Share your thoughts on large shower niche

12 years ago

Planning our shower and would love to hear your thoughts on doing a large shower niche. Our plan currently is a white ceramic subway tile shower with calcatta marble mosaic accents (floor, niche and possibly accent wall).

We have seen some really nice pictures of accent walls that we liked, but then we saw a large niche being constructed at our local tile shop and it got us to thinking we could maybe incorporate both and do a large accent wall niche.

Thoughts? Any drawbacks to doing a large niche?

Large niche being constructed

Marble accent wall in subway tile shower

Thinking we would do a subway tile shower (horizontal tiles, not vertical like in picture above) with a ceramic rail border and then do a marble mosaic inside and on the floor as well.

Thoughts as to what style marble mosaic would look nice with the subway tile? Would herringbone look nice? I have seen some subway tile kitchen backsplashes with a herringbone marble mosiac above the stove and it looked really great. Also thinking about 1x1 tiles set on a diagonal. Haven't seen any pictures of it done, but it sounds nice. Does anyone have any pictures of this tile setting?

What should we use for the side walls and shelf...marble or ceramic? What would look best? I would prefer ceramic since that is easier to clean and I can get large ceramic tiles 6x8, however I believe the ceramic tiles have a bit of a curve to them so we would not only have lots of seams but they also would not lay as flat. Thoughts?

Thanks!

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Comments (6)

writersblock (9b/10a)
12 years ago
I think herringbone would look nice, but that basketweave looks fantastic!
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bill_vincent
12 years ago
The only time I have a problem (and this is for ANY size niche) is when it's an exterior wall. Especially up north, that can cause a cold spot in an area you want to be nice and warm for when you get nekkid! :-) Beyond that, though, there's no reason against having ANY size niche, so long as you have nothing in the wall cavity getting in the way (that can't be rerouted).
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piscesgirl
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Bill. Actually our niche will be on an interior wall, so I guess we won't have that issue. The other side of the wall is our closet, and cross fingers...hopefully there is nothing else in the wall cavity to get in the way.
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NaRo
12 years ago
Love a large niche! We used granite left over from the countertop to make the shelves. The back of the niche is the same tile as the rest of the shower, but in a smaller format. We let the bottom shelf stick out just a little to provide a foot perch for leg shaving.
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dvarnell
12 years ago
The one thing you shld think about (bc the accent tiles are expensive) is whether you want to spend that money and then use it in a niche where it gets covered up with plastic shampoo bottles. Kind of defeats the purpose. You may want to do an accent strip with the accent tile and then put a niche below it and/or hide one on the shower wall that isn't as visible ( such as a pony wall if you have one) .
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piscesgirl
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the suggestion dvarnell, but we are planning on doing a large niche(about 60" tall) with only the bottom ledge and no additional shelves, so you will be able to see the majority of the niche mosaic. We typically only have three bottles in the shower (shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash) and a razor so the large niche is more of a tile accent wall but serving as a niche as well.

Here is another online sample of a large niche, except this is much deeper than what we are planning on doing.
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