Drywall, wainscotting and water will not mix well. What were you thinking for water containment? You would need it on all sides. This is about as poor a decision as you could possible make in my opinion.

I have to agree. Leave it just for bathing, and forget about the shower in there. It is not a waterproof area, and unless you do some major remodeling, it will never be.

I had a "freestanding" tub in an apartment I rented in college - aka a bathroom so old that it had the original cast iron tub with legs.

We had the kind of circular ring with a curtain and some kind of gerry rigged pipe with a shower head running up the wall and it was a complete failure as a shower for a variety of reasons - of course as poor college students we didn't expect optimum bathrooms

1) Shower itself was claustrophic because you were surrounding by a curtain inside a tiny circle

2) Shower didn't do much to contain water - shower floor regularly had so much water that it leaked into the ceiling of the kitchen below - not that we cared since we were renters. I imagine the walls next to the shower itself were also damaged from the water

3) Standing up in a freestanding tub is difficult and not safe. This is because the surface of the tub is sloped so there isn't much flat floor to stand on AND the floor itself tends to be slick and slippery - most people don't want to "rough" surface on the bottom of a tub

How to you intend to prevent water from entering the seam where the tub meets the wall?

As it stands now the house has 4 bedrooms. The master bedroom upstairs does have a full bath with a shower, so we really need second bathroom with a shower.

The original plan was to tear down the wainscot, and put an FRP to protect the wall. Im not too worried about leaks as this bathroom is on the ground floor and I’m planning to seal the floor the best I can. Probably silicone caulk between cement floor and the tub. I am worried that taking showers in there might not be very pleasant experience, but the only other alternative is to tear it all down and build wall-in shower.

BTW, the picture below from this site gave me this, what appears to be a bad idea :)

The issue with this set up - speaking from personal experience is that the curtain needs to be inside the tub for it to actually contain the water since otherwise it just escapes inevitably outside the tub and/or runs down the curtain especially because in the normal course of showering one hits the curtain since the actual showering area is not very large.

Who would be using the bathroom on the first floor?

And of course there are safety issues since there are no grab bars and the bottom of a tub is generally quite slick.

And perhaps it is me since I don't ordinarily take a bath but do most people actually take a bath when they are visiting someone? At that point one would theoretically want to clean the tub before using and then a considerate guest would clean the tub after using.

@Ej Sarkis I would definitely go with your second option of ”tear it all down and build…” if only because climbing in/out of that tub and standing in it for showers will be so unpleasant & unsafe of an experience that everyone in household will stand in line to use the existing shower. All you’ll be left with is a truly messed up wreck of a bath here. I don’t know how much work & $$ it will be to get the pipes from the long wall to the end wall by door which is where they should be for a shower head. Looks like having side wall by toilet & front wall with sliding door & both of glass would be great & with some solid surface material for back wall & wall with plumbing. You could have a really nice shower there. What I am really curious about is the door at end of bath - is that an exterior door and does it have two pet doors in it?? One for large doggie & one for small doggie or kitty? Love it!

Besides the waterproof issue is the issue of trying to get in and out of that tub and bathing in it standing up.

but the only other alternative is to tear it all down and build wall-in shower.

Exactly! That is the smart and safe thing to do if there are no other choices.

I agree, if you really have to have a shower, then remove the tub and put a shower enclosure there., in its place.

You'll be tearing it all down anyway as that will be a mess of rot and mold in short order.

This is just a bad idea on all fronts. That tub was not designed to be integrated into double duty as a shower. It's so narrow once enclosed in a shower curtain, you'd be literally out of room and fighting the curtain while trying to bathe. There's no rim on which to place soap or a shampoo container.

It's a pretty tub, but meant to be used as only a tub. And by someone youthful, I might add.

There could be worse things in your future than sharing your master shower ;) Until you have the opportunity to remodel pictured bath in a way that is safe, dry, and efficient.