I'm hoping someone (maybe Bill Vincent?) can help. I want to do marble subway tile on the walls of my bath with about a 3-4" mini brick border on top -- with pencil molding below and a crown piece on top of the mini brick. The height of the tile around most of the room will be about 42" with the crown being the top piece until you hit the shower. The tile around the shower (in the corner) shoots up to about 76-80" and then back down again to 42" on the other side of the shower.

My question is what to do about the border. The best options I see are: (1) run the border/pencil/crown straight through the middle of the shower at 42" and use subways above the border to the ceiling or close to it; (2) just stop the border where the shower glass starts begins and then run the border along top of the shower; (3) run some border vertically where the tile goes up to 76" and then run along the top of the shower and back down again on the other side.

What is the best option? I'm afraid if I go with option 1 it make the ceiling height look low -- isn't it better to draw the eye up? Maybe I repeat the border near the ceiling and top with a crown instead of going all the way to the ceiling? With Option 2, I worry about how it will look to just stop the border. We're doing a frameless shower, so there is no frame to break up the tile. With Option 3, I wonder how it will look, and would I run the mini brick sideways or length-wise.

Does anyone have any advice or pictures? Thanks so much in advance!!!

Kirsten