If you are remodeling the bathroom in your St. Louis home, choosing a glass shower door might not seem like the biggest decision you will have to make. However, not all shower doors are a good fit for all bathrooms.
Here are a few things we like to think about:
- How much room is there between the shower and other fixtures? Consider your space. If your shower door needs to open and close on a hinge, is there room for that?
- How much cleanup is okay for you? Bypass (sliding) doors are an inexpensive choice, but cleanup can be a bit more labor-intensive.
- How much metal are you okay with? Framed shower doors allow you to have lighter, thinner glass on your shower door. If you decide to go with frameless, you will have super-thick, very expensive glass.
- How many people will be using the bathroom? If the bathroom is large or will be used by several people, you might want to use textured glass as it will allow light to get through without being able to see into the shower. Consider your needs for privacy as it relates to the rest of the space.
- Do you want to show off your tile work? If you have beautiful tile work, you won’t see it if you have frosted glass – not unless you open the door and get right in there. If you have a gorgeous shower that you want to see, you might want to consider a fixed door.
Types of Shower Doors
Barn Door Styles
Barn door-style shower doors slide on a top-mounted track, just like a barn door.
Fixed Shower Doors
A fixed door is simply a glass panel that does not move. An open space is left to enter and exit the shower. However, if you have a smaller shower, a fixed door may not be the best choice.
Swing-style Shower Doors
The most common shower door is probably a swing door or a hinged door. The hinge can be fixed to the wall or the shower surround, but the room itself needs to be large enough and the layout able to accommodate the swing radius.
Accessibility
If you were looking to build an accessible shower or remodeling your bathroom to be more accessible, you would need to consider access. Ideally, you probably wouldn’t want a door at all. If you did have a door, it would need to be three feet wide, which may not be physically possible, depending on the type of glass you have.
For instance, we recently did an accessible shower for a client. Since it was a steam shower, it needed to have a door. The glass would not have been strong enough to support the door, so we needed to hinge off of the drywall, as opposed to the glass.
Towel Bars
Quite often these days, we’re making the shower as large as possible, so there isn’t a lot of wall space left for towel bars. We address this by making the door handle a towel bar. Like other hardware, there are different styles and colors available so we can complement the other fixtures, such as the plumbing and light fixtures.
Our Personal Favorites
Some of our favorites, lately, are the frameless shower doors. You have less metal and clear glass, and you can actually see the shower. Clean and simple. We really don’t want the glass to be the star of the bathroom. Usually, people spend a lot of time and energy picking cool tiles and accents; we don’t want the glass to get in the way.
On Trend: Black Grid Work
Black grid shower doors are a current trend that gives us a neo-farmhouse look and feel, like an old 12-pane window from an old farmhouse. Usually, this is accompanied by subway tile in the shower, so you’re not covering up any intricate work. In this case, the shower doors are the feature over the tile. The only drawback is that, since this is a trend, it will likely date itself over time.
Wrapping up, in choosing a glass shower door, we always like to consider your lifestyle first. This helps us make the right choice for your needs. We like to say it’s about 80 percent cost, 20 percent cleaning.
If you have questions about choosing a glass shower door for your bathroom, we’d love to help! Give us a call today and let’s talk about it.
