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Home Decorating

river rock as shower floor

13 years ago

Have you seen this before? Anyone have it? I love the look but am not sure how it'd feel underfoot. I was at a chichi boutique and they had some of those flat river rocks as a throw rug and it got me thinking. I didn't want to spend $60 for it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Last week I was at a Habitat store and they had a box of about 4 sheets of the rock on the backing for $2 so I bought it with the idea of making a shower mat. DH thinks I'm nuts, and I admit, I kind of think I am too. So before I spend time making this stone mat (it will be on a rubberized backing with drainage), I thought I'd get some opinions. Otherwise, I'll just take off the stones from the backing and use them around the hot tub.

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Comments (8)

amysrq
13 years ago
I did it in my entire bathroom in the last house. I wanted it for the shower (5x5 walk-in) and just couldn't find anything I liked to coordinate for the rest of the room. So, I just kept going. It was kind of like a reflexology experience every time you walked in there. I did have the tile guy pull a few stones with a particularly high profile out of high-traffic spots.
amysrq
13 years ago
Here is a pic...
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Comments (31)
We have it in our master and guest for two very different looks. Every person who uses the shower in either room comments on how great it is under foot. In the master we used a light color that matches the considerable amount of Botticino on the walls perfectly, so the look is subtle but lends a contemporary edge. Still it is so great under foot and complements the exceedingly classic Bottcino so well I can't see it dating - it is not a strong enough statement as used. Our guest bathroom is one big statement - lol. My vision for it was a stream through the wood because it opens to the outside and I wanted it to feel like you could be outside. I found an amazing bronze vessel sink with dragonflies that became my design muse. It is a long narrow room with the shower at the end. The entire bathroom floor is river rock. In this room the shower walls are slate and the river rocks are a multi mix that matches well. The installations was not the best - seeing Bill's picture makes me cringe a bit. It isn't horrible but I wasn't there for it - miscommunication of timing - and the grout was not cleared away as much as it should have been. ALso I used Costco pebbles for this bath and it was not as high quality - the stones were not as dense per sheet as the higher cost. I am still happy with the overall look. In some ways while aesthetically I notice it could be a bit better, practically it works better for people using the bathroom who have heeled shoes. But it does take someone with some experience with river rock to install it well. I supervised the master bath and it is much better. As far as cleaning - we have had it a year now and it still looks great - it is unsealed and really doesn't take much effort at all. In the master we use oxy clean to keep the lighter grout looking good but the rocks don't seem to require anything special. We don't use bath products with much residue but it doesn't seem that upkeep is necessarily a big concern with using river rock.
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Tile and grout are NOT the waterproofing parts of your shower. The waterproofing layer is under the tile and grout. If that was done properly you have nothing to worry about!
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In my last home, on the advice of a landscape architect, we used pami pebbles for our aggregate walkway/patio and had the concrete mix tinted a medium brown-reddish color. It was a beautiful combination, especially in contrast with plant materials and a flagstone and brick accent wall. Got many compliments over the years. I didn't find it hard to walk on with bare feet because the pami pebbles are so smooth. We had our backyard patio installed a few years later by a different company and was talked out of using the same materials. Never liked the patio as much as the front yard - in looks or bare-foot comfort.
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We chose the Dusty Gray epoxy grout. I think the Raven would have looked great as well, but we decided to play it safe since I had heard from several designers in my area to not use the darker color. We still haven't hung the handheld on the wall (should've had them drill the holes in the tile for the mount at the time). I did purchase a bronze drain cover with fish pattern, but I need to round the corners to make it sit flush. Aside from our contractor bailing on us before the job was completed, we are fairly happy with how it all turned out.
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Shades_of_idaho
13 years ago
That is a beautiful floor.

The water here has too much calcium or? in it and it would be so hard to clean if we had the rocks in our shower. I bet they would feel good on your feet though.
kitchenkelly
13 years ago
How fun and gorgeous! I assume your floor isn't radiant heat since you are in a sunny state but that would make it even more theraputic. I want a rock floor.
neetsiepie
Original Author
13 years ago
Now THAT would be my dream bath. Gorgeous. I'm going to try it, haven't got much to lose. I was hoping that'd feel good on my feet. I had a spa pedicure where there were stones at the bottom of the soaking tub...yummmm.
amysrq
13 years ago
I thought about doing radiant heat, but decided not to. I later regretted it because if we'd had a warm bathroom floor, I might have gotten away with turning the heat on even less often than we did.
jo-i-am
13 years ago
We've had a river rock shower floor for about 2 months - we just completed a complete remodel of the baths.

I love the look and feel of it. It is very similar to amysrq's floor above.

We actually set it on the floor and stood on it for a few minutes at the tile store. My husband wasn't sold on the look but loves how it feels and love the look now that it is in.

My big concern is long term maintenance. I'm the housekeeper here and there is a lot of grout - much more than regular tiles. For now I just spray cleaner and scrub it with a brush - very easy. I hope it stays that easy.

Since I'm kind of wierd about the cleaning issue - after I wipe all the glass down - I throw the towel on the shower floor and dry it after each shower. Because of the natural shape of the rocks - we have a couple of places that take long to dry.
westvillager
13 years ago
The texture is aesthetically awesome. And it would feel so good on bare feet! Something seems so perfect about that material in a wet area.

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