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skyangel23_gw

smallest functional shower niche size?

Skyangel23
10 years ago

In our new master bath, the tub is in front of the walk-in shower, and you can walk in either side. The shower is on the exterior concrete block walls, so a niche can't go on the walls. The only place we can do a shower niche is on the back of the built-up tub deck. Currently for various reasons, bracing, ect., we were told we can either do a 7" tall niche (18" long), or if we build up the tub deck a few more inches, we could get to 10" tall. I'm pretty sure 7" is ridiculously short. It's a couple hundred to do the niche: is it worth it to do a 10" tall one?

Comments (9)

  • catbuilder
    10 years ago

    How tall is the stuff you want to put in it?

  • Bunny
    10 years ago

    I was shocked to find how tall the seemingly short stuff is. My bath gel would need at least 10" if I wanted to fit my hand in to use the pump without having to remove it. I have a huge bottle of shampoo which I wouldn't expect to accommodate, but I'm pretty sure 10" is as short as I'd want it to be.

  • Skyangel23
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I would like it for shampoo bottles, shower gel, razors, ect. 7" would probably only allow for a couple of very short items, which would probably not be worth it. I'm not sure about the 10" though. How tall is everyone else's shower niche? :-)

  • jewelisfabulous
    9 years ago

    My husband buys the "industrial sized" bottles of Dove Shampoo at Sam's Club, so our niche is 18 1/2" tall to accommodate the height. It's split by a shelf, with 5" below and the remainder above.

    If you can't get the height for the items you'll need to store in the niche, it's going to be a waste of money and manpower to build one in. Instead, consider having a corner shelf installed made out of half-thickness granite or whatever your counter top material is made of.

  • raehelen
    9 years ago

    Like Jewel, our niche is ~ 19 high, with a shelf dividing into 1/3 & 2/3, so the tall space has 12" of room, the small space 6". The bottom granite shelf and the glass shelf take up the other inch. (So when you say 10" is that taking into account the thickness of the bottom shelf?)

    If you don't put in a niche, where are you going to put all your stuff? Where are the shower fixtures located? $200 could buy you a pretty nice looking shower caddy that maybe could have dedicated hooks on wall backing onto tub, so that it doesn't have to be slung over the shower head. (I gave you a link to Bloomingdales which is also having a 20% off sale right now), just to let you know that there are other alternatives.

    I am envisioning a pretty nice BR from your description, if you did put in corner shelves, then all your paraphernalia would be on full view. The nice thing about having it on the back of the tub wall, is that it would only be seen from inside the shower.

    Here is a link that might be useful: shower caddy

  • kudzu9
    9 years ago

    I'm doing a new shower right now and thought about a niche, but I had one previously and after a number of years the water got under the tile and started to come loose. If your tile person really knows what they're doing, a failure down the road is probably a small risk. However, I've decided this time to go with a glass shelf attached to the wall. They come in many styles and sizes (corner designs; long and skinny; etc.), they're a whole lot cheaper than paying someone to do a niche, and they can be much easier to keep clean of soap buildup (especially compared to a niche with mosaic tiles and grout lines). You also don't have to worry about injury from breakage because all the ones I researched were made of tempered glass. Lastly, if you don't find exactly the size you want, you could order a unit that has the hardware you like and have a glass shop make up a piece of tempered glass in the size you want that you can substitute. And there are a number of sites that simply sell you the hardware and you get the shelf locally.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Glass shower shelves

    This post was edited by kudzu9 on Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 17:35

  • lisadlu
    9 years ago

    I have a 5" high x 12" wide niche for soap and razors. Directly under it I have a 13" high x 12" wide niche for my HUGE shampoo bottles! :)

  • divotdiva2
    9 years ago

    my shortest is 10 1/2" high and the tallest is 14 1/2" high. Grab a couple of bottles of your most-used stuff and see if it will fit the 10" before you commit. a 7" would be useful for a soap dish and razor, maybe a bath scrubbie. See if your shampoo bottle you use now would fit 10".

  • busybee3
    9 years ago

    i have a couple of niches in our current bath that aren't less than 11 1/2" high- one has shelf space that is 13" high... that is really taller than i actually need. 10" would be tall enough to fit most, but not all, of our products, but i would prefer a taller space (11 1/2" is ideal for me) for taking out and putting back the bottles, iykwim... less awkward i would imagine.

    in the bath we are having done right now, i am having a ledge built since i want the shower larger than the 60x36" cast iron pan i am using. i have decided not to have any niches built since the ledge will provide plenty of storage area...