These 25 Shower Niche Ideas Practically Drip Style
The wrong shower arrangement can be downright hazardous. When slippery soap and a generous flow of water is concerned, having your shower essentials easily accessible can be the difference between an elevated self-care moment and a painful shower accident that ends in a limp and a few well-articulated curse words. So a shower niche is an easy architectural flex that is as pretty as it is practical.
What is a shower niche, you ask? It’s a built-in recessed shelf within the shower wall, designed to provide convenient and accessible storage space for toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner, soap, and other bathing essentials. Shower niches come in various sizes, shapes, and styles, often customized to blend seamlessly with the overall bathroom design. They are typically tiled to match or complement the surrounding shower walls, ensuring a cohesive look. “A shower niche provides built-in storage space for bottles, keeping them organized and easily accessible, which eliminates the need for cumbersome shower caddies or shelves,” Atlanta-based designer Gabriela Eisenhart tells ELLE DECOR. “You can create a seamless continuation of the shower wall with the niche, resulting in a more cohesive, minimal, modern shower design.”
New York–based designer Lindsay Lucas says she loves to use the niche as a design moment. “We like to add a small natural stone in a pattern, such as a marble or dolomite in a mosaic on the back wall,” she explains. “This is the space people feel confident in applying an artistic touch that stands out in the most beautiful way.”
As for size, Eisenhart holds that the bigger the shower niche, the better, when possible. “The placement of wall studs determines how much space you can recess into the wall, but the goal is always to make the niches as long and wide as possible to maximize storage,” she explains. “If the stud placement is tricky, opt for a taller niche with a shelf divider that can provide ample storage space for toiletries.”
Lucas agrees, adding that a bigger niche offers more styling potential. “You create the opportunity to add spa-like touches such as eucalyptus branches, essential oils, large natural sponges, and bowls of salts,” she adds. “Most couples we work with appreciate a wider niche, offering ‘his and hers’ sides with an open space in between.”
But enough about logistics—we know you’re really here for the eye candy. Without further ado, we present 25 stylish shower niche ideas that are everything you need to move ahead with your next bathroom renovation project. Once you’ve put hammer to wall, it will simply be a matter of lather, rinse, repeat!
Lakeside Shower Niche
A lakehouse bathroom must be built to meet the needs of many a sunburned, sandy human who’s been lakeside all day. When designing this summer retreat, located on a glittering lake in northern Wisconsin, Prospect Refuge Studio’s Victoria Sass went for a “really immersive little moment,” covering it in zips of sage and olive-green tiles that coordinate with the bow tie–shaped floor tiles. The matching shower niche offers convenient storage for everything from bathing essentials to a very necessary bottle of aloe vera.
Low Shower Niche
The small, under-window nook in Antonio Martins’s San Francisco home is barely noticeable when the small dot pattern in the flooring takes the stage—drawing the eye to the room’s more interesting architectural features. Get in, get wet, get wonderful!
Wide Shower Niche
The primary bathroom in this New York City apartment, by ELLE DECOR A-List designer Mark Grattan, is the stuff of every organizer’s daydreams. The wall’s mint-hued glass tiles (by Sicis) are elegantly recessed on one side, offering four shelves of storage space. When flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows on the opposing side, the space is screaming for some greenery.
Barely-There Shower Niche
For spa-like appeal, take a high-contrast approach with your shower. Atlanta-based designer Silo Studios’ most chic projects feature a barely-there shower niche that uses the same wall tile and adds more storage to a limited space. Scrub-a-dub-dub.
Protruding Shower Niche
In this verdant walk-in shower, added shelves protrude from the wall, giving it a generous amount of shelf real estate, not to mention limitless styling potential. Under-shelf lighting makes it an elegant focal point.
Long Shower Niche
This pink-accented bathroom features a long, wide shower niche that is intentionally carved out of this graphic rectangular tile. Whether it’s outfitted with a pairing of chic shower bottles or a calming candle, it’s clear that there will be no fumbling around mid-shower thanks to this clever niche.
Deep Shower Niche
You just bought your first 17th-century château in Provence and you’re ideating on the shower space design. Should it be gilded? How big is too big for a showerhead? How many seats should we bring in? We’ve all been there. Such was ELLE DECOR A-List designer Pierre Yovanovitch’s thought process when designing this bathroom, which he opted to give a built-in bench that doubles up as a very deep shower niche. The result is something that’s fit for a king—as well as a very tasteful designer.
Desert Modern Shower Niche
The ideal height of a shower niche, designer Shannon McLaren Wilkins feels, is one that is exactly at arm’s length and high enough to fit the tallest of shampoo bottles. That’s exactly what she did in this bathroom, which features contrasting tile patterns that add visual interest.
