Choosing a Shower Screen: Sizes, Types & Tips for Every Bathroom

Your shower screen is a high-functioning fixture that does a lot more than prevent water leakage. It can make or break your bathroom design and have a major effect on how people use the space.

But what should you look for when choosing your shower screen? We’ll cover everything from size, type and a few tips to get you started on your bathroom build or reno.

Why your shower screen choice matters

There’s a lot to think about when choosing a shower screen. It does a lot in keeping wet floors to a minimum and the wrong size and style can really affect the room’s ventilation.

Water type can also affect your decision, if your home is running hard water, it might mean you’ll need a particular material if you want to avoid streaky glass.

Then there’s how it looks with your vanity and the rest of your bathroom’s features. Shower screens come in a bunch of different styles that lend to different bathroom aesthetics.

What are the main types of shower screens?

There are four main shower screen options. Here’s a quick explainer of each:

Frameless shower screens

Minimalistic and easy to clean with no bulky frames to block your view. They open up the space well for modern bathrooms and smaller layouts.

Semi-frameless shower screens

Perfect for those looking for a high-quality screen with a bit of extra stability without blocking the view too much.

Fully framed shower screens

A complete frame usually does a better job of keeping the water from leaking.

Walk-in shower screens

They use fixed panels without doors to give your bathroom a more modern look and sense of openness.

Shower screen sizes & dimensions guide

While there’s no one-size-fits-all height or width, there are standard shower screen sizes you can use to plan your bathroom layout.

What is the standard shower screen height?

It’s most common to see heights range between 1800mm–2200mm. This gives enough height to contain water spray and will work with most ceiling heights.

How wide is a typical shower screen panel?

The width will start from 800mm and go up to 1800mm, but this sizing is more of a guide than a hard rule. Smaller sizes can be custom-made and you can add more panels to increase the width of your shower.

What size should a walk-in shower screen be?

Walk-ins need a bit more space than other screen types. The standard width starts from 900mm and the height from 1900mm. Because these screens are often frameless, the glass panels must be a thickness between 8mm and 10mm.

Best shower screen for your bathroom layout

It’s not necessarily the shower screen that takes up the most space, it’s the shower itself. That being said, here are some suggestions for what shower and screen combo is best suited to your bathroom.

• Small bathrooms: Corner showers with any kind of shower screen. They can be installed in a corner where they won’t take up too much space.
• Family-sized or high usage: Big showers with enough space to help bathe kids and pets. In this situation, fully framed might be the best pick as it lets the least amount of water out.
• Open plan layouts: While you can fit any shower screen type in an open plan bathroom, walk-ins and frameless screens look particularly good here.
• Ensuite: It depends on the size of your bathroom, but a double shower with a frameless or semi-frameless screen would work well.

Start building your perfect shower

Your shower screen size and type should work with your bathroom's design while meeting your practical needs. At around the same time you’re picking a screen, you’ll also need to think about shower hardware and other bathroom fixtures and bathware.

If you need a little guidance, just ask! We’ve got bathroom specialists ready to give you design help to help narrow down your options.