Building a custom shower niche is the perfect solution if you want your bathroom space to be more organized and also easy to clean!

A shower niche is a built-in shelf in the wall, which will add more storage space for your bathroom and hold all your shampoos, shower gels and other bathroom essentials. Building a niche in your shower does come with some extra costs and requires additional time for installation, however – a niche is so much better than regular shelves that you would otherwise hang. Custom niches provide you with an impressive design solution and will also add extra space in your bathroom as well as keep it clutter free.

vertical shower niche

Vertical shower niche

A vertical shower niche is a good solution if you don’t have that much available space in your bathroom. It’s easy to add them between two studs, which will not require any extra framework.  A vertical niche can start all the way at the floor and raise its way up to 17 inches. And if one vertical niche does not give you enough space for all your toiletries, then you can add one more right above the first one.

horizontal shower niche

Horizontal shower niche

A horizontal shower niche is wider and can even go from one corner of the wall to another. These kinds of horizontal niches are perfect for all bathrooms and are super easy to clean. In order for a shower niche to be able to fit all your toiletries, it needs to be at least 12 inches high. 

shower niche design
niche design
design of shower niche

Design

If you want your niche to have more of a pop and have it stand out in your bathroom design then you can easily use tiles of different colour. For example, if you have light or paster-colour shower walls, in order to create contrast, you can use tiles that are a shade or two darker for the niche. Similarly if you have shower walls with darker colour, your niche can be a light colour. If you don’t want the niche to distract from other focal points in your design, then you can easily use the same tiles for it as you used for the rest of your bathroom. Another cool design idea you can do is install waterproof LED lights and add more light to your bathroom.

Planning installation

Before you install the niche, we recommend you prepare a drawing and arrange the tiles without actually installing them in – just to give you an idea and help you see if all sizes fit. 

shower waterproof

Waterproof

A lot of water may go inside and cause humidity. That’s why it’s important to not forget about water protection. Before installing the tile, we use waterproofing materials, such as RedGuard with a combination of fiberglass tape and membrane. This step is needed for preventing any cracks or water damage between the tiles. Even the smallest cracks can lead to mold. Make sure your contractor installed silicon inside the niche as well as around the perimeter of the shower. 

 

What not to do

  1. Don’t install the niche outside of wall
  2. Don’t compromise the structure of the wall
  3. Don’t skip the waterproof steps