With proper waterproofng and a pitched shelf for drainage all should be well. If you're concerned about not being able to do a proper DIY job, or that your builder might boffo a site-built niche, there are preformed niches available for purchase. Essentially formed boxes that you pop into the wall prior to tiling. Easy.

Location can be a factor, I suppose if you have a glut of bottles and the niche is in the spray or water deflection area, bottles could hold water on the shelves.

For the shelves themselves you can use tile/grout for the shelf, or you can use a single piece of stone (no grout).

I've never had a problem with my own niche, and no one's ever complained to me about "ick" problems in anything I've ever built.

As far as style points go, yes, a niche wins hands down over any third-party basket or rack (my opinion). While wire baskets and racks may look nice, they can clutter.

Nothing wrong with ether way.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my niches. Mine are tall and multi-shelved; they're also (mostly) on the same wall as the showerhead so they don't get any direct water. Just what drips off your hand or the shampoo bottle when you replace it. I have solid shelves (marble pieces) in all, so they're super easy to keep clean. I have absolutely no maintenance issues with them, and I LOVE how it keeps the rest of the shower neat and clean (no shampoo bottles and soap sitting on edges/ledges in direct water spray areas to get gross under, like in a niche-less shower!)

We love our niche too, it's one of my favorite features of our new shower.

I wouldn't call baskets or shower caddies ghetto, we have a caddy in our main bathroom and it doesn't seem to cheapen the look. What else are people supposed to use if they don't have built in shelving?

Alku, it is SO strange that you asked this! I was just coming onto this forum to ask the very same question! I, too, am nervous about how grungy these things get, in , say... five or ten years. They're a fairly new practice for most homeowners...so I've never actually seen a picture of a niche that wasn't brand new.

Can I throw a related question out there? What location does everyone think is the best for niche shelving? I've seen them in all places in a shower...but from what Staceyneil says probably on the same wall as the showerhead would be good.

We loved ours in previous remodel. We are having 2 in current build. No cleaning isn't and issue as long as they put a slight pitch to the shelf. Just wipe it out when you clean the shower. Personally, if your going to have a nice tile shower, I wouldn't want to come back and put a rack or pole thing. Looks like you didn't plan ahead.

My tile guys says the best place for one is one the same side as your shower head but that you can put them anywhere.

Here's mine in progress. Where the accent tile stops is a shelf made out of the tile for razors or soap. It will have accent tile ontop too, it's just not done

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Here is DD's(not grouted yet) Her's didn't really have room on the shower head wall(right).
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Hoping to go out and get pics of DS's today if not pouring down rain. His is also on the long wall.

Hi alku (oh, alku of one of the kitchens I so admire!)!!!

What mongo said--waterproof it/them well and pitch it/them and you should be fine (DH built all of ours, and waterproofed them using Hydroban and they are great). Much better than stuff sticking out of the wall if you can avoid it.

Here are pics of ours :

Guest bathroom

Hall bathroom

MB

Here is DS's shower(sorry about the tilt-had to put camera against opposite wall to take pics.
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Mongo, we are not DIYing any part of this, not even paint. We're doing a 1800 sqft addition that includes a complete overhaul of an existing bath, a new bath for the kids, and a new master suite for us. The two downstairs baths are squared away, and the master bath is built, but we're in the picking tile and planning details parts.

I really want to do a recess, and I think with proper placement, and one-piece shelves, it's not going to be the cleaning disaster that DH envisions.

Catmom (good to "see" you!), thanks for sharing your pictures- white tile is definitely the way we're leaning for our master and you've given us some good eye-candy to think about. I also appreciate everyone else's pictures which help tremendously to see what the options are.

We had a niche in a shower that was 22 years old. Plain white square tile, with no solid shelf--just tile, on the side wall, where it would occasionally get water spray. No ick, looked fine. It outlasted everything else in the bathroom! We're redoing the bathroom--and will have two niches in the replacement shower!

