Considerations When Choosing Glass Shower Screens
The shower screens you install in your bathroom will impact both the room layout and the shower experience. Which options you choose can also affect how much cleaning you'll have to do. Here are several considerations when picking the screens.
Spaciousness
Transparent glass screens can help open up a bathroom and make it seem larger, which may be just what you're after. To get the most benefit, opt for frameless screens that are held together with brackets and hinges. The shower will seem almost invisible without extensive metal, and the bathroom will feel like one integrated space.
Conversely, fully framed panels define the shower more strongly and create a bulkier look. They visually divide the shower from the open floor area, so the room overall seems smaller. A middle option is semi-framed screens with framing around the shower perimeter but not the door.
Privacy
Another aspect to consider is the privacy of the shower. If you want a secluded space, you could install frosted screens. These showers don't block the light entirely, as does an opaque shower curtain. Instead, the frosting softens the light. These screens come in different translucencies, so you can choose a slightly or heavily frosted shower to create your preferred privacy level.
Cleaning
Your choice of screens will also affect how much cleaning you have to do. The connection points where the metal hardware meets the glass produce crevices that collect moisture and grow mould. These trouble spots require you to wipe along the edges. Thus, shower screens with little framing will be easier to clean. It's simpler to wipe over the small hinges and brackets of a frameless design rather than go around the border of each glass panel on a fully framed shower.
Customisation
Think also about how much customisation you want when choosing screens. Fully-framed showers are often pre-manufactured in set sizes and shapes that aren't specially designed to fit your bathroom layout. On the other hand, frameless screens can often be pieced together in different ways, so you can design a shower with your bathroom proportions in mind.
For example, you can construct a long, narrow shower to fit into a skinny bathroom, or you could set up a spacious shower in an ample room. This way, custom frameless screens can make the most of your bathroom, whether it's generous, compact, or unusually shaped. Another possibility is to install a fixed screen without a door and create a wet room effect.