Many ‘custom’ tile showers have sad little afterthought niche spaces stuck between existing stud bays. My showers come with truly custom niche spaces thoughtfully designed to maximize space and usability. This often means making vertical niches when working in remodel spaces. Especially if you can’t re-frame a space from scratch, making tall vertical niches with shelving is a fantastic way to really maximize storage space in your shower. But tiled-in shelves can be a real pain to grout evenly and keep clean from soap scum. This post shows how to put a shelf in a shower niche using simple shelf pins for an easier, faster, and more flexible way to install shower niche shelving.

Some shower niche shelf basics

Some folks think that you have to decide between an inset shower niche vs shelf when designing a custom shower. This is because a lot of tile installers would rather glue a prefab floating shelf to a tile wall or simply stick a glass corner shelf into field tile rather than tile shelves into a niche. Why? Because it takes a lot of finicky work to tile shelving into a niche and make it look good. Here’s a real life example that typifies some of the hack niche shelving work that I’ve come across here in Austin.

It is a real pain to skillfully grout and finish a niche space with a bunch of shelves already stuck in it. This can risk hack results from a mid-level installer.

Traditional tiled-in shower niche shelving

Folks also often think that burying shelves into the niche tile is the only way to make a shelf in a tile shower niche. Makes sense, right? Cut the shelf to match the rough opening, tile it in, and then grout all around it. The problem with this traditional method is it makes grouting a real pain and makes all the shelf grout joints prime spots for collecting soap scum and therefore a pain to clean.

It is of course still possible to make tiled-in shower niche shelves that do look great and are pretty easy to keep clean with a proper tilt to shed water. Here are a couple traditional completely tiled-in niche shelf installs that I’ve done for clients who wanted this ‘normal’ look:

But even well done traditional niche shelving like this will still be a bit of a pain to keep clean. A better way to install tiled-in niche shelving is to leave a 1/8-in gap between the back of each shelf and the niche tile behind it for better drainage and therefore easier cleaning. For example, here are a couple examples that I’ve done where clients wanted the traditional tile-in method, but were open to this gap hack:

Notice that all these examples used natural stone for the shelves. That’s because tempered glass can’t be cut with a tile saw. If you want glass shelving for a tiled-in shower niche shelf, then you need to factor in at least a week of downtime to wait on your custom order (either locally or mail order on the interwebs).

That’s the second downside to using the traditional tile-in method for shower niche shelving. Custom glass niche shelves can really interrupt the workflow of a tile shower install. And the third downside? Each shelf is permanently stuck and grouted into the rest of the shower tile. If a shelf ever breaks, then you have a major pain in the ass repair problem.

shower niche shelves on pins!

A shower niche inset is basically just a recessed medicine cabinet without doors. So, why not put a shelf in a shower niche with simple shelf pins just as you would with any other cabinet? This is the secret to shower niche shelving that’s super easy to keep clean, super stylish, and super easy to replace anytime.

I think it’s weird that there is no other advice on this anywhere in the interwebs. It’s a very straightforward concept with clear advantages over traditional tile-in niche shelving. And it’s simpler than spending time and money on needlessly complicated and inflexible contraptions like this:

I’m a big fan of using basic Schluter fabric for waterproofing showers, but c’mon. It doesn’t take NASA-level engineering to simply hang a shelf. You can just put it on shelf pins. Read on for a step by step description for how to do this (with tips)!

How to install a shower niche shelf on pins

Here is an example from my latest custom tile shower install that included a nice tall vertical niche with several shelves. The clients chose flat black plumbing trim for their shower, so we used 1/4-in black metal shelf pins for the niche shelves. They cost a whopping $0.20/each.

There are several different ways to screw up a project like this, but anyone with medium DIY skills and attention to detail can get the same great results. Here’s how.

Step ONE: plan ahead for the niche placement

You need to plan ahead for any shower niche install. It is very easy to make a shower niche smaller on the fly while installing the tile. It is, however, impossible to make a niche opening larger after you’ve installed backerboard and waterproofing. That’s why I always frame a shower niche opening larger than the finished space will be.

This applies to any custom tile shower niche whether it will be getting shelves or not. You want to leave yourself some wiggle room to make the finished niche opening work with the field tile pattern and layout.

step two: tile the niche opening plumb and square

The tile along the back and sides of the niche needs to be flat and square to make the eventual shelf install look good. These clients chose mosaic tile for the back of their niche and large format solid marble tile to trim out the bottom, sides, and top.

Every point of the niche side was exactly 4-in deep. And the niche bottom was precisely level. This was only possible because I made the field tile on the niche wall completely flat and plumb. Remember that planning ahead bit? Wonky field tile will make any niche opening trim tile even more wonky. For a tall vertical niche, that would make for super wonky crooked shelving that’d look terrible.

The bottom line? You can’t fit level and square shelves in a crooked cabinet. So, make sure that your shower niche inset is square and level with an even depth.

step three: grout and seam the niche space

A large niche space is easy to grout when there aren’t shelves in the way. This also makes it easy to use sanded epoxy grout caulk in all the inside seams for a perfect finish.

The niche now doesn’t care when the shelves are installed. You can take your time to decide where each shelf should go after actually using the shower. You can also take all the time you want to get any material you’d like for the shelves. A long lead time for tempered glass, for example, is no problem since you’ll just be mounting them on simple shelf pins after all the tile is done, grouted, and ready for showering.

step four: make a drill guide

Here’s where things get finicky. You can’t just grab a tile bit and start drilling holes willy nilly. I mean, you could, but the results would look pretty bad. Tile drill bits will slide and wander a bit even on soft tile like marble, and shelf pins need to be perfectly even for a perfectly level and solid shelf mount. That’s why you need to use a simple shelf pin jig.

