The Shower Feature Mike Holmes Jr. Recommends For Added Privacy

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It's no surprise that glass shower doors and walls are so popular. They're easy to clean and let in lots of light. The clear glass can even help your bathroom feel less closed off, which may make the room feel bigger. However, there's one major downside that homeowners must deal with after installing easy-to-clean glass shower doors and walls — they don't offer much privacy. If you share a bathroom with other people in your household, this can be a nuisance. Thankfully, Mike Holmes Jr., the son of HGTV Canada star Mike Holmes, revealed a shower feature that gives glass walls a bit of added privacy: half-wall showers. This design features a glass panel fitted on top of an opaque wall that reaches only half the typical shower wall height.

The result of this design is a shower wall that offers complete privacy across the bottom half. On Instagram, Holmes Jr. shared a photo of a finished shower with this design feature, which may suggest he's a fan of it himself. The contractor revealed in the caption of the post that it's also a curbless shower, meaning you don't have to step over a curb on the floor to enter the shower. Pairing this feature with the glass half-wall makes for a super-smart shower design.

The great thing about a half-glass shower wall is that it allows you to enjoy the look of glass and the privacy of an opaque shower wall at the same time. This may be why Holmes Jr. is a fan of it. Another perk of the half-wall is that it doesn't take up as much room as a traditional large sliding door. This makes it a better idea for homeowners with a small bathroom they'd like to make seem bigger. Although glass half-walls clearly offer quite a few benefits for your shower, you still might have one major concern regarding the design. The privacy they offer is somewhat limited since only the bottom half of the wall is covered.

Thankfully, there's a simple solution to this. You can choose to have the glass portion of the wall frosted. This will shield the glass enough so that you can't easily see through it, but not so much that it's no longer transparent. The glass covering on this walk-in shower idea can be installed by a professional, or you could tackle the task yourself. If you'd like to put your DIY skills to use, simply install a product like the Dwersty Frosted Glass Privacy Film on the outside of the glass. When you're done, your half-glass shower wall will offer privacy from top to bottom while still letting light peek through.