We have niches too and love them. Ours are both on walls perpendicular to the shower head, close to the shower head wall, and they don't get particularly icky. We used to have the wire baskets, and the soap and razors kept falling through.

We would have done a niche, except that the wall construction made it really hard to do, and one wall is a window.

So I have a "ghetto" thingy hanging from the shower head.

I love my niche.... your husband will thank you if you stand firm on this one.

I like the placement of ours straight across from the shower head on the opposite wall. I'd recommend NOT putting it on the same wall as the shower head. I like being able to fool with my razor, squirt out some soap or grab my pumice stone without having to face the water and reach back into the spray.

Please do the niche.
The higher the niche, the less water gets in. Take a shower - you'll see a level where most of the water sprays. Set the niche bottom slightly higher. (Don't forget to consider the new shower head configuration if it is going to have a different angle and power.) I agree with gbsim completely - I like my niche out of the way of the water. Mine happens to be to the side. If you want, there are finished pictures on the posting a few pages back "Bathroom Remodel Complete (w/Photos)".

To avoid "ghetto items" like those two things you mentioned, you could do glass triangles siliconed in a corner. I had some made, with the back corner cut off to allow more aeration, and less mold. Tempered glass. Thick.

i also prefer the niches to be an a different wall than the shower head---a little more convenient. our long niche is on the wall above the bench, so it is well out of the way of water spray...the other one is low- beneath the knee wall and it also doesn't seem to get very wet---the length of the shower is ~60", so that helps.
the lower niche also provides a nice foot prop for shaving legs! and, the lower one is situated so you don't easily see it, so it can be cluttered with more bottles and not be such an eyesore!!

Thank you everyone for all the advice and feedback! You have helped my decision so much!

Niches are definitely a plus in any shower. They provide you with a place for soaps and shampoos without taking up space in the shower itself. However, I've done quite a few showers lately with corner shelves as well.

Will it hurt saleability if you don't install a niche? I don't think so. Will it help if you do? Yes.

Love the pics and all the advice on shower niches. They are a "must" on the list for my new build. Does anyone have a recommendation re: size? bh401 and cat_mom, how is the tile shelf in the middle affixed? Aren't you afraid it will snap or crack or something since I don't see any underlying support? How do you achieve the slope on the bottom shelf? Is it done with the framing or with the tile setting?

Thanks!

In each of our bathrooms, size and placement was determined to some extent, by what is/was inside the walls (e.g, wiring, pipes...). In the MB, the back wall of the tub surround abuts the kitchen, so there were some constraints because of that. Also, we wanted the niche in the MB to be wider than it is tall (to follow the lines/shape of the wide field tile). In the hall bath, the back wall in the tub surround is 6" deep vs. the 4" deep wall in the MB, which allowed for a deeper niche. Once you start laying out your space, design, etc., you really start to narrow your options, which makes the decision-making a little easier!

The shelves and "lining" (side, top, and bottom walls) in both niches are marble pieces/tile. The shelves are sandwiched between two pieces of marble that line the side walls of the niches; the shelves actually rest on the top edge of the bottom piece. The marble pieces are a bit thinner than we had thought, or hoped they would be (the downstairs niche marble is slightly thicker), but should hold up okay.

The slope can be created with the framing, tile setting, or a combination of both.

Minority voice here. In new shower/tub w. 6x8 wall tiles, I am very happy with my choice of two ceramic corner shelves (white tiles/ white shelves). Didn't have to have the wall tiles cut down to shards to fit a shelf, didn't have to pick a second smaller tile for the inserts. It's that many fewer grout seams to have to worry about, and everything we use fits just fine.

Mine are done the same as cat mom

We did one in the guest bath and I really liked the looks and functionality and plan to add 2 to the master bath when we redo it.

I will say this. Be aware of what you currently have in your shower and make sure you allocate enough space or niches for it. We are currently using the guest bath and the 1 niche is not large enough for both of our products as we both use different shampoo, soaps, razors, etc. I think I should've done 2 in that room as well.

