Can you hold up the black shelf? (Or is it too long, and needs to be cut to fit?) Do you have any other black in shower or bath to tie it in with? Don't know about the curling, etc. but I do know black will show soap scum, watermarks, etc. more than the white. Do you want to have to be always cleaning the shelf?

Either one will be fine. Once your various bottles and other paraphernalia get placed on there your eye will gravitate to their probably bright colours anyways!

Your grout lines look fantastic! Are they 1/8"?

(I now have a functioning sink, and we're heading to BBB to buy LIfeliner, then I'll be filling my drawers...pardon me! LOL)

I like the Carrara. It's hard to tell on my screen that the tones are a little different. It looks like a good match here. I think you're right about it adding drama. So if you're looking for a subtle and serene vibe I would go with the Carrara.

Raehelen and Lottery, thanks for the feedback. I do have black thresholds at the entries to the room that match the black shelf. But I will go with the carrara. I have been in and out of the bathroom looking and I like the calm of the carrara. The slight color difference is really negligible. I like the "no worry" that it will offer too.

(blah blah blah) I'm glad I don't have to rip the black shelf again to fit, as it is too deep to fit now that I had redesigned my installation of the tile into the niche accomodate the narrower depth of the 4" carrara piece. I tiled and then the carrara will be butted into the spot, instead of putting the shelf in and setting the tiles on top of the stone, like a typical counter and backsplash. I had wanted to set the tiles on top of the stone, but it wouldn't work with the carrara. so I changed tile install to keep my option of shelves open. (blah blah blah)

Raehelen, you are a stitch...and you are excused! Have fun getting supplies for your vanity. Regarding grout lines, thanks, they are 1/16th. I have a picture of the niche detailing and grout lines. I cut and eased the edges of the field tile to get a flush modern look.

The shelf is installed:

The carrara shelf looks great!

Looks good! I can't wait to see the finished project.

Love that! You are clearly building my next bathroom. ;-)

Always ;-)
Hunzi

Thanks Hunzi! Today I might get some more tiling done. I do about 8 tiles per week :O I only work on the weekends. I just don't have the energy after work.

Hi, it looks beautiful, quick q for you: how did you ease the edge of the tiles for the niche borders? Thanks

Stick with Carrara. black will stick out like a sore thumb and I don't think the shelf should be the vocal point.

thank you. The issue I have are the edges of the tiles, they are so sharp, dont like the idea of having sharp edges on the niche...

Is the tile on the floor black? If it is I might consider the black shelf as an interesting counterpoint. If it starts spalling, it looks like the sill wouldn't be too hard to replace.

At 8 tiles a week, the OP might not be done yet, but the original question was asked in 2014!

lol

hahaha good eye sjhockey, I didn't even notice

Hey Enduring, that looks identical to the kind of marble-look we are wanting for our new shower. Do you remember the name of the tile?

Claywhitenack, Hi there. the Shower tile is Atlas Concorde in the Marvel Calacatta Extra pattern. It is 12x24. It is porcelain and very strong. It is rectified and made in Italy. I stumbled across it and was able to order it. It goes very well with the walnut. It is a matte finish and very nice. The marble ledge in my shower niche was a fluke. It was from the first counter top that was cut wrong and the guys gave it to me. If you look close you will see that the carrara is greyer than the porcelain tile, which is a warmer white than the carrara. But pretty darn close.

Thanks enduring! I thought it might be something like that. We have been looking at the Marvel Pro Statuario Select in the 12x24 block. It looks very similar to your selection... not sure what the difference is. The sample tile we brought home from our local tile shop doesn't have as much veining as I see on the website, but the website samples show a whole lot...maybe too much. Your selection looks great, and maybe more like what we are shooting for. And yes, if you get really close, you can see that the shelf is slightly different, but from a distance it is too close to notice. It looks great.

What did you do for the shower floor?

Claywhitenack, I used a Kohler 36x60 shower pan. I have a small house and planned this space to be a conventional alcove for a standard sized tub, if in the future anyone wanted to replace this area for a tub.

If you do tile in the shower floor do the porcelain. There have been so many complaints of real marble having problems that I wanted easy. I did the shower tiling myself and would not recommend a DIYer doing these large format tiles unless they used a larger grout spacing. I should have used 1/8" spacing but did 1/16". It shows too much lipage. Or if I would have used a darker grey grout it would have blended with the shadows I think. The tiles are FLAT, it was my inexperience and, I'm no spring chicken. These tiles, in this size, loaded down with thinset are HEAVY. But I love the shower, and ignore the lipage. I have to say that the cut on the niche, is really nicely done, patting myself on the back for that one.

that back wall is 58", looks less. 2" less than the 60" rough in for the shower pan:

Starfire (or what ever the low iron tempered glass is called). both doors open fully out, or nearly fully inward except where the handles or shower fixtures stop the swing:

People have been really happy with their souls surface type shower pans. Unless you have a crackerjack tiler, I'd do a pan of some sort.

Great pics enduring! What a wonderful space...

claywhitenack - I struggled over a shower pan or tile on the floor too. I looked at different pans but needed a dark one to fit my vision. Onyx had some dark options (and they make custom sizes too) but they looked too plastic IMO (and are $$) so I bit the bullet and did a tile floor. I love it. I will say that this was my first true remodel EVER and after reading some comments on here - someone wrote - "you only live once"... go with what you want. And I knew I really wanted the tile... Of course I may regret that someday hahahaha. Both are good options. Tile sometimes looks a little better to me but there is almost zero worry with the pan... If I had a white shower & pan, then I probably would have went with a pan. But I needed a charcoal floor color and the pans didn't look right to me in dark colors. good luck