Small Tile Shower Niche
Have you committed to joining the dark side in your favorite bathroom? If not, the primary bathroom of this New York City apartment might change your mind. The diminutive space feels all the more nestlike when painted in Hague Blue by Farrow & Ball and fitted with small black tiles. The shower niche thus camouflages into the dark backdrop with impressive ease.
Marble Shower Niche
A double shower niche draws the eye in the sleek marble-lined shower of this TriBeCa apartment, designed by Sarah Sargeant and Risa Emen of Cochineal Design. The shower’s marble hues are seamlessly echoed, making for a minimalist look.
Blue Shower Niche
When you bring a slab of marble this statement-worthy into your home, an indented shower niche (heck, two!) is basically a given. This New Jersey home, designed by Nannette Brown, features a wet area enclosure made of Bardiglio marble that mimics the look of water. We’re loving the generous height of the shower niche, which makes use of vertical space that would go otherwise unused.
Hidden Shower Niche
What shower niche, you ask? Sometimes a niche’s best trait is blending in so the true showstopper—say, this larger-than-life chandelier—gets all the attention. In this Florida abode, ELLE DECOR A-List designer Rodney Lawrence carved into both nooks of this statement marble for shower niches that go unseen—but certainly not unused.
Modern Shower Niche
This walk-in shower, also by Cochineal Design, is dripping in Art Deco razzle-dazzle, with its bold Clé tiles, chic gold hardware, and can’t-be-missed marble shower. But it’s the shower niche that has us home-organization aficionados gaping. Big enough to house a mini library of books, the storage potential of this feature, covertly recessed for a quiet presence, is the true definition of luxury.
Arched Shower Niche
In this Capri home by architect Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva, a minimalist approach lets the architecture speak for itself. In the less-is-more walk-in shower, the sculptural sweeping arch of the shower niche—coated in resin—is the very definition of artistry.
Vertical Shower Niche
Look closely in the mirror and you’ll spot the trifecta of shower niches: three square-shaped insets atop one another that provide subtle visual interest to the overwhelmingly marble-on-marble space. A few Aesop bottles is all you need to create satisfying dimension to the framed feature.
Tiled Shower Niche
These colorful glass tiles don’t need any further pattern to make a statement. In this Woodstock, New York, home, design firm White Webb gave this walk-in shower a dose of seafoam green and turquoise tiles, creating an effect similar to fish scales. A simple, two-shelved shower niche with a tasteful white border is all that’s needed to complete the space.
Well-Lit Shower Niche
Lighting is that final touch that transforms a space from lovely to luxe. Case in point: the three-part shower niche in this white-on-white walk-in shower, which practically glows thanks to a tasteful set of LED lights. Talk about an illuminating shower experience.
Curved Shower Niche
In Toronto, a low-key home receives a fittingly low-key shower niche. This wet room–style shower features a shapely niche that cuts into the linear wall with indelible ease. The room’s bold checkered tile flooring and brass fittings complete the look.
Minimalist Shower Niche
Sleek fixtures and a gracious marble shower niche make for a glamorous bathroom moment in this eclectic midcentury Palm Beach house. While the rest of the space is infused with color and pattern, this minimalist bathroom offers a reprieve for the palette—though not without little details of interest. Designer Caroline Rafferty kept a two-inch-thick horizontal grout line to act as a counterpoint to the sleek terrazzo flooring and marble wall tiles. The shower niche is perfectly tucked away amid that.
Low Shower Niche
Who says a shower niche needs to be above the water stream? In this timeless bathroom, in a historic Washington, D.C., home, designer Zoe Feldman built in function without sacrificing style. The low shower niche makes the space feel larger, letting the main wall of navy blue tile really sing.
Shelf Shower Niche
Leave it to ELLE DECOR A-List designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard to turn the idea of a shower niche on its head. In this balmy Maui house, the designer tiled the walls, flooring, and shower in handmade Moroccan zellige that features a shower niche large enough to fit extra towels and decorative objects.
Small Shower Niche
If you’ve subscribed fully to the credo that scaling down means leveling up, this small, nearly invisible shower niche, in a moody Memphis home, is for you. Its presence adds dimension to the tiling, without overpowering its essence. Clean lines, clear mind.
Deep-Hued Shower Niche
Two facing shower niches flank the bright white walls of Eric Hughes and Nathan Turner’s 1950s ranch in Ojai, California. A darker hue within creates depth that makes them stand out in all the right ways.
Well-Lit Shower Niche
Another supreme example of accent lighting gone right, this spa-like space is proof that properly placed LED lights work in a room that is toned down, as well as up. We love the corresponding horizontal inset, which echoes the same aesthetic.
Standout Shower Niche
In this metallic-tiled walk-in shower, a pair of symmetrical shower niches act as a practical focal point that frames whatever bottles will sit perched within. It is tastefully coordinated with the ceiling tones, further grounding the space.
You Might Also Like
