Burning Question: Glass or Fabric?
When it comes to your shower or tub… do you prefer a shower curtain or a glass door? Do you love the easy and inexpensive function that a crisp cloth shower curtain can bring? Or do you long for the modern and open look of a seamless glass door? Does something else entirely tickle your fancy?
We’re excited to hear where you stand on the issue. In fact, we whipped up this handy little poll to keep everything tabulated:
[poll id="19"]
We’d love to hear more about why you voted the way you did, so feel free to comment away with more details.
Image courtesy of Restoration Hardware.
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I voted for the fabric curtain. I also love the look of glass, but it is a pain to clean and hard to get into a tub with a glass door to bathe a toddler.
We just replaced our (gross and dingy) shower curtain with a fresh white one. I tend to lean towards inexpensive ones so I don’t hesitate to chuck ‘em when they get grody. I do, however, daydream about the flamenco shower curtain from Anthropologie. I’d paint the bathroom just to suit those gorgeous colours!
While I love the openness of glass doors, right now with 2 under 2, I need the ease/safety of curtains for bath time! Luckily there are so many beautiful ones available to jazz up a room!
I like glass for shower stalls and fabric curtains around tubs. We don’t have a step-in shower (yet), so both our tubs have white curtains similar to yours.
I like a clear plastic or maybe white. I HATE HATE HATE cleaning shower doors and those cheap plastic curtains are easy peasy to replace. I almost always feel like a fabric curtain outside the tub makes a bathroom feel small and cramped.
I did cleaning for other people for quite a few years and most of them had the glass doors.. I love the way it looks but not very easy to clean and get spotless so thats why I voted for the fabric:) It’s something you can easily switch up whenever you want to as well.
While I love the idea of glass doors on a shower, absolutely hate the ease in which they grime-up. Any thoughts on how to easily keep your glass doors water-spot-free??
on a tub though love the layered fabric curtains!
Anyone have glass door cleaning tips for Karen?
xo ,
s
While I love the striped green, brown and beige shower curtain I have in my bathroom (and designed my bathroom around it), I can’t help but fall in love with other shower curtains every time I walk by that section in a store! I think shower curtains have come a long way– some are absolutely beautiful and do so much for a room.
I grew up with glass shower doors. Though beautiful, they’re a pain to clean! Much easier to toss a pretty fabric curtain in the wash.
I love the color and texture you can inject with a fabric shower curtain! That said, we recently added a 2nd bathroom on the second floor that is under the eves (slanted ceiling in the tub & shower area) and also windowless. So, we’ll be adding a custom, glass shower door/partial wall just to keep things as light and bright as possible.
I used to have a glass door in my shower and hated it because it ALWAYS looked dirty. Unless you clean it every day, it is impossible to keep clean. I have a curtain now and love it!
I’d love a step in shower in a dramatic black recycled glass, similar to this HGTV reno I saw a while back (except without the door!):
http://img.hgtv.com/HGTV/2008/07/30/hrhag104-BathroomAfter-Vert_lg.jpg
Gorgeous, eh?
Karen – I stayed at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch in St. Louis back in February. They had GORGEOUS bathrooms (probably have pics on the web) with beautiful seamless glass shower enclosures. The maids all had squeegees in their cleaning carts. I assume for the shower. Probably works pretty well.
My recently renovated miniscule bathroom now has a glorious glass showerdoor. It’s very sturdy and very safe (safety glass) and it really opens up the space.
Re: cleaning.
Daily whiping after showering (1min) and once in a while cleaning with club-soda (5-10 min) seems to do the trick for me.
My boyfriend and I recently took down his sliding shower doors in favour of a curtain rod with plastic curtain. He lives in a house with 3 roommates – the majority are male and in their early 20s.
SO much easier to keep clean!!
Later on in life though, I’d probably prefer a fabric curtain. Just looks nicer I think.
I love glass shower doors. When I lived at home with my parents I had them in my bathroom and they were great. Right now I’m in an apartment and I have shower curtains in both bathrooms. Took some getting used to but I really like my fabric liners.
@Karen- you might want to try half vinegar half water and a microfiber cleaning cloth. It always worked pretty well for me.
@Karen: We installed clear glass in our shower when we renovated our master bathroom. A few quick swipes with a squeegee after showing keeps it looking pretty good between cleanings – and makes cleaning a lot easier as well!
I voted curtain, but I have two curtain rods hanging and the decorative curtain is on one and a CLEAR liner on the other. I like to see in the shower and this lets the most light in! lol So the decorative one gets opened to let the light in during a shower and closed after so we have something pleasant to look at instead of the shower I’ve put off cleaning (my least favorite task). One sweet, sweet day though I’ll have a big walk in shower with no doors or curtains to speak of.
