Space-saving downstairs shower

A returning customer — one whose main bathroom we designed and supplied several years ago — came back to us with a tricky ask. They were part-way through building work and wanted to add a downstairs shower, but the space simply wasn't there in the usual sense.

With the adjacent room being converted into a utility, we were able to borrow a little of that footprint to make the shower work. The real challenge was the entrance. On a 1000mm shower tray a standard door leaves an awkwardly narrow opening — not the kind of thing you want to squeeze through every morning, and not something we'd normally recommend.

So instead we specified a triple sliding door from Flair. It gives an opening of almost 500mm, around 125mm wider than a standard door. It's a small number that makes a real, everyday difference to how the room feels to use.

To keep it easy to live with, the walls are finished in Nuance waterproof boards in a marble effect: a clean, grout-free surface that wipes down in seconds and looks far more considered than a compact downstairs shower has any right to.