Peace and love at The House of Kalmar

The House of Kalmar is a wellbeing experience with a difference. There's no pool, no sauna, no thermal suite - this is a (literally) rose tinted oasis that's completely focused on a personalised spa treatment. It's the kind of therapy that makes you feel like you're the most important person in the room, and where you leave wanting to be kind to yourself.

A London spa experience

Located on a pretty mews, a 10-minute walk from London's Victoria station, there's an unassuming elegance to The House of Kalmar that heralds its difference. Identifiable by a bench painted in their signature pink outside the front door, it is, quite literally like arriving at a private house. Knock to enter, and you are invited in to a quite hallway before being escorted up the stairs - this is when the magic begins.

A spa pink paradise

The property has one treatment room, where the expert attention of super spa therapist, Sam, is entirely on you. Step into the room and you're greeted by an enormous space, elegantly designed with just enough glitz and just enough pink to make you feel completely cocooned in a world of velvet and glamour, but without feeling like you need to pretend to be anyone other than yourself. Sit on the velvet sofa for a chat with Sam as she puts you at ease and talks to you about your treatment options.

A bespoke spa treatment

A treatment at The House of Kalmar is always a full body massage, and you can choose from 60 or 90 minutes. This however, is a custom experience designed by their founder Karen Ruimy, a writer, dancer and spiritual healer.

The treatment is based on four 'soulstates' - Joy, Calm, Peace and Love - each with their own scent, movement, skincare products and associated gemstone. As you have your chat with Sam, she will help you choose the right one for you - encouraging you to gravitate towards what you intuitively feel you need rather than what you think you want. A healer by nature, she confesses, as she talks, she almost always knows what her clients need.

The process is an interesting one, and Sam is charming in her ability to help you gravitate towards what you need. I, for one, felt the practical cogs of my anxious brain think I should opt for the energising blend of lemon, bergamot and ginger that features in the Joy soul state. However, I intuitively gravitated towards the calming, self-acceptance, vanilla and ylang ylang of Love.

Healing and pampering

Treatment chosen, Sam guides you towards the changing area - a private shower room, WC, and changing area, complete with everything you need to take your make-up off if you would like, hang your clothes, leave your jewellery to one side, and so forth. It's right off the treatment room so you never have to leave the cocoon like space at any point.

Once the treatment begins, it's a blissful combination of massage, pampering and energy healing. Sam talks you through the experience as necessary, and has a natural (as well as practiced) ability to put you entirely at ease.

The Love treatment is described as a massage using rhythmic, Balinese movements to nurture creativity and self-expression. In truth, it's a lot more than that. The massage is physically relaxing, the products are beautiful and the scents certainly add to your restful state. However, Sam's intuitive energy healing is a skill that few possess and that has to be experienced to be understood. Working on your chakras, she gently moves across the body to understand what you need. The result is an almost hypnotic state - that place between asleep and awake that's so hard to come by in a frenetic world.

The treatment that keeps on giving

Sam finishes the treatment by talking to you about what she felt you needed, and practices you can take home (in my case, deep breathing to counter my habitual shallow breathing, and self-hypnosis). She talks you through the recommended 'homework', and once you're dressed again, she shows you the products she's used and writes down her recommendations.

So, what's my takeaway? The House of Kalmar is more of a treatment experience than a spa, which is important to understand before you visit. It's the sort of place you go entirely and unapologetically for yourself - making it perfect for self-care or as a beautiful gift for someone you love. Completely unique and unobtainable in any other location, it's an unusual balance of wellness focus and decadent pampering - what's not to love?