Clear Glass Bathroom Sink
Before and After: 4 Bathrooms Open Up With Clear Glass Showers
Shower curtains, glass blocks and walls all come down to brighten up dark and dated bathrooms
October 13, 2021
Houzz Editorial Staff; writer, design enthusiast, reader, avid traveler.
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If your bathroom feels dark and closed off, the shower enclosure might be the culprit. Shower curtains, glass blocks, frosted doors and walls are types of enclosures that can block natural light, conceal tile and make a space feel cramped. Instead, consider installing a clear glass shower to lighten, brighten and showcase your bathroom.
Check out the before-and-after photos of these four remodeled bathrooms with clear glass showers and let us know if you see the difference. And if you're worried about keeping those new glass showers crystal clear, we've got you covered. Who knows? After seeing these bathroom remodels, a little extra elbow grease might seem well worth it.
1. Glam Makeover
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: Caren and Jim McGregor
Location: Bothell, Washington
Size: 63 square feet (5.9 square meters); 10 feet by 6 feet, 3 inches
Designer: Kristine Tyler of Treefrog Design
Before: Homeowner Caren McGregor began thinking about renovating her master bathroom about three years ago, and her first step was to start looking at Houzz photos and create an ideabook. When she had about 75 photos, she started looking for a designer by searching the Houzz professional directory for people in her area. After seeing designer Kristine Tyler's Houzz portfolio, she knew she'd found the right person for the job.
The existing bathroom didn't have a lot going for it. McGregor thinks the first homeowners bought the house when the upstairs master bathroom wasn't yet finished and completed it themselves using off-the-shelf products. "I think the vanity was actually a kitchen cabinet," she says. "It was very deep."The former shower, with its small gray tiles, small wall-mounted soap holder and shower curtain, also didn't have the glamorous feel the homeowners wanted for their master bathroom.
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After: With the addition of a frameless glass shower enclosure, Tyler knew the first thing people would see when they walked into the bathroom was the back shower wall, so she wanted to make it something fun and beautiful. McGregor spent a long time looking for the right tile until finally walking into a showroom with Tyler one day and seeing the perfect choice: a mirrored tile with wispy accents of glass and metal.
McGregor and Tyler had originally talked about doing the entire back wall in the tile, but Tyler persuaded her not to. "It would have been expensive," she says. "Plus, more isn't always better. Sometimes smaller amounts of something that's beautiful is better."
Tyler used the same tile to create a backsplash above the new furniture-style vanity.
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A key feature of the space is a bench that runs the length of the wall at left. It gives the homeowners the option of sitting inside or outside the shower. "It's just nice to have a place to sit that's not the toilet, especially in smaller bathrooms," Tyler says. "It's a place to unwind, to sit before or after you shower, to think for a minute. It makes all the difference."
Another notable featureis the shower faucet handle, which Tyler positioned on the left wall so the homeowners don't get sprayed with cold water when reaching in to turn it on.
Read more about this bathroom remodel
2. Lighter and Brighter
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Toronto
Size: 43 square feet (4 square meters); 5 by 8 feet, 6 inches
Designer: Ketty Khuong of Ke Design Collective
Before: Designer Ketty Khuong had her Toronto clients fill out a questionnaire and share inspiration photos to help her get a sense of their style before remodeling their guest bathroom. "Seeing the photos is important because sometimes they show that their style doesn't match the way they describe it," she says.
Khoung discovered that the couple wanted to ditch their existing bathroom's beige palette and shower-tub combo in favor of a lighter, brighter look with a roomy shower stall. She also learned that her clients were fans of bathrooms with gray-and-white Carrara marble, and she used that as a jumping-off point.
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After: Since the bathroom has no windows, creating a space that felt lighter and brighter was essential. A white color palette, LED lighting and a clear glass shower enclosure did the trick.
For the shower surround, Khuong found a beautiful 36-by-36-inch porcelain tile digitally printed to look like Carrara marble. Note the way the veining pattern here is continuous, making it look as if large marble slabs were used.
A new custom vanity also helps keep the space crisp and modern. The wood-based boards are coated with a printed paper soaked in melamine resin. They're durable and look just like wood. The countertop is white quartz.
Khuong chose budget-friendly polished chrome for the plumbing finishes, then mixed in brass on the vanity pulls. "Mixing metals adds depth and interest," she says.
For the bathroom floor, Khuong chose a 12-by-24-inch dark gray porcelain tile. "I continued the same tile onto the shower floor because this is a smaller washroom," she says. Using a different tile on the shower floor would have chopped up the space and made it feel smaller.
Read more about this bathroom remodel
3. Goodbye to Glass Blocks
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Modesto, California
Size: 120 square feet (11 square meters)
Designer: Lindsay Kjellberg of LHK Interiors
Before: This Modesto, California, couple had had enough of their dingy white bathroom and its daunting floor-to-ceiling glass block shower enclosure, so they tapped designer Lindsay Kjellberg to help create a brighter, more open feel and update the style to a cozy transitional vibe that matches the rest of the 1940s house.
The previous shower was large but the glass block wall and aluminum-frame frosted shower door blocked much of the natural light and made for an imposing feature. "It was surprising how dark that space was with the glass block," Kjellberg says. "They didn't like to spend time in there. They would brush their teeth and get out."
After: Kjellberg removed the glass blocks and frosted glass and replaced them with a frameless glass enclosure that allows light into the bathroom and showcases the shower's new creamy stone-look porcelain wall tiles and marble mosaic floor tile in a basketweave pattern. The matte black shower set features a handheld shower head that reaches across to a shower bench on the other side.
How to Clean a Glass Shower Door
The designer kept the palette white, but she chose whites with warm undertones to make the space feel more welcoming than before. The walls (Rotunda White by Kelly-Moore) and ceiling (Swiss Coffee by Kelly-Moore) provide a soft and soothing backdrop and contrast for the new vanity, painted navy blue (After Midnight in a satin finish, by Kelly-Moore).
"They were a little hesitant about the darkness of the vanity, but I asked them to trust me and told them we could always paint over it, because I felt we needed one pop of color in there," Kjellberg says.
Read more about this bathroom remodel
4. Open Sesame
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A young couple and their son, cat and dog
Location: Las Colinas, Texas
Size: 129 square feet (12 square meters)
Designers: Erica Nicole Illions and Rebecca Sutton of Kitchen Design Concepts
Before: The previous master bathroom in this Texas home didn't match the personalities of the hip young owners, nor did it fit with the rest of the home's bright, midcentury-inspired style. So the couple reached out to designers Erica Nicole Illions and Rebecca Sutton to transform the cave-like bathroom into an open, airy space.
The intense blue Venetian plaster walls and clunky built-in tub made the space feel dark and dreary. "It just wasn't their style," Illions says. "It was very stark and the walls were heavy. Even with the tall windows they had, you didn't get a lot of natural light into that bathroom."
After: The enclosed shower was replaced with a modern and airy glass-enclosed shower, which is paired with a freestanding oval tub. "Doing an all-glass shower allows all that sunlight into the bathroom and really utilizes the light from those windows," Illions says.
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Source: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/before-and-after-4-bathrooms-open-up-with-clear-glass-showers-stsetivw-vs~152455166
