My person feeling is that niche would be very inconvenient to use. We just did the same kind of down to the wall bathroom remodel. I have a corner seat that is more like a shelf and love it

That corner seat looks as if it would be in the way for actual showering. An appropriately placed pair of handicap rods would enable you to hold on to one rod, if needed, and prop up a foot on another and take up a lot less room.

IF your purpose is to use the seat for a seat -- not recreation -- consider the different kinds of portable and/or built in fold down seats that you can get at medical supply stores rather than building in a seat.

Also, if you are one of those people planning both a shower and a separate bathtub, rethink your plans and see what kinds of larger tubs you can get that you can also use with a shower head either in the wall or overhead.

I feel you as during demolition recently to expand our bath we encountered a support beam that interferes with planned shower niche. We are now going to have his-and-her shower niches on either side of the support beam, which I think will be a nice solution, since my hubby has way too many shower products compared to me....

I want a bench as well but I never sit on benches. Grosses me out. Maybe some day, sitting on a shower bench will be a necessity. Not now. I want it simply to prop my leg while shaving. And realistically, if I had your proposed configuration, I'd put my shaving stuff on the bench -- not in the niche -- too low to reach, compared to the bench itself.

I vote for nixing the corner bench and instead getting a stand-alone bench and grab bars. Unless this is your only shower niche, then go for it, as it's better to have a niche than to have shower bottles tumbling over on the floor of the shower.

Would like to see the rest of your shower configuration.

I skipped the niches all together because I just don't like them and have 2 glass shelves 1/4 round in corner

@Lainey Stern Your shower looks nice in the corner, but the seat just looks too small to me. I actually do plan to sit on the bench and use a handheld at times, and this is hopefully the first & last time this bathroom will need to be remodeled during my lifetime. (We have a second bathroom that will be done on the heels of this one). I'm in my mid-50's, and while I can usually get around pretty well, I've had injuries that still bother me to my knee, back, neck, and one shoulder. I have limited upward range of motion in one shoulder at this point - but reaching downward is ok. If my other shoulder ever follows the same path as the one shoulder, I'm going to be SOL to reach upward much.

At one point, I was told that I would be in a wheelchair by the time I reached 40. I'm trying to plan ahead so that if I need to be able to sit in the shower with the handheld, whether it's from an old injury troubling me or a new injury (or the normal aging process), There is also a window in the shower, just above the possible bench area on the short wall, and the window sill could be used as an alternative to temporarily put shower items while showering so that I could reach down vs. up.

@Barbara Almandarz Thanks . I wanted to put the niche up higher in the wall, but then the contractor is going to have to build out the one wall at least 3 more inches, which might mess is up with code requirements. We plan to put one niche under the fixed shower head on the far side of the shower, but I'm trying to figure out where I can put a few things if I'm showering at the bench. It's a good point about the soap and so forth. I don't know if it will make a difference that the niche would be at a 45 degree angle to the shower head, instead of facing the shower head straight on. Thoughts?

@suezbell We considered the portable seats, but really wanted something permanent and stable. The old shower was the legal minimum of 30"x30". So this shower will be nearly twice the size at 32"x58". This would be tucked into a corner on the opposite wall of the showerhead wall. Still trying to think it through. There isn't space in the bathroom for an actual tub; there will be a tub in the hall/family/guest bath though.

Jennifer M I know I want to be able to sit; while "most" days I am good with standing in a shower, there are other days that I just want to sit and let hot water continuously hit my back or other problem joints. I don't like tile benches, because I know things get into grout, but the entire top of the seat would be a single slab of sealed marble, so no grout to be sitting on. (and simple to clean with a wipe-down). There will be one other niche, on the "far" side of the shower. I will try to draw out the layout and post a photo tomorrow.

How is your reno going?

It's going.... slowly. The first bathroom isn't done yet. The 99.5% of the tile is done though - we were short three pieces of tile baseboard, which I picked up over the weekend. The rain shower head is installed, so we can take showers, and the nice came out looking really good. The seat is a dream to be able to sit on, and it's at the right height for me to use either to sit on, or to prop a foot on while shaving a leg. The Toto toilet is wonderful - it's much quieter than the old toilet, it's water-efficient, and it's flushing everything down so much better than the old toilet. The plumber is coming out tomorrow to install the hand-held shower for that bathroom and to hook up the sink faucets. We had the shower glass templated, that will take another 2 - 3 weeks before installation. Even though the master bathroom isn't done yet (it also needs painting and accessories to be installed) - it's already SO much better than it was before. The second bathroom was mostly demolished over the weekend, The contractor needed three people to haul in the new cast-iron whirlpool tub, but he got it into the second bathroom. We're currently targeting for both bathrooms to be completely done by the end of October.

Niche photo

I think that looks goofy. Previously mentioned issues would make it more of a problem than a convenience. Go with one niche and leave things you don't use for every shower in a cupboard. You'll get used to it.

If you mean the photo showing the one niche just below the shower head looks "goofy", it's too late. That is our one niche in the shower, that niche was just finished last week. We went with an ordinary corner seat.

I think he/she was answering the original question. I think your big niche is gorgeous. I guess the controls for the shower are going on the center wall? All around nice job!

I was answering the original question. The proposed one in the floor looks goofy. The one under the shower head looks large enough and quite nice

Beautiful niche! Better than the idea of putting it under the bench! I did my niche in my other bathroom under the shower head and it's the perfect spot! It never gets wet with water and you can reach it same time/place as you turn water on or off. I know some people think it's useless but I have 4 bathrooms and the niches save a good amount of real estate and it leaves the bathroom uncluttered. What helped for us was buying this item from bed bath and beyond that totally looks great and works great too! You might want to consider it! No clutter for sure!