We are currently at the point of putting up durock in our new shower. We will be painting redgard on top of the durock. We are using a Kohler cast iron pan and have built in a bench at the far end. We are DIYing it and neither of us have done a bathroom before so we are trying to do all our due diligence so our bathroom doesn't look like crap in the end! I have a bunch of questions I'm hoping some of you would be willing to help with. First, let me explain our design choices so you have an idea of the look we're going for. We're doing a white subway tile in the shower (Interceramic cheap stuff from Lowes). We bought the 2x6 bull nose pieces to run around the sides in the opposite direction as the subway tile. Chrome thermostatic rain shower. Frameless glass shower doors. The floor will be marble with a basketweave tile rug in the center. The vanity is white with carrera marble top. So here goes my questions: 1. Durock, fuzzy or smooth out? I've read that the fuzzy side should go out when using thinset, however I'm unclear on whether or not we should use the fuzzy side considering a layer of redgard will be painted over prior to tile. 2. Niches. We are adding two niches. One larger one, probably around a foot tall, and one narrow one directly below it for razors, etc. The back will be basketweave marble, the sides will be white subway tile we're using on the rest of the shower. We've read floor elfs tutorial on building a niche (THANK YOU) so I think we understand the construction. My question is for the "shelf" part. I'd really like to use a solid base however our budget is busted for getting something fabricated. Would it be possible to use a 3/8" marble tile and somehow polish the outer edge so its not raw ourselves? Which leads to my next question. 3. The bench. We have a bench we've constructed out of 2x4's and plywood. Again, I would really love to have a solid surface instead of tile but having something fabricated is not in our budget. I was considering using 2 18x18 marble tiles which should fit perfectly but would this look strange? Also, same problem of needing to polish the raw edge of the tile. Also, is marble just bad news for a top in the shower which will probably be coming in contact with shampoo, soap, shaving cream etc? I'm concerned about etching and looking like garbage. Any other suggestions on material we could use that'd be in keeping with the rest of our "look"? 4. Grout. I've discovered that I really love the look of white grout with white subway tile. However, I can't stand devoting a lot of time to keeping the shower clean. And I really can't stand dirty grout but I also hate to scrub it. We have a hand shower so we can do a quick rinse after showing to get rid of soap, shampoo residue but the odds of us wiping the entire shower down after each use are slim. Will a white epoxy grout on the walls just be a huge hassle with keeping it clean? Is it worth the premium vs just sealing a regular grout? And, lastly, any direction to a good tile tutorial would be appreciated. We want to make sure we don't have funky looking cuts or awkward looking tiles. If you've made it this far, thank you!! This endeavor has turned out to be a ton more work and research than I expected and this site has been an invaluable resource!

We thought that plywood was supposed to be sandwiched in between the solid surface. We thought the plywood can be ancored to the the wall more successfully than the solid surface material. Are you recommending just the two layers of solid surface laminated together with edge profile and then directly supported by the brackets with no wood frame inside? Of course, I assume we have to put backing in the wall with the brackets. Here are two images of what we thought to do to support the bench. Here is the text taken from the website that propsed the above way of supporting a floating shower seat: Structural Support for Cantilevered Bench "A cantilevered shower seat, outward from the shower wall, is an excellent approach from the end user perspective. It can easily and reliably be constructed with a couple of strong, stiff internal metal brackets. This is easier done than you might think by constructing a pair of welded support brackets. The brackets can be made inexpensively from carbon steel (or stainless) by any welding shop in a matter of 30 minutes or so. By way of illustration, I have constructed a "cantilevered" shower part-wall using this approach. It was especially important in my situation to ensure adequate resistance to wall "rotation" (i.e. 'tilting') because a grab bar is to be placed on the opposite side of this wall adjacent to a toilet. I wanted to make sure that any loads placed on the grab bar would not cause the wall to bend - and thus crack the shower tiles. Figure 1 shows the location of the steel support within the wall. Figure 2 shows the bolting of the support to the floor structure. In the case of a shower seat, a pair of welded steel "T-supports" or a pair of "L-supports" would be required. The vertical sections of these supports would be adhered and bolted to vertical studs. The horizontal sections would be concealed within the seats. Steel tubes of about 3" by 3" square by 1/8" wall would be adequate. Of course, if partly exposed (as in the photograph at the beginning of this thread), the horizontal sections of the supports could be made of round stainless steel tube or pipe, 2.5" to 3" in diiameter." Carol

I think it would be fun! And I doubt your bottles of things will cover up EVERYTHING! You'll get a peek at the contrasting grout! It's not like you're putting super expensive metal tiles or something in there :)

I'm not a fan of TV's over fireplaces. I would close up the niches if you could and then use a console with the TV above it. Since you already have limited wall space with all the windows having the niches is just overkill.