The following items are just a few cheap shower wall ideas that could save you a lot of money.
Prefabricated shower surrounds and fancy imported tiles are undoubtedly good looking but they are very expensive and often too pricey for most of us to afford. That does not mean you cannot have a great looking bathroom for just a few rands. It does not matter what the cost or quality of the materials are. Your shower wall will either look well made or very bad depending on the amount of time and effort you put into the project. One of the main points is appropriate attention to detail.
Broken Tile Mosaic
You can visit construction sites, tile shops and DIY stores and ask them for free broken tiles. Be creative and try out a few designs on a scrap piece of wood or paper. When you are happy with your design, use it as a guide to install the broken tiles on the shower walls. If your shower walls are not waterproof, you can use cement-fiber board as a subsurface. Leave at least about 1/8 inch between pieces so you could grout between them.
Pebbles
You can use a technique similar to laying tiles to create a shower wall that reflects the seaside or a river’s edge. Instead of broken tiles, build a mosaic of interesting, small, polished river pebbles. Use a sand-colored grout between each pebble to resemble the beach or a riverbank. If you want to make it more interesting, intersperse seashells or beach glass. This whole project is free to collect, except the tile glue and grout. If you cannot collect your own pebbles, purchase pebbles from a quarry or pebble tiles that already attached to a backing for easy installation.
Galvanized Sheet Metal
If you want super cheap but durable shower wall, you could use ordinary galvanized steel roofing. It is easy to install, horizontally or vertically, with ordinary screws and rubber washers to prevent leaking around fasteners. It comes in many lengths to suit different ceiling heights, and you can cut it with tin snips or drill with ordinary metal bits or hole saw for installing fixtures. Coat it with a clear sealer to keep it bright and shiny, or allow it to oxidize naturally for a mellow rust effect. If it rusts too much, replacement is cheap and easy as well.
Stained Glass
Like broken tiles, broken glass is a resource often overlooked or disposed of. Set clear or colored glass pieces with white tile adhesive that dries to allow the colors to show at the best they can. These techniques works equally well with broken mirror pieces. With a little bit more effort, you can use a glass cutter to cut pieces to interesting shapes before installing them for added appeal. A dark grout between colored pieces of glass, will give it a stained glass effect.
