My first trip to Edinburgh that involved staying in a halfway-decent hotel was with school. We were visiting Parliament (sadly Brexit has made this less useful as an educational trip each year) and were allowed to stay overnight in hotels. Stupidly, this was the first time I’d spent any real amount of time in a shower that wasn’t a) one of those bolt-the-brush-to-the-wall school-shower-jobbies or b) in the house I grew up in.
I spent ages in that shower. Not because I enjoyed pampering myself – I wasn’t sure what I was doing in there other than standing under hot water because it felt so good! Wide glass doors that flung the water in from different angles, the amount of steam you could build up; I suddenly realised that my shower at home was a cupboard with a tap.
Spoiler alert – most showers aren’t luxurious. Unless you make them that way.
Having looked around online (thankfully!) and researched exactly what makes a shower into something special I can reveal all.
Right now your bath looking pretty good. It’s mocking you. Stand firm, we’re going on a tour.
The shower I replaced wasn’t huge but it was what most shower come as part of a cheap bathroom suite are – an 800x800mm square corner unit. If you’re small or particularly bendy you’re totally fine. I’m 6’1 and struggle to lather up my legs without getting the soap outside the shower.
Get it measured. Trust me. We extended ours so that it was 1400x900mm – that extra half metre makes SUCH a difference.
With your new-found knowledge of spatial dimensions go forth and measure your shower head. Mine was adequate. Certainly didn’t autumn off in my hands the other day like the shower door did.
Heads don’t have to cost a fortune but do invest in something you’ll enjoy. We went for a rainfall style that is roughly 250mm across. Mounted in the ceiling so that the water comes straight down on you.
It’s the closest you’ll get to actual rain without leaving the house. And when your own shower can bring rain to you mid February it’s pretty awesome. We also got a handheld shower head on a slide rail.
At first I thought this was silly and unnecessary but it’s fantastic for rinsing your hair AND keeping the shower clean. You’ll find ones with various “settings”. We have one with about 6 different spray options.
There’s this massage option that feels incredible if you’ve been sat on your laptop marking God-knows-how-many sheets of maths homework at the kitchen table. Speaking of massage…bought some of these for the back wall. I didn’t think we’d use them.
I mean…we’re installing a shower not a spa. Three of them. At different heights.
Pro tip from the plumber who advised me they were easy enough to add on – get them. Long story short – the buildings water pressure fluctuates. It’s an old Victorian house that’s been knocked through so when you’re sat enjoying your warmly rising cavern of bubbly bliss…someone else can decide to run their kitchen tap, leaving you screaming at the shower as you either burn or freeze to death.
Pipe dream? Nope. Invest in a thermostatic valve.
They link into your existing tap and actually regulate the temperature no matter what anyone else in your building is doing. Takes the guesswork out of whether you’ve got enough hot water in the tank and limits the risk of scalding yourself if someone does decide to run the cold water while you’re in the shower. About £350 later we will never scald ourselves ever again.
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If you have the space (we did) go bigger. Ditched the shower curtain too. Got a proper glass screen that feels solid when you close it.
Super common now but it was one of those things that once I saw, I couldn’t have the tinny-pinging-crack-of-a-shower-curtain-close anymore. Perfect. Tiles are done.
So glad I got a tiler who did ALL the walls instead of leaving the lip alone. Harder to clean but not by much. Saves having something that looks totally different when the shower wall ends.
Continuous feel from start to finish. Did consider getting a steam generator but didn’t use ours enough to justify the spend. Did upgrade the extractor fan though.
Get one that activates automatically when it senses water and keeps on running for half an hour after you’ve left. Boring but quality. When we moved in, the walls were painted white.
Swapped to this instead which made such a difference. It hides water spots so much better. Makes your shower look cleaner than it probably is.
There’s fancy light fittings you can get but would have been clumsy with our waterproof panel light above (and would have looked stupid).Ended up getting these LED strips from Amazon and hid them behind some frosted glass panels we had leftover from the screen. Got a really nice glow now rather than just that central bulb. Was a total luxury but SO worth it.
Fold down seat attached to the wall. You don’t “need” one of these in your shower. But god is it nice to have, especially when the kids take ages and you can sit back and wait.
Or use it to lean on with your feet in the bubbles after teaching whichever Subject Tap is currently spouting out trash about. Had proper shelves tiled in instead of those suction cup shelf things that autumn down every five seconds. Three of them up the wall at different heights – one for everyday shower stuff, one for the oddball things you don’t reach for every day and one at shower head height for our handheld when we’re not using it.
Kitchen tiles were about £10 per square metre. Don’t ask me why the shower was three times as expensive. Did it worth it.
Would highly recommend. Kind of an oversight on my part but until the electrician pointed it out. Would have left it white like the walls.
Instead went for these which bounce the light around and create a much nicer ambience than a shower with a single bulb dangling from the ceiling.
If you have the budget, it was totally worth doing. Did last summer holidays and whilst annoying having workmen in every evening when I got in from work it was so worth being here to answer questions and make decisions as things came up.
Paid about £4500 for everything. Hated parting with the cash but honestly made daily life better than it was. Kind of obvious when you think about how many times a year/day/minute you use your shower.
Love my shower. Full stop. There’s something about enjoying the little things.
Used to rush out of mine every morning to get ready for work. Now find myself hanging around for ages just enjoying the steam. Makes brushing my teeth at work not suck nearly as much.
