Types of Shower Doors — 5 Best Styles to Invest in for a Stylish Bathroom That Never Looks Dated (2024)

Let's face it: choosing a shower door isn’t the most exciting part of designing a bathroom. However, it’s one of the most important elements as it influences the look and usability of this room. There are many options depending on the look you want to achieve and how you need the door to function.

To help you out, we spoke to experts about the best walk-in shower door options, along with their pros and cons.

What are the different types of shower doors?

There are several types of shower doors you can choose for your bathroom. Experts tell us that the best way to decide is by assessing your bathroom's size, needs, and aesthetics. Largely, you can choose from frameless, semi to full enclosures, sliding shower doors, and bi-fold or mullion shower doors.

Here's a closer look at the top five styles for modern homes.

1. Sliding door

Sliding shower doors, also known as bypass doors, consist of two sliding panels that run on tracks. They are typically easy to install and ideal for small bathroom showers as the door doesn’t need to be opened inwards or outwards, thereby saving space.

Anna Vasiltsova, founder of Anna Designs says that "sliding doors are highly suitable for narrow bathrooms or small bathrooms in general. However, the tracks can be harder to clean."

In addition to being harder to clean, another con of a sliding shower door is that frameless styles in particular can leak, which is definitely something to consider.

If you want something modern and minimalist like the bathroom above, we like this frameless sliding shower design from Walmart.

2. Hinged door

A hinged door sits on hinges, as you’d expect, and opens by swinging either inwards or outwards. With this type of door, the hinge can either be attached to a glass panel or the wall of the shower. These ensure that the moisture from the shower room doesn't extend to the rest of the room. Plus, frameless styles like the one shown here add a sophisticated touch to the bathroom.

"Hinged shower doors are opposite to sliding designs," explains Anna. "These doors open outward (and sometimes inward) on hinges. They provide a wide opening, making them accessible and easy to clean. However, because they require space to open, they are not ideal for smaller bathrooms."

Similar to the style above, this shower door from Lowe's has stylish dark hardware and fixings that elevate the look.

3. Pivot door

You may be wondering what the difference is between a hinged shower door and a pivot shower door. Well, both designs feature hinges allowing the door to open and close but hinged doors only feature hinges on one side of the shower door whereas pivot doors have hinges on the top and bottom of the shower door.

One of the biggest plus points of this type of shower door is that they are great for curbless showers and they offer an elegant and clean finish. However, they are known to be one of the most expensive shower door designs and can be tricky to install.

4. Bifold door

You may have heard of the term bifold doors in relation to kitchen design, but they are also available as wet room doors. Bifold simply means that they fold inwards or outwards in a concertina style.

Anna explains: "Bifold doors are great for small bathrooms as they do not require as much space to open as hinged doors. They are wonderfully compact and space efficient."

On the other hand, these can be more complex to install and often come with more joints to maintain and clean.

This bifolding shower door from Wayfair is one of the most popular on the internet across different retailers, with great reviews and a modern black finish.

5. Mullion door

A style of shower door that has become extremely popular for both contemporary and small bathroom layouts is the ‘mullion’ or ‘Crittall’ style door. They are characterized by their grid-like appearance, which is made up of multiple glass panes separated by mullions.

Mullion-style shower doors come in lots of different designs such as hinged, pivot and sliding, it totally depends on what style would best suit your bathroom space.

Notoriously, mullion shower doors can be difficult to clean due to their grid-like design but don’t let this put you off if you love their aesthetic. This sliding mullion design from Wayfair has an industrial touch that makes it feel modern and expensive.

What type of shower doors are easiest to clean?

There’s no doubt that frameless shower screens are the easiest to keep clean. Since they have no frame, there is no where for limescale to fester and build up.

This goes for other shower door designs, too. The less hardware and fixtures that are on shower, the easier they will be to keep clean.

Is a pivot or hinged shower door better?

Overall, a pivot door is most likely going to be a better option than a hinged door for most bathrooms. There are no hinges, which means they are far easier to clean and offer a more sleek design. They are also more of a stable option and are less likely to leak water onto your bathroom floor.