apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have this bathroom! I'm interested to hear suggestions. I admit I've never thought about using anything other than a curtain.

But I'm posting to say how much I admire your grout! Are your tiles original? Did you have them refreshed or regrouted or what -- and do you have a name and phone number of who did the work. They look really great.

Are you sure that an enclosure's the way you want to go? Enclosures seem very 70s/80s to me. But this bathroom looks pre-war.

I don't think you should enclosed your tub. One reason is that the enclosure is going to cover a portion of the window, plus it will really close up the room. Short of a complete remodel, I'd say try to live with it, rather than doing a DIY or Home Depot fast renovation.

why would you get rid of the curtain rod? that's a great tub.

Why on earth would you want an enclosure around this tub?

If you were planning to completely gut this bathroom and replace it with something super-sleek and minimalist, I'd get that (and then you'd be getting a new tub, anyway, and wouldn't have this problem). But it seems to me that an enclosure would just look really weird and wrong in here.

I'm with ehy2k. This is a fantastic tub and you will block the light if you enclose it. Have you considered a ceiling track for the shower curtain in place of the rod?

Actually I would love to know where to find a shower curtain rod like that. I've never seen such a large one that didn't have some kind of brace connected to the ceiling.

You could get regular sliding glass doors.
What you are lacking is 2 walls for the glass doors to adhere to but these can be created.

First you'd need a piece of lumber long enough to be ahered to the wall area above and below the window and thick/strong enough to hold one side of the glass doors.

Then on the other side you would need to create a full wall using a water resistant material. I'm not sure what that would be adhered to. Maybe from the floor to the wall or maybe just to the side of the tub.

But in general this isn't an impossible task. Now that you have an idea of what can be done speak with someone who can get it done.

I'm going to have to agree with everyone else and urge you to reconsider your plan to enclose this bathtub. This is a gorgeous bathtub (and a beautiful bathroom overall!), and enclosing the tub would really create the worst of both worlds in terms of vintage and contemporary fixures.

Please dont touch the bar. Enclosures for this bathroom would be bad, very bad.

hejiranyc, check Vintage Tub for rods like this, they have a couple of options.

I've ordered parts from them for my house, and the quality/service is outstanding.

The placement of the shower head is very awkward. I'm not a plumber - but perhaps they could add some piping and loop it around so that it's spraying the long way rather than the short way?

yeah, this bathroom layout just doesn't work with an enclosure. i wouldn't attempt it.

look at splatgirl's bathroom, see those vinyl panels in the shower? http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/post-your-baby/readers-bathrooms-splatgirls-blue-lagoon-019278

why not do two of those on either end of the tub, and then a nice shower curtain on the longside of the tub? it encloses it without altering the area, and clear curtain really open the space. i'm a big fan of clear curtains in the bathroom.

i do like the idea of a ceiling track...although you'd have to get all sorts of custom curtains.

Nooooo! Please don't enclose it. I love this bathroom. A simple curtain (white or even clear?) and it's fabulous...

A friend of mine in Italy had a good solution for this - she only partially enclosed the shower portion of her tub/shower combo - so the tub was still exposed, but she had a circular door that just "wrapped" around the shower portion of the combo.

this is a "flat" door version that was similar - I couldn't find exactly what she had doing a quick search, but I'm sure if you go to an Italian-based design store, they would be able to help you out.

hejiranyc,

Like I said, I have this same bathroom -- same rod, same sideways shower.

The trick to these curtain rods is that there are two pipes buried into the plasted on both sides. The curtain rod is screwed into them. It makes it really sturdy.

please use a curtain. PLEASE!

Keep the tub, and if you must, enclose it partially with a knee wall (see posts below about the meetup).

I might go with a kneewall at the back (of course tiled in sympathy with what you've got), and a fixed glass panel on the upper half, which would continue to let the light through.

I think that if you put up some awful glass and chrome enclosure of this charming tub, in the charming bathroom that just needs to have its character coaxed out, you'd bastardize the room beyond repair.

I once had a white tiled old bathroom with a six and a half foot tub that was, not claw-footed, but cloven-hoof-footed; and it's interior sitting space was maybe a shade over two feet wide! It also was against a wall with the shower head right in the middle and a curtain rod like yours. I did something in the way of a curtain as follows: you know those painters' almost weightless plastic dropcloths? I took two of them; hemmed them top and bottom, and put grommets on the top and those ball chains used to weight drapes through the hems at the bottom. I hung them up. Voila! A rain-straight, diaphanous (almost transparent) shower curtain that actually played up the light from the single window and rather than adding bulk, it emphasized the heavier elements of tiles and tub.

I've observed that my often outre solutions are usually ignored here (sulk), but I swear to you, this one's a winner!

As a practical consideration, sliding shower doors make it more difficult to clean the tub. (I've heard bathing kids is harder with them too.)

That said, doesn't the curtain creep up and stick to you when it has to wrap around like this? I've never had this kind of tub myself, but I think I showered in one and that happened to me. Aulaire's weighted curtain sounds like it would solve that problem.

I'm with the crowd-- I think a glass enclosure is not a good idea with a gorgeous classic set up like the one you've got here. It'll just make the rest of the room look shabby, instead of playing up the chic. But if you're looking to stay away from a fabric, light stopping curtain, you can still do it. Instead of glass, I recommend two heavy clear vinyl shower curtains with a pattern embossed in the vinyl, and those great metal curtain rings (the kind on ball bearings).

The key is getting really heavy vinyl *curtains* with a pattern. If you use thin plastic*liners* without a pattern, it'll look cheap and dried water droplets will make it look dirty. You can get heavy vinyl curtains (usually of Japanese manufacture) for about $35 each, at a place like Bed Bath & Beyond.

Paint the walls above the tile a great color (I like silvery or bluish grey), and you've got a dream bathroom.

Is that a jail cell bathroom?

Buy a hospital track from Zarin. I had the same problem when I was remodeling my bathroom. See examples here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/post-your-baby/readers-bathrooms-stephanies-tile-marble-vision-020248

No ready-made enclosure components are going to work with that tub. The particular difficulty being that radiused corner.

You could have a very nice custom enclosure made with a glass piece curved to the same radius, but it would be prohibitively expensive.

I agree with every other poster that you shouldn't remove the curtain rod. Just work with what you have--that's a fabulous bathroom and a great tub.

I myself favor using clear vinyl shower curtain liners all by themselves. Unfussy, practical and totally transparent.

How lucky you are to be able to shower drenched in natural light from that huge window.