It has occurred to me when doing my design research that grab bars in bathrooms are incredibly ugly. If a bath or shower niche could have something decent on the bottom section that didn't resemble a hospital grab bar it would be perfect.
I am lucky to have towel rails where I need them in my rental, but when I get to building I absolutely DO not want hospital bathrooms.
If there's a designer out there who works in metal, this is something that's not on the market as far as I have found so far (months of searching). Most of my family don't have mobility problems, but I have older relatives who would need grab bars when visiting. I am sure there is something contemporary that can be done... a flat metal bar along the bottom of a niche would be so much more attractive than one of those huge rounded things, just for one example.