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Ooh, I love an outdoor shower! I wonder how my neighbors in Brooklyn would handle it if i put one on my patio!

These outdoor showers are much like the "exposed showers" that are used to adapt vintage clawfoot tubs. In fact, that's how I know about 'em, because I spent this past fall trying to find a thermostatic shower valve for my original tub hardware.

Try signaturehardware.com for inexpensive outdoor showers in chrome, they run about 100 bucks. You can replace the utilitarian heads that come with the showers with a rainshower showerhead. You can get a kit that includes a d-shaped shower rod enclosure, if you need privacy as well. Check their "exposed showers" for more fancy systems in chrome, nickel, polished brass or oil-rubbed-bronze (tho the last 3 are probably not good finishes for outdoors)

You can also try vintagetub.com, look for "exposed shower" or check their clawfoot tub shower page. I checked but I don't think you can get a natural brass finish from them - just a polished brass. (I wouldn't recommend an oiled bronze or other antiqued copper finish, because it might wear poorly) I've been told that triple-plated chrome is the best wearing finish of the "polished" plated finishes. If you can get it, uncoated brass would weather and develop a nice natural patina, though, so your instincts are probably correct.

You could always have a plumber rig up a shower system from copper pipe. My neighbor has a similar shower system of handmade soldered copper, and a "showerhead" made of a closed length of pipe with numerous drilled perforations.

Good luck!

I have ordered from these firms and have gotten great service, and have had many questions competently answered.

I don't know about where to buy them, but if you're an outdoor shower Cconnoisseur, I highly recommend the ones at Manka's Inverness Lodge in Marin County, CA - gorgeous!

It's outdoors. Why not keep it simple and just use the galvanized pipe you can find at every big box hardware store around. Then you can splurge on a nicer shower head if you want. Personally I kind of like the utilitarian nature of an outdoor shower-got muddy doing yardwork, clean off; got hot doing yardwork, cool off; got kids that play sports, clean em well before they come in; got dogs, bathe em using the hand-held shower attachment and don't worry if the shake off.

Wow, evilbunnie. You rock! Great sources.

I'm trying to rig up a decent shower for my clawfoot tub that's in an attic bathroom -- meaning the ceiling at the faucet end of the tub starts at ~4 feet and slants up over the tub. Where a smallish person would stand up to shower (my husband and I are both under 5'4") the ceiling is just over 6 feet, so it's kind of a tight squeeze, plumbing-wise.

Any unlacquered brass (i.e., "living brass") fixture will do fine outdoors. It will simply darken with exposure. And you can connect it to any galvanized pipe array. It's difficult to find unlacquered brass fittings, but they're out there. I have a showerhead in this finish from Waterworks (their Etoile collection... it's an old-fashioned "rose" style). Here is a showerhead that looks like the one in your photo, but it is in an oil rubbed bronze finish:

http://www.signaturehardware.com/product3814

By the way, the fixture in your photo looks like it's standard chrome. If I were you, I'd just get an inexpensive one in the finish you want, and replace it if and when it gets ugly. If you want old-style, clawfoot shower sets, check out Renovator's Supply online.

And here are some rather expensive stainless steel outdoor showers:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/beach-pool-showers.html

actually, if you connect the galvanized steel to the brass, you're quite likely to obtain corrosion on the steel, especially if you're close to the sea.

Fobo, you use a connector called a dielectric coupling. You do the same thing with copper pipe, but anyone doing plumbing knows that. It's a given with plumbing that connectors are needed. My point was that you needn't use decorative brass pipe for the entire array (as with the clawfoot tub shower idea).