Call it the case of the disappearing shower stall. First, the shower and the tub separated. Next, frameless glass shower stalls became the rage. Now, many homeowners are eliminating shower doors and walls altogether.

The term “open” shower says it all. This design makes a space appear larger because it has no doors or walls (or simply glass walls) to demarcate the shower. “It’s a feeling of openness and luxury,” architect Michael Harris explains. “You are bathing inside, but there’s an outdoor quality to the experience.”

Making a floor into a shower pan is not without challenges: The floor must be sloped for drainage, and everything within the shower’s reach must be able to withstand moisture. Here are two open showers that put these principles into practice.

Wet room

When Michael Harris designed this master bathroom, he situated the tub and shower together in one “wet room.” The tub and shower are placed to the side, separated from the rest of the bathroom by a small threshold–a two-inch lip in the floor–and a small glass panel for water containment. Two sinks over a vanity occupy the other side of the space. “Doing it this way gives the room a better layout,” he says. “We put a window up high to protect the owners’ privacy and to give an outdoor connection.” The floor tile, which runs through the shower and the rest of the room, is slate, reinforcing the outdoor feeling.

DESIGN: Michael Harris-Architecture, San Francisco (www.mbh-arch.com or 415/243-8272)

An artful shower

“Everything floats,” architect Adam Christie says of the shower room he designed and built with his wife, Lisa, who is also an architect. The floor of their bathroom is completely open. The wall-hung toilet levitates above the floor, as does the cantilevered sink. Even the medicine cabinet and toilet-roll holder are embedded in the wall. “It’s a good-size bathroom to start with,” explains Adam, “but it has a sense of openness that is created by the fact that everything hangs off of the walls.”

Adam and Lisa ran fiery red opalescent mosaic tiles across the ceiling, down the back wall of the shower, and along the floor. “It almost looks digital,” explains Lisa. “When the light shines on the mosaics, the wall looks pixilated–like an image blown up really large.”

The yellow side walls are coated with a waterproof, integrally colored plaster called Milestone (see “Resources,” page 143), a material used on swimming pools and outdoor showers.

All of the elements in the shower room are waterproof, but the curtain–made by Lisa’s mother out of synthetic fabric–minimizes spray from the shower. A hospital track that is flush with the ceiling tile controls the shower curtain. The recessed track causes minimal disruption to the lines of the ceiling.

Since Lisa and Adam did most of the work themselves, it took them two years to design and complete the project. But the advantage, explains Lisa, “was that we could make decisions as we went along and change things as we saw them happening. At the end, you get exactly what you want–it’s perfect.”