Shower Enclosures Sliding Door

If you're redesigning your bathroom, you have a lot of choices when it comes to your new shower. Sure, you can go with the common shower-and-bath combination with a shower curtain. But your shower can be more than just a practical place to wash up: it can also be a showpiece.

Here's a breakdown of your options: the types of shower doors and enclosures available, and the spaces in which they work best.

Shower Enclosures: Shapes and Sizes

Showers often dominate the bathroom space. Even with a small bathroom, you can make a dramatic statement with a unique-looking shower enclosure. Here are the most typical types you'll find on the market.

Square showers. A square shower is a great space-saver in a small bathroom. It will fit in a niche with only one side exposed, a corner with two sides exposed, or it can be exposed on three sides. The corner and niche positions are the most common, however; most people with enough space to leave a square shower exposed on three or four sides usually opt for a bigger enclosure.

A glass door is an excellent choice for a square shower. In a small space, the glass makes the bathroom look larger than it would with an opaque shower enclosure. Glass showers also look stylish and luxurious, giving a smaller bathroom a more exclusive feel.

Rectangular showers. The rectangular shower is often paired with a bath to make a shower-bath combination. Many people don't have room for a separate shower and bath, so they opt for the shower-bath combination instead. If you prefer showers to baths, however, a rectangular enclosure can still be a great choice. It gives you enough space for a shower for two--try doing that in a square shower.

Quadrant showers. Quadrant showers have two squared ends that fit perfectly into a square corner. The part of the shower that faces the room is rounded instead of square. This design gives you a more efficient use of space than a square enclosure in the same corner position, as you don't have a corner that juts into the room. The curved surface of the glass looks dramatic, and you save space in a small bathroom as well.

D-shaped showers. The shape of this enclosure resembles a capital D, with the curved part of the letter facing the room and the straight part against the wall. You'll need a bit more room with a D-shaped shower than you would with a quadrant, as you'll need to allow three sides of the enclosure to be exposed and uncluttered by sinks and toilets.

A D-shaped shower is dramatic and stylish, but it's not a common choice. That's because these are usually smaller, one-person showers. Most people who have the space opt for a larger rectangular design. Those with a smaller bathroom usually choose a square or quadrant shower to make better use of their space.

Types of Shower Doors

Glass shower doors come in several different designs, and each suits a different type of space. Here are the most common options on the market.

Pivot doors. These doors swing outward into the room. They're often used in recessed showers, but they can also be used in combination with stationary side panels in rectangular enclosures, or in other combinations. They give a wide door opening, but they do need some clearance in the room to swing open.

In-fold doors. These consist of two panels hinged in the middle that fold into the shower space to provide an opening. They're a good choice in bathrooms where space is an issue and you don't want a door that swings out into the room.

Frameless doors. Frameless shower doors are a bit more solid than pivot doors; they also swing out into a room, and require some space to do it. They provide a wide opening and are usually made of a single pane of glass.

Sliding doors. These are usually installed on rectangular, D-shaped or quadrant enclosures. They're preferred because they make a wide opening without swinging out into the bathroom or into the shower enclosure.