Well I certainly like the idea of a bright outlook on the day, but not sure it requires glass. I don't plan to have a door to the shower and there will be an overhead light above the shower. So lighting shouldn't be a problem. I have had glass showers in my last four homes. I'm ready for a change.... with color and pazazz.

There are many beautiful porcelain tiles, stone tiles, and glass tiles that are used in showers. You should be able to have some fun with that color and pizazz you're wanting.

Daltile offers a multitude of beautiful colors in their "Natural Hues" collection. And what I find particularly exciting about the collection is the range of sizes in which it is offered, from the standard 12 x 12 size, to 6 x 12, 2 x 8, 3 x 9, and several others. You could use a combination of colors for the entire shower, or do accent stripes mixed with a larger neutral tile. Here's the link: http://products.daltile.com/series.cfm?series=26https://www.houzz.com/photos/landsend-guest-bath-contemporary-bathroom-vancouver-phvw-vp~468208

Yes I have visited the local Daltile facility. Lots of beautiful stuff. A bit overwhelming. I did see some things I liked but thought maybe you all could give me some innovative ideas.

Well, with the Daltile natural hues series that I showed you above, You could select 3 or more colors in the 2x8" size and lay them like bricks, or you could stack them with one row of one color, then the next, and the next. Or you could select one predominant color in a 12x12 size, laying two rows of it like bricks, then putting in a row of 2x8s in a mixture of 2 colors. Keep repeating to the ceiling. Use 2x2s of one of the colors on the floor and the shampoo niche(s).

If you want to use glass mosaics, find the glass mosaic and taking one of the colors from the mosaic, select the color from the natural hues series that best matches the mosaic color. Use the 6x12" natural hues field tile, laying the 6x12 tile for 3 rows, then adding 2 rows of mosaic, and repeating up to the ceiling. Is that all clear as mud?
Carolyn Albert-Kincl, ASID

It is very clear and I appreciate the pattern suggestions. Thanks.

As said above, don't completely discount glass! There are products that protect glass from getting "stained" and having unsightly water spots.

This is one company that sells it:
http://na.en.showerguardglass.com

Also, I have heard that protecting the glass with RainX helps as well!
http://www.rainx.com

Good luck!

Sorry to report I have tried the glass products which claim to cure waterspots. I have not been impressed. I have also used the ribbed glass and opaque glass. NOTHING kept the water spots at bay..... especially in harder waters. My current water is not hard, but I still want to try a stone (not glass mosaic) with creative patterns. My husband strongly opposes another glass shower!

It will just take a lot of my valuable time to search out and coordinate the walls, floors, granite for countertop, and stone. I am persnickety about color schemes and coordinated accent pieces in the walls. I am also doing some extensive cabinetry, moving a door and a wall.

Just finished remodeling the kitchen and living areas two months ago, so I know what I am getting into. It is a lot of work. But I look forward to the challenge and finished product.

I appreciate any and all ideas.

Tile stores frequently employ designers who can help you with coordinating your tile selections and discuss layout possibilities. If there is a Materials Marketing near you, they have lovely stone tiles and mosaics.

Please have a look at kiln-fired art on tile. Even if you go with stone or synthetic surface material, you may still want to have art. You can get a better idea of what can be done by seeing the examples here on my Houzz page. Any painting or photograph fired on tile.

I found a Materials Marketing near me but they don't have a website to visit. Too bad. I will drive down town and check it out. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Try this link, even tho it's for Austin: http://www.mstoneandtile.com/architectural-stone-and-tile-materials-marketing-about/showrooms/austin/

Thank you. You have been very helpful.

You're most welcome and please don't hesitate to let us know if you have further questions. Best of luck!
Carolyn

New wet room curbless shower system: http://www.builderonline.com/products/video-innovative-shower-pan-creates-an-easy-curbless-shower.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=jump&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BBU_112812&day=2012-11-28

I have also done water proof plaster finishes in showers

I find this very interesting. Please tell me more about your water proof plaster finishes. What makes them waterproof? Do they have a texture? Can you give me product names?

Thanks for your help. You are giving me information I needed.

I first used it to finish coat a landscape pond project about 12 years ago. I've done a couple of showers and wet room baths with it since. You can smooth finish the plaster for min. number of places to hold water and mildew, but a sprites of Clorox and water is all that is required for cleaning with the hand shower. Since then I've done one with muti coats of thin set on spider lath and like the softer finish particularly with the cement coated foam trim moldings. Here is one I'm trying next. http://www.beadcreteusa.com/palette.php

Do you put this type of thing on the walls of the shower, or the floor? The link you gave me looks much more like pool decking. Are there any other options?

Hi kroze!
I know you said no glass tiles, but I was just thinking that for the floor of the shower, we have these special 100% recycled glass tiles that have an anti slip texture to them that make them perfect for flooring, especially in a shower or swimming pool. Some of the colors are currently on sale, too. Just a thought! http://www.susanjablon.com/shop/glass-tiles-mosaic/tile-collections/recycled-glass-tiles.html

Thanks Susan. I will take that into consideration.

Any standard plaster texture can be used the beadcrete is just one I tend to use the standard white and add color via mixing the paint color into the mix as part of the water quantity.