I'd probably make some small changes in the way we tiled it but I'm happy with it. It was our first attempt at tile work and have learned a few things from the experience.

Here is a link that might be useful: My guest bath

Tall niches rule!

I measured shampoo bottles, etc and made a lower space for razor, soap, and the three taller spaces are PLENTY big snough -even for teenage DD's myriad hair products :)

Thanks for all the help, everyone!

I sure do hope you're all right about these not being ick collectors. At this point DH has agreed but has adamantly stated that he's "...going to be PISSED if it's a PIA to keep clean."

We don' really keep a lot of stuff in our shower (shampoo, conditioner, body wash and intermittant visits of a razor, cream and a mirror) so I'm thinking that we won't need a huge one to house it all. I'll definitely measure things to be sure it's sized correctly though, and do the best we can to keep it out of direct spray. That may not be possible as we have shower heads located on both short ends of the space.

I clean our bathrooms weekly. I empty the niches, spray the tubs, the tile on the tub walls, and the niches themselves. I've been using 7th Gen Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner on the tile (sealed natural stone-safe, and it disinfects). I spray, let sit awhile, and the wipe with a microfiber (no need to rinse)--sometimes I spray a little extra 7th Gen on the cloth before wiping, esp if the stuff on the walls has started to dry before I wipe.

The porcelain tile in our niches and the grout, look new. The marble shelves and that lining the niches, looks equally clean and new. Occasionally I'll need an extra squirt of cleaner, or a little elbow grease on some dried on soap residue, but it is really nothing. No ick factor and definitely not a PITA.

If you clean the shower regularly then it won't really be an ick factor. The only possible ick is the bar of soap but we just wipe the tile off while we are showering.

Oh and you can buy pre-made niches at places like Home Depot. That way you don't have to worry about leaks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Redi-Niche

There are no mistakes, just personal preferences. After agonizing for a long time about this I realized that in my small NYC apartment bathroom with a tub/shower combo in a corner, there is no good place for a niche -- it would clutter up the only available wall, while I have plenty of room for products on the marble shelf that sits on the window sill at the short end of the tub and projects forward at a right angle between the shower and the toilet. I love my newly renovated bathroom and have never for a minute wished I had a niche.

Ditto.

To keep "product clutter" down to the bare minimum, I pour shampoos into some cute little non-labeled bottles, and then store most of the quart size screaming label bottles out of sight. Lasts long enough to satisfy me.

I have no niche. I didn't want to mess up the clean lines, and to take space from the room behind the wall, and to spend a lot of time and money making a perfect little cubic volume in the wall.

I could have. It would have been an eye draw. I already had that. I have a beautiful bench. I have frameless glass. I have other eyedraws too. Nicheless and happy.

I strongly suggest to do the Niche. In the long run your going to be so much happier and it really cranks up the custom look of your new space. You use the space between the studs so it's taking advantage of space you already have and don't use. When they bust everything out look at the space and you can then pin point where you want it to be. I put two into my space, one is large and down low and one is eye level and higher and very thin. We use that one for razors, Noxzema, bar of soap and extra wash cloths are nicely folded, stacked and placed at the very top. No more banging on the wall for wash cloth delivery. Don't do the hanger route, your right they do look bad and they are fine for those that are stuck with a situation and have to make do. Everything looks so nice and neat all lined up in the boxes. We keep our squeegee in there as well. Also keep in mind how big some of these containers get and make sure you make it tall enough and wide enough for all your products.

I agree that it is a matter of personal preference, combined with what storage options you actually have. I am with davidrol and others in the minority. My master bath has just been framed and I opted not to do niches, for two reasons. The shower will be mainly open, with the shower fixtures against the backwall (the only wall in the shower). A glass panel on the left side will separate the shower area from the vanity. On the right side, the shower area is open to the length of the tub deck, which runs parallel to the shower area. Although many niches are beautifully tiled, I do not want the view of filled-up niches on the vanity/shower wall or something else to clean, easy as it may be. A soap bar holder will be included on the shower tower. Most other products will be kept in a bathroom storage closet, save for perhaps a tray or box with decorative bottles for shampoo on the tub deck.

