Bathrooms and showers used to be all about utility, but today, your shower is a key area where you can let your inspiration shine and allow functionality to meet character and class. Use these bathroom shower remodel ideas to elevate your space, add value to your home, give your existing space a makeover, and make your bathroom just a touch more elegant and personality-forward.
Quick Takeaways
The average cost to remodel a bathroom is around $12,000, and a shower remodel alone costs an average of $7,200.
Small shower renovations can include replacing the shower surround and installing glass doors to replace that shabby curtain.
Use tile patterns and fixtures to let your personality shine in your shower remodel.
1. Create an Open Shower
Gone are the days when your shower had to have a shabby curtain or even a sliding glass door separating it from the rest of the room. If you have the space, consider creating an open shower area. This makes entering and exiting the shower easier, and it can also make your room feel larger since there are fewer partitions.
2. Couple Your Shower With a Free-Standing Tub
Have a little extra room in your bathroom and want the space to scream opulence? Install a walk-in shower stall alongside a stand-alone tub. Not only does this make your bathroom look high-end, but you’ll also have the luxury of taking a quick shower or enjoying a nice, relaxing bath.
3. Go Bold With Fixtures
Sure, you can save some money on your bathroom remodel costs by going with standard stainless steel fixtures, but where’s the fun in that? Consider high-end shower heads that match your decor, upgrade to brass or gold-plated fixtures, and don’t forget about the different types of shower heads available, like rain shower heads and even shower panels.
4. Create an Accent Wall
Your shower space naturally stands apart from the rest of your bathroom, so why not use the area as a means of bringing a little personality into the room? Feel free to go a little bold with the wall tile around your shower to create an accent wall.
Going darker than the rest of your room will make the entire space feel larger. Play with color, tile shape, and tile design to make the space your own.
5. Go Clean and Simple
Shower remodels can quickly get overly complicated, so don’t be afraid to keep things simple and go for a clean, modern look.
A simple white-and-black color scheme coupled with a splash screen instead of shower doors can bring some beauty and elegance to your space without requiring a professional interior designer to advise on color schemes and decor for your bathroom design.
6. Create a Glass Surround
Fancy something a little…fancier? Go with a floor-to-ceiling frameless glass surround for your shower area. This makes your room feel larger than a shower that’s fully partitioned off, and it lets your shower wall, floor, and fixture choices shine even when the shower is closed.
This is a popular option in ensuite bathrooms, but if you need a bit more privacy, you can opt for smart glass that you can make opaque at the touch of a button. Just keep in mind that this will be a pricey upgrade.
7. Install Unique Tile Shapes
Customizing your shower design doesn’t have to include bold colors. Instead, you can customize the appearance using unique tile shapes, like hexagonal or arabesque tiles.
You can keep the contrast manageable by choosing a color that meshes with the rest of your bathroom. That way, your shower won’t stand out as the only feature in the room, but it also won’t just fade into the background.
8. Consider Converting to a Wet Room
Converting to a wet room is a major undertaking that requires waterproofing the entire bathroom. So it’s really only an option if you’re planning on a complete bathroom renovation.
However, it can create an easily accessible shower area that meshes with the rest of the bathroom to make it feel larger and more open. Wet rooms make for easier functionality in your bathroom, and they can also help you display those high-end shower fixtures and tub faucets for a more appealing space.
9. Save Space With a Shower Niche
For smaller bathroom remodels, an inset shower niche might be the perfect way to avoid clutter and save that much-needed shower space. A shower niche sits between the studs in your shower wall to give you space for shampoo, soap, conditioner, and shower accessories.
They’re tough to install retroactively, but if you’re remodeling your shower, it might be a good time to ditch the bulky shower organizers.
10. Don’t Forget About Natural Lighting
A lack of light in your shower area can make it feel dingy and claustrophobic. Consider installing a privacy window in your shower to let in natural light and open up the space a bit. You can also speak to your contractor about safe artificial lighting options if a window is out of the question.
11. Customize Your Splash Screen
Considering going with a splash screen instead of closing glass doors? Don’t feel like you need to go with basic glass. Use the screen as a chance to add more character to your bathroom, either by choosing a window-pane-style screen or even etching an image or pattern onto the glass.
12. Choose Natural Stone to Elevate the Space
A natural stone surround is undoubtedly going to be more expensive than opting for ceramic or porcelain tile, but you’ll also create a unique shower space that drips with character and natural beauty. Stone tile also tends to be rougher than tile, so you get the benefit of a more slip-resistant shower for safety, too.
How Much Does a Shower Remodel Cost?
The average cost for a bathroom shower remodel is around $7,200, and most homeowners pay somewhere between $3,000 and $9,500. A high-end shower remodel in a luxury bathroom can total $15,000 or more, while you could pay as little as $700 to install a prefabricated shower kit for a quick shower overhaul.
Generally speaking, it’s best not to DIY a shower or bath remodel, but if you did, you’d save an average of around $3,000.
FAQ: Shower Remodel
Installing a new fiberglass or acrylic shower is the most affordable way to redo your shower walls. These are sold in prefabricated kits that fit into standard shower openings, so whether you have a stall shower, or your shower is a part of your tub area, you should be able to install one of these kits to create new shower walls in just a few hours.
Yes, whether you have a tiled shower floor or a shower pan, you can redo just the shower floor. With a tiled floor, your professional will need to remove the tile and old thinset, lay down a new layer of thinset, and then install the new tile. If you have a built-in shower surround, the shower pan that makes up the floor is removable, so a professional can remove and replace just the shower pan to create a new shower floor.
A shower remodel takes an average of around four days to complete. If you’re just removing a prefabricated shower surround and installing a new one, you’re looking at a shorter timeline of just a day or two. Installing a new custom shower with tiled floors and walls will likely take five to seven days to complete, including the time your contractor will need to wait for the thinset and grout to dry. Make sure you have another bathroom available in your house or at a nearby friend’s or family member’s house while you wait.
A wet room is almost always more expensive than a walk-in shower because it requires a complete overhaul of your bathroom and waterproofing behind all of the walls and floor. You can expect to spend between $9,000 and $12,000 to install a wet room, whereas a walk-in shower would cost an average of $7,000, with prices ranging from $6,000 up to $10,000.
Dan was a property manager from 2015 to 2020, during which time he managed and oversaw the upkeep and repairs of over 2,000 residential properties. He uses that experience, as well as his extensive DIY knowledge, to bring reliable information to homeowners about renovations and home-related projects. Since 2020, he has been using his experience to write about home improvement, and his work has appeared on sites like USA Today, CNN, Angi, and Today’s Homeowner.