I did recessed and I really love it. I was worried about it getting dirty and being hard to clean, but so far I've had no issues. My niche is roughly 12x24, just FYI.

My personal preference is to have recessed niches that are not in the line of site as you look at the shower from the main room. But that's all it is, personal preference.

There are lots of beautifully tiled niches out there but, once the project is complete and you start living in the room, I just prefer not to look at my jumbo bottles of shampoo, etc!

My DM has corner shelves & we have the recessed. We went back and forth on our decision with the builder pushing us to do the corner shelves. Our decision was finally made when I borrowed Mom's guest room shower after a particularly muddy day at the house site. I had just washed my hair and face and stepped back under the spray a little to far and ran into the darn corner shelf. I thought of putting the shelf at the rear of the tub but worried about standing up & hitting my head or a shoulder on it.

Like therenee says, the niche is easy to keep clean (ours are at the rear of the tub in alcove baths) and looks nice. Ours are roughly 12x12 in the alcove baths.

Hope this helps!

Recessed niche, no contest. Those corner things are elbow bangers and things fall off them more easily. Also, a niche looks neater.

We love our niches. I would be bumping myself on anything protruding from our tub surround walls at least a few times a week for sure.

DH framed out/built all of ours specific to the constraints of the "stuff" in the walls themselves, (like wiring, pipes, etc), to the tile sizes, shapes, and layouts, and to the items that would be stored in each.

FYI, make sure the niches have a just enough slope so any water that gets in them drains out (the slope isn't detectable at all, and everything stays put).

Niches! Lots of them, high enough for your shampoo bottles. I like them somewhat hidden.
Renee

We have both a shelf and a large niche and find both useful.

I think it depends on the tile used and how the edges can be finished.

I've seen some niches turn out not so great because of tile edges and relative placement within the tile pattern.

Thank you very much for all the responses above, which are really helpful.

Where do you usually have your niche installed? Does the niche have to be a specific size as shown in http://innoviscorp.com/recess-it ?
Palimpsest, thank you very much for bringing up this issue. The tile (made in Spain) I will most probably choose comes with only two sizes: 13x26 wall tile and 2x13 bullnose. I will discuss this concern with the contractor when the bathroom remodel project starts.

There is no given size for a niche. There are boxes tilers prefer to use because it helps make the job easier but we didn't like the way they looked or the size of them and asked our contractor to build on it custom which he did. This pic is when it was going in. We put a tempered glass shelf in the middle. The second picture includes the shelf and foot step.

I agree that built-in niches are the best. When you have the walls torn down in the shower/bath, see where you have extra space and build in niches and storage cubbies.

I've included a link to pics of my recent bath remodel. I love the niche we made that wraps around the corner of the shower. Hope this helps.

Cheryl

Here is a link that might be useful: Around-the-corner niche

I have both on my tub/shower. I use the corner shelves for the shampoo etc. I have some seashells in the niche. I just like looking at it.

Oops, sorry. I think this brings you to a picture of the shower with niche.

Here is a link that might be useful: Around the Corner Niche