My bathroom is not quite finished yet but the bath surround is. This is what we did. We used Hansgrohe Thermostatic valve, bar and head.

We are going with the tub spout and handheld on a slide bar. I prob won't have finished pics for a whole year. .;). I grappled with what to do for quite awhile! One thing that I think makes the look is the position of the shower outlet in relation to the control and also the length of the slide bar in comparison to the space.

This one was from a John bridge thread. I can't link to the post, so props to the OP and their fine tile work.

This is linelle's from gardenweb.

Here is a link that might be useful: Linelle's bathroom

kats, hahaha, thank you. I was just going to go look for it. For a while I wished I'd also gotten a fixed head because I think you can aim the flow better. But after 6 months, I'm not so sure I'd get one. Really, the handheld acts just like a fixed head, plus it's also a handheld. :)

I hope you don't think I am some weird bathroom stalker. :) I pinned your picture after I posted about some concerns with the handheld vs. fixed.

In my configuration we will be showering people from 3' to 6' and dogs and whatnot, so I wanted the adjustable after all!

A lot of handheld shower heads on sliders are adjustable as to the angle when they are docked . That way they really do act as a fixed head too. Our Grohe works that way. I love it.

-Babka

Has anyone seen or tried the Kohler Flipside handheld? I was just on their site looking at sinks and caught a video of it, it has four different sprays, but they are, front, back bottom, and top of the head, which rotates on an axis. You don't turn a dial, you flip the head around. I was wondering if we have any reviews of it yet. It comes in three different handle styles, if the video confuses you about three different styles like it did me at first.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flipside Home

Thank you all! I especially love how the hose drapes under the control handle. I think that looks classy. Do you think my kids will pull on that a lot?

How long of a bar do I need? My husband is 5'11", I'm 5'3" and my kids are little.

Is it easy to move up and down? Can kids do it themselves (mine at 6, 5, 3 and 1.5) once they can be left alone in the shower? Is it annoying to move back and forth?

I'm glad no one said I was crazy :-)

I think a 24" bar is sufficient if you have a bathtub / shower combo since you have to leave room for the bathtub spout and thermostatic valve. My DH is 6'2" and I am 5'6" and the shower is actually at the right height for both of us. If I put the shower head at the lowest point on the bar, the hose is still long enough to reach to the back of the bathtub.

Nancy, I have the Flipside in my guest bath. The shower systems were really confusing to me at first with the bars and the double shower heads, but once I figured out we only shower adults in the 5'5-6' range, I realized I didn't need to spend hundreds on a shower system. Shower heads only channel water and I believe all of them are plastic anyway, so I couldn't figure out why some were so expensive. My experience with hand showers is you stick with a favorite spray pattern or two, and that has been the case with the Flipside. It delivers a lot of water with enough spray patterns to make any bored person happy. I bought it at BB&B with a 20% off coupon.

kats, no problem. :) Part of the deal of posting pics is to be helpful to others.

saw, I'm the only one using my shower so I leave the fixture in one place. Due to the size and configuration of my handheld, I don't have a lot of adjustability with the direction of the flow. It kind of defaults to one position which is fine. Often we want every option but in reality we don't need them all.

Are the hoses easy to take out of the holder?

Mine just lifts out of its holder. Couldn't be simpler. Also, the holder can be adjusted to whatever angle you would like.

Rather than use a bar, we opted for a holder for the handheld shower that could adjust the height of the head. This photo is from our former house. We liked it so much that we used the same setup in our new build home. All pieces are hansgrohe with the exception of the handheld which is Grohe.

{{gwi:2133571}}

Here is ours. Hansgrohe shower head, jaclo slider bar that is also a grab bar. In place for about 18 months and we have been very happy with it.