I didn't put in a niche - kind of wish I had though.
I put in 2 travertine rounded rope shelves. They are in the corner out the way on the same wall as shower head and hand sprayer.
I put my shampoo, etc. in clear bottles to give a nicer look to the shower area. I think if I did have a niche it would be "cluttered". With limited space, I don't put as much in the shower area.

We have a niche that we love in the Master. However, in our recent guest bath remodel we didn't do one. Wanted to, but the long wall is an exterior wall and I didn't want a cold spot, and on the other 2 walls there were structural issues. No spot for a niche that would look nice in my opinion. We went with 1/4 round marble shelves. They look great. On the other hand, this is a guest bath, not the showering shrine of a 16 year old girl!

Here is a link that might be useful: a place that makes 1/4 round shelves

Looks like you've decided already to do the niche. I heartily endorse it too. We finished the first of three bathroom renos last year (just about to start on #2, and haven't finalized layout yet, but will definitely have a niche). We were lucky enough to actually have the space to put in a shelf the whole length of the room- it was in a basement with thick cement walls up to where we installed the shelf, so our shelf is 8" deep, and I can't believe that the whole length is pretty well utilized. Cleaning is not an issue- shower spray doesn't seem to hit it- guess it's high enough. Installer did make sure to have a slight pitch so no water would collect.

We have a very large niche with glass shelves-even a light that shines down through the shelves. It's placed on the wall that divides the shower from the bathroom and yes, it's completely full!

Of course it gets dirty but it's really easy to clean. Someone commented about getting nasty years down the road.... if your shower is used often, your grout should be sealed every year with a GOOD sealer.

We have fixed the right sides of the shelves so they now look like the left.

Yes, we have committed to a niche, and hopefully it's location will allow it to miss most spray. Now all I have to do is convince DH that it needs a shelf in it... We can certainly get by without one, but a short shelf would allow the perfect place for a razors, soap dish (if we ever go to bar soap in the shower) and any other smaller items.

We put a niche in our newly enlarged shower while doing a MB renovation and it was one of the best things I did. Love it. Shamppos, soap, and bath gel all fit with no problem and there is no clutter anywhere in the shower. It is on the side wall of the shower and, without going into unnecessary explanations and diagrams of our bathroom, it cannot be seen until you are in the shower itself. I like that, so when you are standing in the bathroom you just see a clean shower and no clutter or bottles.

Below the niche we did put in a grab bar as we are both 70, no mobility problems now, but I think a good feature for the future or if the shower floor should get slippery even now for some reason. The grab bar also can't be seen until you are in the shower.

Answering another question on this thread, our shower head is on the far wall opposite the shower door and I can reach in and turn the shower on without getting into the shower first. The shower is huge, but the door and showerhead are on the narrower width of the shower. Bench across the entire right side, niche and grab bar on the left.

I know it's an old thread, but I'll add my two cents. Go with the recessed shelf. It's those hanging things that get icky water deposits and soap spots and all the shampoo grease and can't ever be cleaned. Yuck! Shelf you just wipa and that's that. With normal shower cleaning schedule ours are spotless.

We had niches installed our shower is now 4 months old and we haven't had any issues. Position it so that it doesn't get direct spray or a lot of deflected water from the shower, ours doesn't really get wet other than the bottles themselves. Our tile is medium grey and we haven't had to clean it yet - we just spray with whole foods 365 daily shower (or at least I do) a few times a week after use.

alku, sometimes it's fun to have the last laugh, even if we're the only one to realize it. ;)

alku05, now you can show him this thread and say "I told you so!". Or maybe for the sanctity of your marriage, just gloat inside ;)

Great news. As to where to put them, how about one on the showerhead wall and one on the wall opposite the showerhead wall?