That’s right. I have been converted. Shortly after we bought the country house I told you that I felt a bit indifferent about the shower spigot hanging off the back of it. At the time, it seemed like such an unnecessary, half-baked concept. But as our various renovations proceeded last Summer there were projects (like when we painted the wood floors upstairs white) that made it impossible to shower inside the house for days and days on end.Over the past several weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of work on the landscape surrounding our home. Around Easter we decided to add a pea stone or blue stone patio that would run the entire length of the back of our house. Our thought was that it would somehow incorporate the outdoor shower area, but no firm plans were put in place. Our patio dream turned into 1) a reworking of the blue stone patio in front of the barn, and 2) reconfiguring the walk way to the mud room. At this point, Summer is almost half way over and we haven’t even started on the patio or shower enclosure. Needless to say, I have been thinking a lot about what I want this shower area to look like.
While many outdoor showers are intended for swim suit clad picnickers, I’d like ours to be more functional -as in- real showers sans suits could be comfortably taken out there without fears of an untimely UPS delivery. The house currently only has one shower inside and it would be a nice option for us (and our house guests) from May to October.
It goes without saying that the most important element to me is some sort of privacy screen. The bad news? I can see the gigantic stone that we had installed to stand upon while bathing outdoors from our dining room table. I really, really don’t want the walls of our shower stall to protrude so far out that I can see them or that they block our view of the woods behind the house.Obviously, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for various outdoor shower options. I realize this may sound incredibly pedestrian, but keep coming back to a simple curtain rod and some sort of sail cloth or sunbrella curtain. 
What are your thoughts? Please feel free to share links to images with me in the comments section. I am at a bit of a loss and would love to hear your ideas about how you might treat the outdoor shower enclosure area.

Images: as always, there is plenty of inspiration on Pinterest, the other photos are from Jersey Shore 102, MSN Real Estate, ABCD Design, and Leslie Fine Interiors.

Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / The Country House and Uncategorized