Niche off center - Alignment advice

[TrickyNicky]

Hello all, I didn't see this particular question and was looking for everyone's advice.

In the planning stage of my kerdi shower niche, I thought along the lines of water mitigation/avoidance and placed the shower niche off-center of my 58 3/4 in wall. Once I started tile planning I saw that in hindsight, I would of been much better off installing the niche as close to center of the wall as possible. My question is... Based on laying out tile (12x24) in a offset vertical pattern, would it be better to center my tile off the niche or to center it off the wall?
1. Based on niche - I would have the ends of the wall with a smaller width cut, about have the size. ~6in on the left side and about 4-5in on the right side. The pros seem to be most of the wall would appear symmetric. Cons may just be the ends look not as wide and not exactly the same width.
2. Based on wall - The tile lines up pretty nicely on wall with one small width cut. Around the niche however, there would be about a 1in strip on the left side of the niche, and I didn't know if that would look weird.
3. I also considered some ideas to hide the misalignment I made. Something like pencil tile to outline the niche instead of metal trim or an accent strip on the other side of the same wall and accent the inside of the niche to make a symmetric match.

Thanks for the input and any advice you have.

Nick

[Just In Tile LLC]

Nick, it's hard to suggest off the description because I am a visual person. In general centering the wall is what looks best to me, even if that means cuts on niche or not symmetrical. Of course that is general information so certain jobs might deviate from that.

I like the idea of you doing some sort of border, that can look really nice.

[PhilWA]

I made all my shower niche off center, but in a big way and on purpose. The default seems to be everything centered, but that can get boring too; architecture has this 'golden rule' concept for purposeful offsets that seem to look natural.

I would recommend you draw out the tile alignment options on paper to help you visualize and it might help you to pick which you like best. I drew several sketches of my tile layout options and included all 3 walls of my shower to see how those adjacent walls' tile cuts would line up. 12x24 tile is pretty big so it shouldnt take a whole lot of time to make a few sketches.

[groomerz]

Another thing to consider when locating the niche is the amount of water getting into the niche.

Will it get a constant spray of water deflecting off your body

It sounds like it will be waterproof but if water is constantly getting into niche holding you soaps and shampoos grout will discolor and or mold over the years


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[TrickyNicky]

Thanks for the input everyone, it helps for sure!

@PhilWA - I will do just that and ensure it's accurate. I used a laser level and "placed" some tiles centering the tile off the niche and I think it will work out nicely.

I'll post results here!

Thanks again.

[Tiger Mountain Tile Inc]

You can eliminate the one inch piece in the niche if you make your niche one inch narrower.

Also, you can put 1/8 inch foam board on one side instead of 1/2 inch and shift the layout 3/8 inch over. It's not very much but sometimes it helps.

[TrickyNicky]

Here is the layout centered off the niche if all my measurements are correct. I couldn't modify the tile length but width was the main thing I was worried about. I personally don't think this looks bad but l'm the new guy...lol.