the stuff designers care less about,” he says. “But we wanted something beautiful to attach to drain body and developed from there. We’ve got a patent on how the drain attaches.”

The decorative, five-and-a-quarter inch-square drains are offered in seven grids and 30 different finishes to match other bath fixtures. Each grid boasts its own name, but it’s the lyrical fleur de lis pattern – the symbol of Provence, France and both New Orleans and Louisville here in the states – that truly gilds the lily of the bathroom shower.

“The brass is soft to the foot,” he says. “It’s struck a huge chord within the interior design community,” he says.

The shower drain – once a utilitarian product with a forgettable design – has now been turned into a bathroom’s focal.

“It’s a design statement,” he says.

With style points.

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