One of the most elegant materials you can use in a bathroom is glass. Long valued for its crisp, clean appearance, glass provides a natural beauty to any bathroom it is featured in. Glass bathroom sinks, for example are quickly gaining in popularity among the must have bathroom fixtures. Shower doors have even been impacted by this trend in recent years. While glass shower doors have been around for much longer than the recent trend would have people believe, they are just now gaining their rightful place as one of the most versatile fixture accessories you can find on the market today.
Why Are Bathroom Glass Shower Doors So Popular?
One of the main reasons the rise of the bathroom glass shower door has been so substantial is credited to their sheer beauty. Glass doors provide an instant sense of upscale design to any bathroom, as well as offering a unique visual appeal. For consumers looking to make a small bathroom seem larger, transparent glass doors prevent the shower area from being partitioned off from the rest of the bathroom area, increasing the overall visibility of the actual square footage within the room. In larger bathrooms, transparent glass doors offer the same illusions of a completely open space, catering well to consumers who prefer open floor plans within their bathrooms.
What Types Of Glass Shower Doors Are Available?
For the most part, glass shower doors are available in two basic categories, sliding doors and hinged doors.
Sliding glass shower doors are commonly found in bathrooms that contain a traditional bathtub and show combination. The track for the door is mounted onto the outer lip of the bathtub and connected to the supporting wall the bathtub is situated against. The sliding glass shower door is them mounted into the bottom track and connected to an upper track. The upper tack can be mounted to the bathroom ceiling, as is often the case in bathrooms with lower ceiling heights, or it can be at a fixed point a foot or two from the ceiling, once again dependent on the overall ceiling height in the bathroom. Mounting the upper track below ceiling height is the most common option, as it allows for greater airflow in the shower area and bathroom in general.
Hinged glass shower doors are more commonly found in walk in shower enclosures. Operating the same way as a traditional door in the home, the hinged door is mounted on frame which is built into the shower enclosure itself. The most common styles swing outward, however, some models designed for smaller space can either swing inwards or pivot on their center point. This eliminates the need to have the full out swing area kept clear within the bathroom to allow for proper door function.
What Other Options Are Available?
Frameless doors are also gaining in popularity, offering a more streamlined appearance and a sleeker design. Instead of being set into a frame, the door hardware is mounted directly onto the glass. The outer edges of the glass door are left exposed, instead of being covered by framing material, which can sometimes cheapen the look of the door itself. In order to prevent injury, the outer edges are rounded off to a smooth finish and then often coated with a thin layer of silicone, increasing the safety of having the edges exposed in such a manner.
Custom glass shower doors are becoming more widely available as well. While many bathroom designers will specialize in custom pieces, the larger names in bathroom fixture and accessory design are also beginning to offer custom order options. A custom glass shower door allows the consumer to present the exact specifications they desire. The option is ideal when an irregular or non standard size door is needed. Custom doors are also highly valued by consumers with unique tastes in visual aesthetics. Frosted glass shower doors are one of the most frequently customized designs. While the door sizes and shapes are standard, customizing the pieces allows consumers to choose the various designs that can be laser or acid etched into the glass door, providing them with the chance for a true one of a kind work of art for their bathroom. While floral designs remain quite popular, unusual geometric designs are being seen more frequently in modern bathroom environments. Custom doors also allows for consumer chosen colors to be used to tint the glass, allowing perfect cohesion between the shower door and the overall décor and color theme of the bathroom itself.
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