ᐅ Shampoo dispenser: yes or no? Concealed installation valve?

It’s me again. We are considering adding a niche in the shower for shampoo and similar items. Does anyone have experience with the pros and cons? Since we will have a glass partition, the squeegee would still need to be stored elsewhere because it won’t fit in the niche.

Technically, the niche can only be installed on the rear wall of the shower, where the faucet would also be mounted. In this case, only a concealed installation would be possible, as the shower bar would otherwise be in the way. Now I’m thinking, if something breaks, you wouldn’t be able to access the concealed faucet at all. Does that make sense, or would you rather skip the niche and install a standard exposed shower faucet?

Thanks for your opinions!

In our first house, we had a niche, and we’re building the same way in the second one. It’s incredibly practical. No baskets that can rust, everything nicely tiled. We also like the look, but of course, that’s a matter of personal taste.

For the fixtures, we only install concealed (built-in) fittings at the bathtub. The problem with concealed fittings is that there is no great standardization. If something needs to be replaced, there is a significant risk that you’ll have to break the tiles. I wouldn’t want to deal with that, especially for the sink or shower, which are used frequently. For the bathtub, I find the exposed fittings really unattractive. They look so 1970s, I can’t help it. So we’ll go with concealed fittings there again and hope for the best. For the washbasins, the faucets will be mounted on the furniture (basin units), and the shower will have exposed fittings.

When we requested quotes for the bathroom renovation, we were also advised to choose surface-mounted fittings, as spare parts are quite expensive and replacing them with a different model can be very complicated.

It depends on how many bottles you want or need to store. Personally, I don’t like the niche because I don’t like how dirt, limescale, and soap build up there. We only have two refillable bottles in the shower, which hang in a wall-mounted holder. Sometimes a tube of hair treatment is also left on the shower tray.

So basically, a system like that. It ranges from cheap versions with mirror tape (under 10 euros, which we have 🙂 ) to expensive designer options for 100 euros and more.

Here is a photo of our niche in the old house, and the second one is the plan for the new house. More children, more niches. 😀