This Oakland guest shower is a good example of how much design you can get from simple materials. The homeowners wanted a clean, modern shower without a big budget, and the answer was a pre-formed shower pan, a cement backer surround, and ordinary subway tile, laid in an unusual way.
A vertical grid
Subway tile is usually laid horizontally in a running bond, each row offset by half a tile like brickwork. Here it went up vertically, in a straight stacked grid: every tile standing on end, every joint lined up in both directions. It’s a very interesting look. The same inexpensive tile suddenly reads as tall, architectural, and contemporary, and the vertical lines make a small shower feel taller.
A grid is also unforgiving. In a running bond, small variations get absorbed by the offset. In a stacked grid, every grout line runs the full height and width of the wall, so a tile that’s a hair off shows immediately. The layout has to be planned before the first tile goes up, and each tile has to be set dead straight to its neighbors.
What’s underneath
A pre-formed pan is the affordable way to build a shower floor. It arrives sloped to the drain and watertight, so there’s no mortar bed to float and cure. It has to be set level and fully supported underneath, so it doesn’t flex under foot. The backer comes down over the pan’s flange, its seams are taped with alkali-resistant mesh and set in thinset, and the seams are waterproofed before any tile goes on. The tile then laps the flange, so water always runs into the pan and never behind it. Where tile meets the pan, the joint is caulked, not grouted, because it’s a change of plane and needs to flex.
A curtain instead of glass
To keep costs down, the homeowners chose a curved shower curtain rod rather than a glass door. A curved rod bows outward, giving more elbow room inside the shower, and it costs a small fraction of a custom glass enclosure. For a guest bath that doesn’t see daily use, it’s the right call.
Fast and affordable
With the pan in and the backer prepped, the tiling itself went up in a matter of hours. This was a very affordable project. The best look isn’t always the expensive one; sometimes it’s the same tile everyone else uses, turned on its end.
Planning a shower on a budget? See what we install, or send photos for an estimate.
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