Hi Redshoetraveler. You'll love your cultured marble shower surround. It's so easy to keep clean as there are no grout lines. I'd opt for at least a soap/shampoo holder or some place to put your shampoo bottles and soap. You can see some photos here: http://culturedmarblemolds.com/products.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Cultured Marble Finished Products

I'm just in the middle of installing my plain white cultured marble corner shower.

I didn't want a tiled shower, as the only color we would have done is white, and I didn't want stained grout in the future. Acrylic showers all seemed flimsy, and the cultured marble kit was the same price as mid-range acrylics.

Only trick I've found is they're not as easy to install yourself as acrylic. Even with my pre-made corner 'kit' you have to trim the walls as they make them larger than needed to account for out of square framing. I framed my bathroom perfectly square and plumb knowing I was putting this kit in, but never the less, I have to trim the walls.

The base is solid as a rock, unlike acrylic shower bases. It is solid material all the way through and is set in thinset on my concrete slab floor (basement). It almost feels 'too' solid :)

Simple solid white is the way to go - don't get any faux finishes. If you want a marble look, buy marble.

Doyl - Thanks for sharing the photos. I believe they have included 2 shampoo shelves & a soap dish in each shower, so we should have some decent "storage".

TorontoTim - Thanks for the input. It's a new build & we are having them install all of them, so no worries about having to do it ourselves! I'd love to see yours when it's done.

Yes, I'm strongly leaning toward solid white. Now just wondering if I take any of the "free upgrades" and have the accessories & trim in a coordinating granite or just go classic & simple & have everything white. Anyone else have photos to share?

Here are some pics of our tub surround although it's not cultured marble. It's from Onyx Collection. I would've preferred solid white but not with the white tub (too much white and never the same shade). The small soap dish was included and the larger one we bought as well as all the trim. We also got color-matched silicone which you'll have to think about if you decide on a different color trim. IMHO I think it would be tricky to pull off different color panels and trim without looking choppy or unintentionally striped but of course you'll have to decide how it looks in your bath. Maybe your room is short and different trim would draw the eye up to make the shower look taller?

TorontoTim is right that despite very specific measurements, they sent the pieces a little too big so we had to trim. "We" means DH with me following directions lol. I guess a little too big is waaaay better than a little too small! Trimming was interesting because, while the actual trimming was pretty easy, the material started sagging if left for very long unsupported. So keep everything very flat (if your cultured marble acts the same)! It's also pretty darn heavy despite being 1/4" thick. DH had to get a very strong friend to do the back panel as I couldn't even lift it iwth DH. Also, we couldn't have moved any of it without the little suction handles. And, we borrowed some wall jacks for the panels while the silicone on the back (clear but bought from Onyx Collection to best match their panel material) cured.

Anyway, I got the glossy finish for easiest upkeep and it has been that. We've had it for a several months now and I use 50/50 vinegar/water spray and squeegee to clean--easy peasy!

Finally, the pics:

Closeup of the cubbies:

Closeup of the trim:

For some reason, the color in this pic is off. The real color is as above.

ps redshoetraveler: do you only have One Red Shoe??

HTH

mtnfever - thank you! Your surround is beautiful! Fortunately, we are not installing ours ourselves, so we don't have to worry about that part. Our walls are 9' tall, so I'm not worried about making the shower seem taller. My supplier/installer considers colors like yours "cultured granite" & charges 1/3 more for them. Our color choices are white or the swirly ones, which I am not as much a fan of.

We recently did a shower and tub with cultured marble.

We didn't like the molded soap/shampoo holders that our vendor offered, so we asked them to do an alcove. They said the detail work (done on site) for that wouldn't be perfect but they'd give it a go. I think they did a fine job.

We also put in a pass through to bring light from a far window into the shower/tub. We didn't want to do a full pony wall to protect the shelving on the other side and make it easy to use a curtain rod (we wanted to preserve to option to have complete end-to-end access to the tub rim).

We liked the mottled look better than solid so did not go with a solid color.

Here's some photos (colors are not true):