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Master Bath Tile Advice

Hello,

We are finalizing our contemporary master bath plans and would like some advice and comments on our initial tile selections.

Below is a photo we took at a tile store of a combo we would like to use.

For the floor we want a grey patterned tile that is set "subway" style - 12"x24" staggered seams

For the walls we found this nice tile noted as "graphite" that has subtle vertical grain. We plan to run it up the walls around the free-standing tub area and the shower walls (which have a 1/4 curved wall)

Our cabinets will be a chocolate bamboo with a similar subtle vertical grain visible.

For the shower floor we want to use a black pebble stone - we would also use this at the bath around very bottom of the free standing modern tub.

Comments (11)

  • 15 years ago

    Looks like a good combo, maybe a shade to the dark side?
    We are almost complete with our remodel, and our tile choice was somewhat similar. We used Florida Tile's 'Soul' series, in Passion Antracite (20' sqr) for the floor and Flow Gray (13' sqr + bullnose) for the shower walls and tub surround. We also used FT's 'Bliss' series in Iceland (12' lineal) for highlights, and FT's Black Pearl pebbles for the shower floor.
    Again, similar to what you're considering, but less blue.

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • 15 years ago

    Pretty choices, but if that graphite tile is like the one I saw in a tile store, I'm thinking no matter how much I like it, I don't think I would put it in a shower because regular cleaning could prove to be a nightmare. Make sure you consider that aspect so you don't end up with buyer's remorse.

  • 15 years ago

    emknc: I am not sure there is much blue in what we are doing, probably a bit of color cast in the cellphone photo - but it is a cooler tone than your selection.

    Suska: Curious what concern you have running this in the shower? Water spots, hard water stains - it isn't quite as dark as it looks in the photo (depends on a monitor anyway), plus with the texture and the grain running vertically I thought it would hide that.

    We may use it around the tub and for all the walls outside the shower - since the main wall in the shower is curved it might be better to run with a thinner vertical tile on the shower walls - even something similar to what emknc posted above on the entire wall

  • 15 years ago

    just installed kimona silk panda 12x24 in our master bath, it has a similar look to the floor you chose. i suggest laying some tile out in the room to see how it looks. subway layout seemed to make our bathroom look crowded to me, but when layed out conventionally looked amazing. this may be a factor of my taste/aesthetic and the shape of the room we have, but i do suggest laying some out before it goes in the mortar to make sure you like the look in your space. also consider figuring out exactly where the cuts will be and specify exactly the way you want it. we had issues with this, we had a very average (read: not very good) installer.

  • 15 years ago

    I put the tiles I was thinking about using in my shower and gave them a little test run to see how they stand up to water spots and whatever I threw at it over time. I was gutting the shower any way so what the heck. Now, I squeegee my entire shower and then wipe with bath towel before I get out. I went with glass tiles so I don't want to deal with the build up.

    I love the contemporary look as well. I like your tiles that you have chosen. Just remember that the darker shades will make the room look smaller overall and you will probably need to up your lighting as the darker room will suck up the light rather then reflect it. I would add some stainless steel edge trim to really bump up the contemporary factor. You can see examples at Porcelanosa usa. They have wonderful products, in fact your tile looks like it came from there. Let me ask you are you using PLYBOO for your cabinet? I am very close to pulling the trigger on that decision this week.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Porcelanosa

  • 15 years ago

    Are you really wedded to the pebble tile? I ask because there has been mentioning of it and some issues people have. One would be what location you are in(part of the country)? If you are be sure you have a very good exhaust fan in the bathroom and its placement deals with the area of that tile. I don't have those tiles,just renovated 2 bathrooms and I may have reason to believe a strong enough exhaust was not put in(still working on experimentation). I could mention the other issues but they may not be a concern to you. If you're interested you could easily find them-they weren't that long ago or when I'm back later in the day if you've answered me I will discuss further but I have a class to get to now.

  • 15 years ago

    It's not the color so much as the texture I'm referring to regarding cleaning issues. Maybe it's more subtle than the one I looked at, but I did say to the designer in the tile store I was at that I loved the tile, but I wouldn't put it in a shower- she wholeheartedly agreed. Can you buy one or two to play with before you make a final decision? I'm just suggesting that aspect for consideration so you have no regrets. On looks alone, I love that tile.

  • 15 years ago

    Thanks for the comments from everyone!

    Our bathroom space will be pretty large and we will have 4 windows plus a strip of glass block (So 80's I know) but it is on a curved wall in our shower, so it seems to work...

    I like the idea of the stainless trim that might look really nice. Plus we can work with the paint color and lighting to brighten up the room as needed. We are planning on a few can lights a 2 sconces right now.

    As far as our cabinets go we are looking at a bamboo vanity cabinet from Demtetra cabinets in San Jose, CA..

    We are in the Bay Area so I am not sure how that affects the pebble floor in our shower, but we will have a pretty good exhaust fan and things should dry out ok...

    We are also planning on a whole house water filter which will help to cut down on some hard water stains I hope!

  • 15 years ago

    Bump - still looking for any comments & suggestions!

  • 15 years ago

    Can you post anymore pictures?

    I think the floor tile is lovely, and reminds me of the Daltile Kimono which we looked at. The wall is really dark, but it may fit the space, I can see if you have a lot light in the shower and you wanted it to look dark, you would have to go with a much darker tile.

    Pebbles have lost some of their popularity here, but I don't know why.

  • 15 years ago

    We don't have any other pictures.

    We are still in the idea stage - one additional idea we have is to use a multi-colored thin strip glass/mixed tile for the curved shower wall. Something with a bit of the floor color, the wall and some white & glass to lighten it up.

    The dark stripped tile above would probably mostly go around the tub zone and possibly a shower bench as well as some of the straight parts of the shower walls...