Wet room storage has one job that ordinary bathroom storage does not. It has to survive being rained on. In a wet room there is no screen and no shower tray, so water reaches almost everything in the room. Because of that, the shelf that worked in your last bathroom will probably rust, sag or sit in a puddle here. However, the fix is not complicated once you know what fails.
What makes wet room storage different
A wet room is tanked and the floor is sloped to a drain. In effect, the whole room is the shower tray. As a result, spray travels much further than most people expect. Meanwhile the air stays humid for longer, because there is no screen holding the steam in one corner.
So wet room storage has to handle three problems at the same time. First, direct spray. Second, standing water on the floor. Third, constant humidity between showers. Therefore the usual plastic caddy, the wicker basket and the untreated wooden shelf all struggle within a few months.
Get everything off the floor first
This is the single biggest improvement you can make. Since the floor is a drainage surface, anything resting on it will eventually sit in water. Consequently cardboard packaging goes soft, bath mats stay damp and metal feet corrode from the bottom up.
Instead, mount whatever you can on the wall. Then leave the floor completely clear so it drains and dries between uses. Wall hooks are the cheapest place to begin, and they take about five minutes to fit. Our wall mounted hook rail works well on the drier wall, away from the shower head.
Choose materials that will not rust
Not all metal behaves the same way in a wet room. Chrome plated steel looks fine at first. After a few months, though, the plating chips around the screw holes and rust creeps out in orange streaks.
Instead, look for stainless steel, powder coated aluminium or solid moulded plastic. Similarly, be careful with bamboo and untreated timber. Although bamboo is often sold as water resistant, it still swells and splits when it never gets a chance to dry properly.
Glass and ceramic cope with water perfectly well. Remember, though, that you are barefoot on a hard floor. Therefore keep anything breakable high up, or somewhere it cannot be knocked with a wet elbow.
The best wet room storage for towels
Towels are the hardest part to get right. Because the room stays humid long after you finish, a towel hung near the shower never dries fully. As a result it starts to smell within two or three days, even though it looks clean.
So move towels out of the spray zone altogether. A freestanding rail is useful here, since you can stand it in the driest corner and move it later if the layout changes. Our 3 tier free standing towel rail holds several towels without needing a single screw in a tanked wall.
Alternatively, keep only the towel you are actually using in the room, and store the rest on the landing. Honestly, this is what most people settle on in a small wet room.
Make one piece of storage mobile
Fixed shelving commits you to a layout before you really know how the room gets used. A trolley does not. You can wheel it clear of the spray while you shower, and then bring it back afterwards.
This also makes cleaning much easier, because you move the whole unit instead of working around it. Our 3 tier rolling storage trolley suits this job, and it earns its keep in a utility room later if your plans change.
Ventilation matters more than shelving
No amount of clever wet room storage will rescue a room that cannot dry out. Because humidity is the real enemy, extraction matters more than any shelf you buy.
Building regulations in England set minimum ventilation provision for bathrooms in Approved Document F. Consequently, if your extractor fan is undersized, blocked or simply never switched on, damp will keep winning whatever you store and however you store it.
Run the fan during the shower, and leave it running for a while afterwards. Meanwhile, a quick pass with a squeegee across the walls takes about thirty seconds and makes a noticeable difference.
Where to keep shampoo and shower gel
Bottles are the clutter you notice most, mainly because they live exactly where the water lands. Lining them up on the floor is the default, yet it is also the worst option. They collect limescale, they slide about, and you end up moving all of them every time you clean.
A recessed niche is the neatest answer, although that decision usually gets made during the build. If you already have one, tile it with a slight fall so water runs out rather than pooling in the corner.
Otherwise, a corner caddy fixed high on the wall keeps bottles above the main spray. Above all, buy fewer bottles. Two or three in daily use is manageable, whereas eleven half empty ones will defeat any wet room storage you install.
What to avoid in a wet room
A few things fail so reliably that they are worth naming.
- Wicker and rattan baskets. They soak up water, then go mouldy from the inside.
- Cardboard or paper packaging. It collapses, and the print transfers onto the floor.
- Chrome plated wire racks. They rust at the welded joints first, where you cannot clean them.
- Suction cup holders on textured tile. They hold for a week, and then fall at three in the morning.
- Low shelves in the spray line. Anything below waist height fills with water every time you shower.
A simple order to work in
Start small, because a wet room punishes overbuying faster than any other room. First, clear the floor completely and see how it feels. Next, fit two or three hooks on the driest wall. Then add one mobile piece only if you still need space. Finally, move spare towels out of the room entirely.
If your bathroom is simply small rather than a true wet room, the constraints are slightly different. Our guide to small bathroom storage ideas covers that situation instead. You can also browse our bathroom storage range to see what we currently stock.
Good wet room storage comes down to restraint more than clever products. Fewer things, mounted higher, in materials that genuinely do not mind getting wet.