We're adding a small bathroom and are planning on doing white subway tile (approx 4 ft high) with a border/band of 3 rows of colorful (and expensive!) 1x1's near the top.

The dilemma: We will need to mount a towel ring and towel bar, and the natural place for those is also where we would like to place the decorative band.

We were wondering how others have handled this. Do you push the decorative band down on the tile, so you can mount the towel/bar ring above it? (But, my wife prefers the band within an inch or two of the top.) Do you tile the wall higher, and mount the towel bar/ring below the band? (But, then it would be broken by the window and medicine cabinet.) Do you mount the towel bar/ring in the drywall above the tile, instead of on the tile? Do you mount the bar/ring in the decorative band? None of the solutions seem great, so we're wondering if there's a "norm."

Also, if anyone can direct us to any specific photos addressing this (not a huge generic collection), that would help too. Thanks!