One of my readers has handcuffed me to the radiator in her basement and won’t let me go until I describe how to build a corner shelf in her shower. And she keeps giving me dirty looks. I guess I’ll do it, then.

See those little shelves right there? (You can click on it for a larger version)  They’re made from the same tile that is on the walls – it matches that way. If you have a two-walled shower with only exterior walls it’s nearly impossible (or at least not very probable) to build a niche – frozen shampoo sucks. It’s also difficult to build niches if you have two exterior walls and one wall with all your plumbing – not much room there, either. So a corner shelf, or shelves, may be the way to go.

And they’re easy to make. And I don’t have pictures of the process.

The only difference in the way you install the tile on your walls is that you need to only install up to the row beneath where you are placing the shelf. You need to install tile up to that point on both walls that meet the corner. The bottom portion of the shelf is going to sit on top of those two rows directly against the walls in the corner. The next row of tile is then cut around and on top of the base shelf piece to lock it into the wall.

First decide how many shelves you need. Cut a full tile diagonally, corner-to-corner, in both directions. This will leave you with four identically-sized triangles of tile – these will be your shelf base, the part that’s locked into the wall.

Next you need to install the tile on both the walls that meet the corner your shelf will be in, all the way up to the row beneath your shelf. With me so far? Once you have those tiled take one of those triangle pieces you cut and flip it upside down. Set it onto the tops of the tile in the corner of the shower, the edges of the wall tile – it should just set there. You flip it upside down so you’ll have a finished surface on the underside of your shelf.

Then measure and cut the tiles for the next row that sit above the shelf. You are only notching out the tile to fit around the corner piece for the shelf. Before you install those, and as you are combing out the thinset on the wall for them, pack thinset against the wall at the back edge of the shelf base. This will  hold that piece in there until everything sets up. Then install the next row of tile on the wall.

Continue to do this until you have all the base pieces in for how ever many shelves you want. When you’re done you should have only one piece of upside-down tile in your corners for each shelf. Once that’s done we can finish up the shelves. You will need one piece of bullnose tile (the long ones with the rounded edges) for each shelf. Cut one side of it at a 45 degree angle. Now measure the front of your shelf from wall to wall – it should be just under 12 inches if you are using 12″ tile. Mark that measurement on your bullnose – measure from the pointy corner of the 45 you just cut all the way across the rounded edge. (Did I just type ‘pointy’??? Jesus…) Cut that at a 45 degree angle in the opposite direction (so it will sit on top of your shelf base wall-to- wall).

Set it up there and make sure it fits – you may have to shave a bit off of it until you get the right fit. Once you’re happy with the size of it butter the back of it with thinset (the same stuff you used to stick it to the wall) and put it on there. You will still have an open triangle in the back of the shelf behind the bullnose – just cut a smaller triangle of tile to fit in there and install it to finish your shelf.

That’s it – let it cure and grout everything up. Grout between the tiles on the front edge of the shelf – you can use caulk there if you want to, but it isn’t necessary, it’s not going anywhere. You do not need to use bullnose on the front edge if you don’t want to – it just looks better that way. If you want to simply use the square edge of the tile that’s fine, it won’t hurt anything. Just cut the top shelf piece to the correct size (it will be smaller than the base piece) and install it.

You can also cut into the tile beneath the shelf for the base if you want to. Like the top shelf in the photo above or the shelf in the photo to the left. It makes it easier and it looks better if you have mosaics or a liner that runs above the shelf. The key to it is that the shelf base is locked into the wall so it doesn’t go anywhere. You can cut them in wherever you want – just get it locked in there.

Also make sure that you put a shim of some sort in the very back corner of the shelf before you cut the tile around it – you need to have it sloped ever so slightly toward the shower and away from the wall – you need water to drain off of it. Don’t slope it so much that your rubber ducky slides off, though.

If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments below. I answer them all, I’m just super-cool like that.

Can I get out of this basement now?

Hello???