How to Make Shower Corner Shelves Using Bullnose Ceramic Tiles

Build the bullnose shower corner shelves. Use an appropriately sized notched trowel to cover the back sides of two pieces of bullnose tile with thinset mortar. Press the two pieces of tile together firmly and move them around so that the thinset covers the back of each tile completely, with a little bit of thinset oozing out from the edges. Allow these pieces to dry for a minimum of 24 hours.

Prepare the shelf. Scrape the thinset out of the joint between the two pieces of tile the following day with a utility knife. Position the shelf so that the bullnose edge is facing you and picture it as the bottom side of a triangle. Use the pencil and carpenter square to mark the two angle sections of the triangle from the outermost corners of the bottom of your triangle angling upwards into the pieces of bullnose tile.

Cut the bullnose tile shelf on the tile wet saw. Use the gauge that came with the tile saw to cut the pieces at the 45-degree angles you marked earlier. If your saw does not have an angle guide, use your pencil marks as a reference point to cut the triangle. When you are finished, you should have a triangle shelf with two cut edges that install into the corners of the wall and a bullnose edge that faces out into the shower.

Install the bullnose tile shelves during the installation of your field tile. Notch the field tiles on the wall around the soap shelves so that the shower shelves are locked into place by the surrounding tile, and adhere them to the wall using the same thinset you use for the field tile. Grout them in place with the rest of the installation.