Cabinet makers do this all the time, so there are lots of fancy shelf pin jig rigs out there for fancy semipro woodworking folks. But you don’t need anything more complicated than a simple length of 1×4 trim board.

Just cut the 1×4 to fit in the niche opening. Then mark a perfectly straight line at the height of each shelf using a speed square. Then, drill two holes right on this line that are precisely level. Be sure to use a drill bit that matches the size of the shelf pins you’re going to use. We used 1/4-in pins on this particular project. That’s the size pin that I recommend for a nice secure shower niche shelf install.

For a standard 4-in deep shower wall niche, I space the holes 1-in from the back and 3/4-in from the front of the niche opening. This gives a bit more than 2-in spread between the pins for very stable finished shelf support. It also gives enough room to drill the rear shelf pin hole perfectly straight.

step five: drill baby drill, but carefully!

Now you can just hold the jig firmly against the tile to guide the drill for a perfect start. You want to use a pointy-tipped carbide drill bit (like this), NOT a flat diamond bit (like this). Using a pointy bit makes it easy to get each hole started with the drill bit tip. Once you’ve got all the shelf pin holes started, you can then continue drilling without needing the jig.

The point of using a jig is to get your holes started at the precise spots needed for perfectly level and stable shelves. This is why it is important to make the niche opening perfectly level and square in the first place, because you’ll drill the holes for each side of the niche using the same jig.

It is also important to not drill the holes too deep. Remember that you do not want to put a hole through the RedGard waterproofing behind the tile. That’s why I always use a nice thick thinset layer behind niche wall tile. This makes it easy to get the finished niche width perfectly even and square in addition to leaving plenty of room for a drill hole that only needs to be a little more than 1/4-in deep.

STEP six: test fit the pins & cut the shelves

This is where you can compensate for any slightly out of square sloppiness that your niche tile work might have caused. Ideally, each shelf will be a perfectly square rectangle exactly 1/8-in smaller than the niche opening. Remember that you want the shelf to have a gap on each side and on the back for water drainage. If your niche opening does happen to be a little out of square, then you can cut each shelf to compensate (assuming you’re using a pro grade 10-in wet saw that can make precision cuts).

This is also where you discover how precise your drill work was. Ideally, each shelf pin hole should fit each shelf pin snugly, and every pin should stick out nice and straight so that each shelf will rest on each of the dry fit pegs evenly with no wobbling. This is the ideal.

In practice, metal shelf pins vary a bit and no drill is perfect. So some pins might be a little loose, while others might be a bit droopy. I’m generally happy if the dry fit reveals that one pin in four is a little off causing a shelf wobble in just one corner. So long as the fit is close(ish), you can easily fix a little bit of wobble in the final two steps.

step seven: glue in the pins and wait a bit

You’ll want to use clear 100% silicone to glue the pins into the tile. Silicone is a great adhesive. It is mildew-proof, and it will waterproof the drill hole. You won’t need much.

Just squeeze a small dab directly into each drill hole and then push in the pin. You want just a little bit of silicone to squeeze back out around the pin, showing that the hole is fully packed. But don’t be worried if more than a bit oozes out as you gently push the shelf pin fully in. Just carefully wipe away the excess.

If no silicone at all squeezes out, then just pull the pin out and put a bit more silicone into the hole. Then push the pin back in, and repeat till you get just the right amount. Don’t stress about this step. Silicone is a great adhesive because it is also very forgiving.

This is where you can fix a slightly out of place or wobbly shelf pin from the dry fit test. Intentionally fill that hole with a bit more silicone, so that it’s completely packed and a fair amount oozes out when you push in the pin. Then, carefully finagle the pin to be straight and level with the rest. The silicone will support it. Then LEAVE IT ALONE for half an hour. Don’t worry about wiping away any excess or futzing with it any more. Just wait for the silicone to firm up.

After a half hour or so when the silicone is pretty firm, you can use a razor to gently cut away the excess without disturbing the position of the pin.

step eight: install the shelves

This is the easy part, since you’ve already precut each shelf (and thought ahead to label where each one goes). First wait at least a half hour for the silicone you used to glue in the pins to firm up. Then, simply put a dab of silicone on the flat top of each shelf pin, like this:

Then gently place each shelf on the pins, taking care to get the placement close to perfect right from the start. You don’t want to futz with the shelf too much. Just maneuver it until there’s an even thin gap between the shelf and niche tile all around, and then GENTLY press it down to make even contact with all four of the shelf pins.

The goal here is for the silicone to compensate for any slight unevenness. This is another reason why silicone is a GREAT adhesive for applications like this. It’s an adhesive and shim in one. So once you’ve got the shelf perfectly placed, just LEAVE IT ALONE until the silicone is dry (a couple hours).

Then VIOLA, you now have super stylish and easy to clean shower niche shelving!

Just a dab of pure silicone on each shelf pin will securely hold the shelves in place. It’s the pins themselves that support the shelf weight.

Why do it any other way?

Seriously, the fact that there is no other advice on this anywhere on the interwebs is baffling. Installing shower niche shelves on simple shelf pins has a lot of advantages. It doesn’t slow down your custom tile shower install time, makes the niche easier to keep clean, and makes shelving that can easily be replaced anytime in the future.

These clients chose to use simple marble tile for their shelving to match the trim in the rest of their shower. But they could have chosen tempered glass or any other material. The lead time wouldn’t have mattered, because installing shower niche shelves on simple shelf pins can be done anytime. You can finish out the space, start showering right away, and install the shelves later.

Putting a shelf in a shower niche using simple shelf pins is an easy, flexible, and stylish way to get a perfect result!