I really like the look of a clean clear glass shower door (not the old 80′s sliding rail system)…one of these days we will upgrade our bathroom!
Right now I vote for curtains. I have a small child so glass doors would worry me. Also, I like the ease of curtains — they can be laundered and when I’m bored with them, I can switch them out for a whole new design for very little money.
I love both! Having glass doors with a toddler IS rough but…..very enjoyable to allow them the freedom of splashing and makes the transition from bath to shower a breeze. You are able to allow them the ‘grown-up’ feeling of the shower yet able to sit and watch without fear of getting drenched!! :)
Hate to clean the hard to clean doors and they are a host for mold,mildew,allergies etc. Yucky! plus I love to have the color. Have a great day guys………enjoy dear Clara
Glass door! Having a curtain with possible mold freaks me out.
Add me to those that likes the look of glass but hates the clean up.
We had a glass shower door in our condo and I HATED it! So hard to clean. Now we have a fabric curtain and I’d never go back.
I never thought I would have much opinion on this topic until I moved into my current apartment where I have battled for a shower curtain I like for more than a month. Plain white works, but also gets boring to me. Add to that my recent trip to a St. Regis hotel where I showered everym morning in the most fantastic all glass shower and I’m struggling to love my own bathroom and the dreaded shower curtain. For me, I would much rather have glass than a curtain (pain in the behind cleaning and all!).
I enjoy my privacy in the shower, and fabric curtain is the only way to achieve that with two small children running around. Also, I love that I can just throw the curtain(s) in the washer instead of using harsh chemicals to clean off any icky accumulation.
Some friends who just finished building a new bathroom had an amazing trick… they built a really long shower that has a tiled wall along 3/4 of its length, with the rest open. The handle to turn on the shower is near the open end, and the shower is long enough that the water doesn’t splash out into the rest of the room. It was amazing. No glass and no curtain.
With kids, having a curtain is easier for us to reach/clean them AND to be able to whip the curtain shut during water wars. The metal track that a door requires is a pain when bathing kids, in my experience.
I used to love the texture and additional flair a curtain can add to a bathroom, but my boyfriend has a glass door and he has turned me around! I have always had the problem of the shower curtain billowing into the tub and clinging to me during my shower! Yuck! (does anyone know why that happens?) So the glass doors look great and solve that problem!
For cleaning glass shower doors: the only thing that works is a squeegee! It doesn’t matter whether you use vinegar water or Scrubbing Bubbles, without the squeegee, you will have water spots and build-up.
I don’t have tubs in my home, just step-in showers so I enjoy both worlds.
@Karen: glass doors used to be a pain in the b#$@ until I bought a squeegee. It takes about 20 secs to do 4 glass doors (the shower is big) after a shower and I never have to think about it again. In fact, they tend to get a lot dirtier from the outside (small hands everywhere) but nothing that can’t be solved in a minute with some water, vinegar and a microfiber cloth.
In the small bathroom of my bedroom, though, I think I’ll go for a curtain simply because I fell in love with this ruffles one: http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2010/06/flamenco-shower-curtain.html
If you go with curtains, get the fabric liner as well so you can just pop it in the wash and get it clean!
I lived in a duplex built in the 60′s with sliding glass doors – they were an absolute nightmare to keep clean – particularly the tracks. And really loathed them after stumping my toe somehow on the track!! Perhaps they’ve improved through the years.
If I had my dream now, I’d have a walk-in shower with no door, no curtain, nothing – and a big drain in the middle to hose the thing off! haha
currently have glass doors but will switch to a curtain when i (finally eventually someday) reno the bathroom.
@karen, use a squeegee after your shower and spray with shower spray. i HATE cleaning the shower and this keeps it cleaner longer
Close friends had a glass shower door explode in their bathroom – it was supposedly shatterproof but not so. I don’t know if it was defective or installed improperly – but I’ll stick with the humble curtain!
For a master bath, I prefer a clean, elegant glass door in a shower. In secondary bathrooms, which in our house have tub/shower combos, I prefer the curtain. I hate when tub/shower combos have the slidey door thingamajig.
Am I the only one who does this? We have a fabric shower curtain on the outside of the tub and lined it with a clear plastic one that hangs inside the tub (all on the same rod, just doubled up on the curtain rings). This way we get the look of the fabric but can replace the clear plastic one if it gets too gross.
I can’t stand the glass doors on our shower. The only benefit is that they have a metal frame were we put our shampoo.
