So you’ve decided to invest in a walk-in shower? You already know the accessibility and cleaning pros, their practicality in small bathrooms, and how you’ll have more room to move around. You’ve decided whether you want this walk-in shower to be in your bathroom, ground floor or attic. You already know you’ll be paying anywhere from $1,000 to $7,000 for installation. But do you know your options for customizing and designing a walk-in shower instead of going with whatever the default option is? Here are a few walk-in shower ideas to personalize your bathroom.

Showerheads for Walk-In Showers

If you’re used to showerheads with one setting, you may not have strong opinions about water settings: rain and mist, power sprays, full-body sprays or jetting. But once you’ve experienced multi-setting showerheads, this can cause bathroom wars in the home when the settings are changed. If everybody in your house can agree on a setting they all like, this is a non-issue. If not, you’ll definitely want to try to reach a happy medium to avoid treating your showerhead like you do board game rules, where you think the rules are one way and they’re debating another. Getting into the shower and having to reset it each time will get old fast otherwise. Find a showerhead pressure setting that everyone can agree on (or at least tolerate).

Hand-Held Showerheads for Walk-In Showers

In addition to bathing your energetic pet and child, hand-held showerheads make it so much easier to bathe someone else without turning them into a contortionist. Caregivers know exactly how awkward it can be to bathe a loved one while trying to guide them in the right direction. Additionally, hand-held showerheads can make it much easier and quicker to wash and condition hair.

Grab Bars for Walk-In Showers

While grab bars may come in more handy for tubs, they also work in walk-in showers, specifically with elderly people and those who have a disability. The walk-in shower floor can be wet and slippery, so grab bars add an extra level of security. Even for able-bodied people, a sprained ankle or a stiff knee may make grab bars come in handy, making this a walk-in shower idea that can suit just about anybody. While there are suction cup versions for less money, too often they stop working correctly or move around. A permanent grab bar has more longevity.

Shower Seat for Walk-In Showers

This is one of those walk-in shower ideas that is met with mixed opinions. Adding more parts of a walk-in shower takes away the roomy part of moving around. But for homeowners with a disability or the elderly, having a shower seat is yet another way to make showering so much easier. And even for those days when you’re just groggy and having a rough morning, sitting down while showering (and maybe a few minutes of meditation) is therapeutic.

Exhaust Fans With Built-In Shelves for Walk-In Showers

Built-in towel racks, soap dishes and floating bars for a walk-in shower are a useful place to leave wet towels. However, for windowless bathrooms, towels don’t always fully dry because of the poor ventilation. Closed walk-in shower doors add to the problem. This is also the reason why bar soap seems to get mushy or sits in leftover water until the next shower. If you choose to keep towels and soap on the inside of a walk-in shower, install a quality exhaust fan to improve circulation. Or, choose heated, built-in shelves for walk-in showers.

Bathroom Skylight for Walk-In Showers

To improve bathroom circulation, this is also the time to decide whether a glass bathroom ceiling or a bathroom skylight would help. While it may seem to be an initially costly walk-in shower idea, you may find yourself never turning on a bathroom light again until it’s night, saving on your electricity bill. While you can’t see the stars from your bathroom ceiling, fiber optic ceiling star lights are the next best thing to actual camping.

Tile Or Stone Consistency for Walk-In Showers

Depending on when the bathroom was designed, it is common to see painted walls and ceilings with only tiles in the shower area. Installing a built-in shower is a good time to improve the walls above the shower and the rest of the bathroom. Specifically in windowless bathrooms, unless the exhaust fan is on the entire time, the ceiling paint can start to bubble and turn yellow from all the heat in a bathroom. And for homeowners who love long, steamy baths, paint can start to peel. If the paint is not waterproof, homeowners put their bathrooms at risk of mold growth, wood decay and structural weakness. Sloping the ceiling avoids water from dripping onto the heads of the people taking a shower, but putting tile on the whole bathroom avoids several other issues.

How To Choose Which Walk-In Shower Upgrade First

There are no right or wrong answers for which of these seven options you should choose. Because the location of your bathroom, the humidity in your bathroom and the style of your bathroom vary, some of these seven may not make sense while others do. Because you’re already spending a pretty penny on installing the walk-in shower as is, stick to what you absolutely need during installation. Then, plan your budget for things that you can add on later. For your own mental health, save yourself early on and come to an agreement with that showerhead. Thank H&T later.