How about some corner shelves made of tile. The design is what will make it modern. - straight or curved to fit in with your design. A single piece of tile will work. It would be best if the tile was porcelain so you could round or rout the edge. You can have your vanity top fabricator do it for you. Or even stone to match your vanity. Have you gone and browsed through www.houzz.com? Lots of pictures.

This post was edited by Anna_in_TX on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 18:03

Alina,

As Anna said, for your shower, corner shelves would work,
I attached a link for corner shelves on Houzz. You could even have one low enough to use as a foot prop to aid while shaving legs.

Depending on whether or not you have room to build out one wall a few inches, you could literally build one long shelf on one of your outside walls, ie build out the bottom part another four inches, and cap it with granite or stone.
We were able to do this in our basement bath, as the foundation walls were 8" thick, so we created a 10 foot long shelf along one outside wall, 4 feet of it inside the shower.

Here is a link that might be useful: [corner shelves on Houzz[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/shower-corner-shelves-phbr0lbl-bl~l_40790)

Are you doing any grab rails? We have one that has a removable shelf attached. Doesn't look "medical" at all.

Here you go. We got our grab bar/shelf in bronze, to match our other hardware. Perhaps one of these days (years?) dh will get the thing installed!

Here is a link that might be useful: Moen Grab rail/shelf

Trust me, I am just finishing renovating a tiny Master Bath, I know all about space issues! Since we had the same issue as you, two outside walls, we created our niche on the inside wall with the plumbing by building out the wall the width of a 2 X 4 and directing the pipe for the overhead shower behind the niche. With the added thickness of the thinset and tile the inside of the niche is almost 5" deep and with the granite overhang, the bottom shelf is almost 6" deep. We built it tall enough to add a second shelf of tempered glass.

Pic of finished MBR niche showing built out end wall

I will try and answer all the above questions.
1. If you want to use tiles to create your corner shelves, you would have to live with having your tiler create his own edge, bullnose wouldn't work, as I believe they usually come in only rectangles 3-4" deep. Porcelain are full body colour tiles, so the edge would be same colour as the tile. You would have to see your tiler's work to see if he is neat enough.
2. With custom glass, they just cut around the shelf. That's what my guy did. (One reason I went with framed glass in my guest BR, frameless was more than I wanted to spend with custom) You obviously have them come and measure for the glass after the shower is built.
3. The granite shelves are installed as the tiling is done, so the bottom of the granite sits on the edges of the tiles, and then the next row of tiles is thin-set over the shelf, so that it is securely stuck in place between the two rows of tiles. I am guessing they must have to cut out the top tile to fit around the shelf. (In a niche, the tiles are all on the same plane). I used tempered glass for my second shelf in my MBR niche, as my granite was very thick (I used granite for the bottom shelf sitting on the bottom of the niche).
4. Yes, I have seen grab bars with glass shelves. Try Moen
5. Definitely register for Houzz. You can create your own ideabooks, and save all the pictures that you like.

Thanks for the link Gladys - will not work for me because the shelf is too small for our stuff. And 4 or 5 grab bars in the shower would look crazy even for our family :) Good luck with installation of yours!

raehelen ,
Thank you for such a detailed response!
Porcelain tiles are not always full body, sometimes they are glazed. We will be our tilers :) I guess, this will not be an option, I will not like the look.

Thank you so much for the pictures! Your shower looks really cool! I do not see the overhead shower there. It is not installed yet?The niche is very roomy. Before&after pictures are really helpful. Will try to implement something like this in our only internal wall (it will be next to the short side of the tub).
I guess, we will use a combination of different fixtures.

Planning such project is a full time job... I spent a month designing a vanity combination. I picked a whirlpool tub and got a couple of quotes (one is acceptable) for a vanity top. Still, it is all so overwhelming... I am sure I will ask more questions here.

Will register for Houzz now..

I have Ginger shower baskets. I like them because they hold enough stuff and are easy to clean.

I'm also doing Ginger baskets in this remodel (actually the remodel is almost complete and the baskets should be installed this week). In my previous home, we had a ledge about 4-5" wide, 3' long and 3' high, which I loved (I'm not a huge fan of niches, which I had before the ledge). I'm hoping the Ginger baskets will look at home in my two contemporary bathrooms.

Alina,

Funny, I've almost filled the niche already! Never too much room! LOL I thought I had taken lots of pictures, but didn't have any showing both the end wall and the niche, and the shower fixtures. Took my first shower Sunday...happy dance... only 1 year and 1 month from when we began to gut the BR. I coach part-time and was just saying to my DH that there is no way we could have done this ourselves if I was working full-time...I can't even begin to calculate how many hours I've put into this.

You will love Houzz... I have spent many an enjoyable hour browsing on there...

Here are the fixtures... they are all Riobel. (Really, I enjoy any excuse to show off my shower, can't believe it's actually done!)

If you are having someone help with the tiling, they can shape the edge of porcelain tile. So no need for bullnose. Mine's not done yet but all my niches just have straight edges made from the tile. My tile guy is not cheap but he's very good.