Inset shelf in shower - do you have one?

[Buombalayo]

When we eventually redo our bathroom I would like to get a shelf put within the shower as shown in the picture. Do you need to build a fake wall out to do this thus losing space? Or are the made in the cavity between walls? Which now I'm thinking about it probably doesn't exist does it.... my house is 15ish years old so internal walls are probably quite thin aren't they?

Afaik it’s a fake wall, like the toilets with the hidden cistern.

I do. It's set into the normal wall, had it installed a year ago. My house was built in 1991.

Did they literally scoop out a bit of the wall??

@JohnLapsleyParlabane so I'm assuming there's plasterboard either side of the studs and they cut a whole in one side of the plasterboard and built it back to the plasterboard that is in effect the next room's wall? If that's the case do you find you can hear more from the neighbouring room into the bathroom?

It looks weirdly small in this photo but it's actually big enough to take the height of a big bottle of Tresemme shampoo.

Looks lovely! That's exactly the sort of thing I want

Ours is built into a false wall. The loo cistern is behind it too, and we have a mirrored wall cabinet above the basin, so worth losing a bit of space to tidy things away.

Yrs. We have them in all the bathrooms. They board out the area and then make an inset shelf which is tiled out

Yes we do.

We had to build out the wall anyway as I wanted all the workings of the shower behind the wall, so the cavity was there anyway. The actual brick wall is still solid between the bathroom & the bedroom.

Mine is not as wide as that but it’s double height and deeper, with a glass inset shelf.

DD used to sleep on the other side of that wall. The shower didn't disturb her any more post remodel than previously. I think as long as it's a stud wall it's pretty easy to do. Iirc, the builder did say wider is harder.

I have one the full length of the bath but at shower height if that makes sense (have shower over bath). It's built with a fake wall.

We do and it is great! No idea how it was constructed but it is so useful

Ours was built into a false wall. This is just after the tiles were done and before the flooring was put down. We didn’t do the cistern as we wanted easy access for plumbing problems

We had one in our old house. I absolutely hated it as the grout got really mucky and it was hard to clean the corners of it. Practically I loved it, just not from a cleaning point of view.

If I were redesigning our current bathroom, I would have the inset, but I would have it made of ceramic or similar, especially so that there was no grout inside it at all, it could just wipe clean.

Here are half way and finished

They're easy to put into a stud wall. The reason it's harder to make them wider is because of the width of the studs. I'm having two shower rooms built atm and the builder had forgotten to do these inserts, so before any tiling was done he cut into the plasterboard and made a recess of the right size for the mosaic tiles. A stud wall is usually about 10cm deep and in a bathroom can be used to hide all the pipe work. op if you're having a bathroom refitted, one suggestion I would make is have the shower fittings out side of the shower so you can switch the shower on before you get in it ifyswim

@Absolutepowercorrupts If it hasn't already been done, I would rethink the mosaic tiles. All the grout just kept getting yellowy and mucky and I was ending up bleaching it every single week as well as drying it off after each shower.

We cut a hole in the wall itself. Our ensuite wall is the other side of the kids bathroom. We cut shelves on both sides, one for each bathroom. I can't say I've noticed any soundproof problems.

GummyGoddess
I never have white grout, it always tones in with the tiles. I have stealth boast 4 bathrooms in my house and two in the barn conversion. I've never had any problem with discoloured grout

no, but I have done.

Holes in walls give the opportunity for leaks.

If you have that much room, put some shelves or hanging rings on the wall, and maybe have a slightly bigger tray and cube.

You can get grab rails that look very much like towel rails, and are good for hanging things off. They don't have sharp edges and will not give way if you ever slip and bump into them or grab them (this is a weakness of hooks and shelves).

I also like to see surface mounted (chrome) pipes, and surface mounted shower mixers. Much sadness arises when tiles have to be hacked off and the wall excavated to dig out a leaking plumbing fitting that has caused long-term damp and damage, unseen inside the wall.

It is called a shower niche and is very popular in the US.

You can buy them pre-made ready to tile or your bathroom fitter can make one for you.

There are lots of videos on YouTube showing both kinds.

I wish we didn't, I don't know if it was due to hard water or not but it drove me absolutely mad trying to keep it clean. I felt so stupid drying the tiles daily.