Hey Shannon,
I think most people with fabric curtains do that to keep them dry. We actually have a fabric liner to keep that plastic smell at bay (while keeping our decorative fabric curtain dry). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
This is the story of my life! I dealt with the ugly glass shower door in my apartment for at least a year until one day I’d had enough! I convinced myself I could take it down myself and then also convinced myself I could rip down the ugly vinyl wallpaper as well. It’s still a work in progress but you can see my ugly glass door to pretty shower curtain transformation here:
http://dailyheirlooms.blogspot.com/search/label/bathroom
I’m actually thinking of painting horizontal stripes much like the ones in your guest bath. I’d like to think that you two had a little bit to do with my brave DIY bathroom adventure!
I like a curtain, but have never had a house with a glass door. I love my new white seersucker fabric shower curtain from Kohls. I havent redone my bathroom yet, but it looks so fresh and has that beach/cottage type look. Eventually want to put in hexagon tile, beadboard, etc. Plus the great thing with a shower curtain is that you can always mix it up when you are reinspired with looks, which happens often to me. Easy to change out! I am already loving the shower curtain in the Beadboard bathroom in the August issue of Better Homes and Gardens. That is essentially what I would like in my bathroom- the floor, the sink, the beadboard. Still undecided on a color for the walls though.
Both! I like a curtain for my preschooler’s tub, and glass enclosure for our (recently remodeled) shower stall.
As far as cleaning the glass is concerned, we sprung for the shower guard glass protection when we had the glass installed and we squeegee every.single.time we shower. We have really hard water and our previous 80′s glass enclosure was torture to clean so I am a squeegee dictator!
I’ve also heard that Rain-X helps to repel the hard water/grossness that builds up on the glass (my glass installer was the person who recommended the Rain-X treatment so I have no first hand experience with it) but I’d still recommend wiping the water droplets off the glass each time: the 30 seconds it takes has made all the difference for us!
We have glass doors, and they’re IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean! We ripped the door out in Eleanor’s bathroom and got a fun monkey shower curtain…and our bathroom is on the list. The curtains are so much easier to keep clean, especially if you get a liner that you can throw in the washing machine.
i LOVE the look and spaciousness of a doorless shower design
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.clevelandglassblock.com/images/PageImages/showerWalls/doorlessShower1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.clevelandglassblock.com/products-showers.aspx&usg=__i6P70Mw6OrQmUdME17CNAvl3cps=&h=228&w=152&sz=8&hl=en&start=20&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Okkws9QpDgjR2M:&tbnh=108&tbnw=72&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddoorless%2Bshower%2Bdesigns%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1
I had a glass door shower in my condo. I loved the look, but it was a pain to keep it clean. That’s why I am using fabric curtains for the bathrooms in my new house.
Some cleaning tips for Karen:
1. For daily cleaning, I kept a squeegee (sp?) in the shower and used it on the door after every shower. I found a squeegee at Bed Bath that hung on the shower head, which was really convenient.
2. To remove soap scum, etc. from the glass, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works like, well, magic :-).
3. You can easily (& cheaply) clean the door track with vinegar.
I hope this helps!
Fabric curtains for sure! I love how you can change the whole feel of the room w/ an inexpensive curtain :)
First, for Karen–my parents have a glass door, and I watched them struggle with keeping it clean for a while. I bought them a bottle of Method glass spray and a squegee for their shower. Now whenever someone’s done, before they get out, they spray down the doors and squegee them. Only takes a minute at most and the doors stay clean and bright! Make sure you use an organic brand though–toxic fumes + shower steam = no good!
I voted for a fabric curtain. I love how easily they can be changed to freshen up a room when redecorating. I just hung a brown striped one in our bathroom after having a plain white one in there and wow! Does it make a difference!! I think I would get tired of seeing glass day after day. Plus, I want a little privacy! ;)
as for keeping glass doors clean….i used to keep a spray bottle of vinegar and sprayed the glass doors after each shower. it helps keep the mold/soap scum from building up.
I grew up with a shower door and always thought I was a shower door kinda girl.
But lately, I’ve really been enjoying the texture, style, and color that a shower curtain can bring to a small space.
So, I voted for shower curtain, but I reserve the right to change my mind!
While glass doors would be nice to make my smaller bathroom seem bigger, our house is a ranch, and the bathroom window faces the back yard. So, if not for the curtain, if someone used the bathroom, especially at night (in the summer when the windows are open in particular), anyone in the back yard (or the neighbor’s!) would see right in! Plus, I much prefer taking the curtains down and throwing them in the wash than scrubbing glass doors.
I love shower doors because they are so much easier in terms of avoiding water puddles, cleaning, etc. However, I do love the look of a really nice tub (sans shower curtain), particularly a clawfoot tub :) But in general, I prefer walk-in showers over tubs.