Alright, folks, gather ’round. Today, I’m gonna share my little adventure of figuring out how wide a shower bench should be. You see, I’ve been redoing my bathroom, and the shower’s been my latest project. Now, I ain’t no expert, but I like to get my hands dirty and figure things out as I go.
First off, I started measuring the shower space. I mean, how else would I know how big of a bench I could fit in there? Got out my trusty tape measure and got to work. My shower’s a decent size, but not huge. It was something around 48 inches by 36 inches. I figure a bench would be a nice touch, you know, for shaving legs or just chilling under the water.
So, I started to think, how wide does this thing need to be? I hopped online, did some digging around, and saw a bunch of different numbers. Some folks say 12 inches, others say more. The International Residential Code recommends that showers have at least 30 inches by 30 inches of space. Hmmm, that seemed a bit small to me. I’m not a giant, but I don’t want to feel cramped when I’m trying to relax.
I started to think about what I would be using this bench for mostly. It’s mainly for relaxing, also, my wife mentioned that she wanted to use it for shaving legs. I don’t know about you, but I like to have enough space to move around a bit. So I decided to use some cardboards, cut them into different widths, and put them into my shower area. After some tests, I figured at least 15 inches was the way to go, but even better, about 20 inches is the way to go.
Now, I know everyone’s different. Some people are bigger, some are smaller, some folks have bigger showers, some have tiny ones. But for me, in my average-sized shower, a bench around 20 inches wide feels just right.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Measuring: First thing’s first, measure your shower. No point in dreaming about a huge bench if it won’t fit.
- Thinking: Think about how you’ll use the bench. Just for sitting? Shaving? Storing stuff?
- Testing: Cut some cardboard, or use masking tape. Mark out different widths in your shower and see what feels comfortable.
- Deciding: In my opinion, it turned out that around 20 inches is a good width for most people, and gives you enough space to move around.
There you have it, folks. That’s my two cents on shower bench widths. Hope this helps someone out there who’s scratching their head over the same thing. Remember, it’s your shower, so make it comfy for you!