Please excuse my profound ignorance on this, but do you use the plaster in conjunction with stone or tiles? If so, how is the stone waterproofed? I look at the beadcrete and it appears to be something I wouldn't want to walk on with bare feet everyday. I am not understanding how this works. So sorry.

You can always add stone or tile, but the reason I use just the plaster is it looks good and cost substantially less than adding another material on top both in material and labor$ I don't use it on the floors. There tile or stone is the norm, though a tile or stone base is used to avoid soap build up at the wall floor intersect.

So, if I understand this right, if you add a stone or tile, it would not have this waterproof feature that the plaster has, so you would be defeating your purpose. Right?

To some degree that is true, but if you are going to use tile you just need to use 2 part epoxy grout since the tile is waterproof. In the case of stone I set into a tray of sealant to seal it. With granite or other Metamorphic rocks sealing is general not necessary due to their density. I do the plaster because I like the look, the money savings and it doesn't show anywhere the amount of build up of soap residue as the other choices.

Okay. That sounds very interesting to me. Do you know if there is any place I can go to look at this finished product? I live in the Dallas area and would love to see this stuff first hand,

here is a distributor for American clay products whose plaster is one I've used: http://www.americanclay.com/search-our-contacts?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=98&sobi2Id=341 as to other sources of the material: http://www.chargar.com/Products/prod_pc.html
finding some one like myself you may have to get a local fabricator's name from the supplier. Any company that plasters pools or ponds is familiar with the product, but any plasterer can put either on. These are thin coat final coat products and do not require anything but minimal depth applied over a properly lay up wall section. This normally consist of GP dense glass with sealed joints, covered by fiberglass lath installed with plastic screws, a cement base coat or coats, and a final sealing coat of the product. American clay products holds DIY training session around the country and I've done the jobs myself with little practical experience.

Looks like the above mentioned American Clay distributor does not offer visual samples of their products. They are simply a wholesale builders supply. They don't answer their phone so I will call them next week and see if they can give me further information.

Thanks a lot for your help. Even if it isn't the answer to my dilemma, it has been interesting to learn. There was one photo image that showed a decorative design embedded into the plaster. Very unique.

I also liked the video you offered earlier of the new shower pan design. That looks like a real winner.

On another issue, what experience does anyone have with the heated bathroom floors? I have them in my RV bus and love them, but not sure about the residential value. Since I'm redoing my bath down to the concrete slab, this is an option I am contemplating.

What do you all think?

For a lot less money go with radiant ceiling panels. They heat the surface of the objects and the objects re radiate the heat. http://www.berkomeh.com/en/berko/pd-cp-radiant-ceiling-panels/

America Clay home page has photo examples and a training schedule.
http://americanclay.wix.com/new/home

Well, the reason I like the floor heat is because it doesn't overheat the entire room. It just keeps the floor slightly warm to the touch of a bare foot. You can get them thermostatically controlled or hi/low settings. In my RV bus I have it underneath porcelain (faux marble) floors and it works beautifully. They really don't cost very much to install, but I'm not sure about the cost on the electric bill. I've never had to pay that in RV parks...

I am a little surprised that I'm not getting some pros and cons from the forum. Since I've never seen it used in a residence, I'm questioning the idea. I would think that the people up North would be using it.

Okay i'm up North, -22 Celsius today :) I have heated concrete floors. They are hot water heated not electric. Would I change them if I could, NO WAY!!!! The only con is they take a bit of time initially to get to the temperature you desire usually 4 hours will do. Same is true if you turn them down, the change is not instant and can take a few hours before you notice the change. If you like to play with the thermostat this is not for you. I never hear the furnace kick in or have the annoying air blowing out the registers. The floor is comfortable all the time. No slippers are needed here and it's not uncommon for guests to lay on the floor, crazeee as that may seem. Oh yes and most wonderful in the bathrooms too :)

Radiant ceiling panels???? hum... never heard of them. Seems a bit strange that there would be a benefit to heat the ceiling. They heat surfaces and then re radiate the heat, how well can this work when the heat naturally rises. I really don't know a thing about this but always willing to keep an open mind and learn new things along the way. I'll have to check this link out, thanks Custom Home Planning Centre.

The panel generates short wave radiation which is directional. The object in line (tile, towels and people convert the shortwave into long wave so that the object radiate the heat that is not absorbed.

Thanks for your input olldcan. I had a friend in Georgia that used the water system for their entire house.
Since I am only considering the master bath, electric seems the way to go for me. When I checked into it, I was surprised that it was not terribly expensive. I'm glad you enjoy yours. Is it your only heating system?

We have a boiler. From the boiler the hot water runs through the 3rd. and 4th. levels of the house, both concrete. There is a coil just off the boiler with a fan that pushes air (at what ever desired temp , hot or room temp) through the top 2 floors that have registers. This air flow is 24/7, it never stops unless I manually shut the fan off. I never hear the fan or air through those registers, or hear a furnace kick in.
Just talked to my sis yesterday, she's installing electric in floor heat in there master bathroom too so for small area or retrofit I think it's the way to go :)

Thanks for that comment from your sister. At least I have one soul mate out there! ;-)

"Nu-Heat" electric infloor heating under tile on a programmable control panel is wonderful in bathrooms!

Thanks myms. I'll check it out!!!

Yes, Nu-Heat is what she's using too.

If you have followed this thread an update can be seen here.....

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/master-suite-remodel-dsvw-vd~2887761