While I love both - seems like the second option would be more elegant (like your home). But, I'm sure anything you do will be beautiful. Please keep us posted.

I think you need to look at the overall feeling of your house decor. If it's fairly consistent neutrals - more a calm feeling, I'd do the same tile on all risers. If you have a more eclectic feel to your home and have more variety in style/colors I'd go with the option of having 4 tiles repeated. I agree 100% with keeping them in the same color family. The other thing I noticed about your inspiration photo was they used smaller tiles and put them on the diagonal and used other tiles to fill in the triangle shaped area - this plan made the design more interesting vs. just having 1 large tile going straight across. Just something else to think about!

Ckink just said what I was going to try to say.

Your staircase is gorgeous and I love what you are trying to do. For a longer set of stairs, I think a 'less is more' approach should be considered, and a consistent pattern might be more pleasing. Only you can decide what will work best. And of course within the same color family.

I LOVE all these tiles! I am just now doing a backsplash involving talaveras. The thing that I noticed that made the biggest difference was whether you go predominantly with white background tiles (like the ones you selected that you like) or tiles where color is saturated right up to the edge. In my backsplash, I found that the whiter tiles worked better. On steps, I think fully-saturated ones create more depth. Secondly, you have to decide if you want linked tiles that create a pattern, or a hodge podge, on each step. Either one can work -- it's just a matter of your preference.

OK, time for an update. We continued shopping for tile and decided to use Santa Barbara (also called high relief) tile. They have a great three dimensional texture. Here is what we think we have settled on. We will use one tile on each riser, then repeat that to cover all 16 stairs. Thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.

More pictures.

Beautiful! I was literally JUST thinking about your stairs an hour ago!

I'm not good a visualizing but I'm thrown off by the different background color on the one - but that may be a good thing. Looking forward to seeing more comments and your finished project - It will be fabulous :-).

Like your tiles. Love this project.

Those are stunning tiles, Drew! Please post your progress!

Love it!

Yay for updates. Thanks for keeping us posted!

I love this Santra Barbara line..it's a fine tile. I'd use it myself if I could)) Good luck, would love to see the pics when you're done!

I think they'll look great. My only comment is it looks like they're different sizes. What are you planning on using to fill in for the smaller tiles? I liked the one inspiration photo posted where the tiles were placed on the diagonal (like a Diamond) and then the triangles were filled in with a solid or different tile.

All of the tiles will be the larger 6x6 tiles. The supplier did not have some in stock in 6x6, so they sent the smaller ones so that I could still see the tile.

I absolutely adore Talavera tiles! I used some in my shower, and I used a Talavera wall hung sink. I'm still wanting to add some to my kitchen. I like the random look myself, just use colors of the same intensity. Another option would be to pick out designs like the sun/moon tiles or ones with the gekko or cactus. I also like the look of each stair having a different design, and the border tiles that make an elongated pattern.

I would love to see a post of Talavera tiles used in kitchens and baths.

I've ordered the tiles and they are in the process of being made. My home has some tile used in other areas as well. I'll try to remember to include some pictures when I post the finished stairs. I'll also include the tile seller, who is on Houzz.

Wow, beautiful staircase and tiles. I love your choices, and would love to see the finished project!

I've been looking for tiles from the first photo all over the internet without any luck. May be you know where to find it? Also from which seller did you get your beautiful high relief tiles? Thank you

I'm not the OP but check this line out (scroll down too):

https://www.villaandmissionimports.com/hand-painted-tiles/watersafe-tiles/fountain-tiles.html?limit=96

that's where I saw them

we ordered from them-wonderful shop-but a different tile

check also Catalina tile

https://www.catalinaclassics.com/new-products-1/

Revival Malibu where you can pick colorway and background

http://www.missiontilewest.com/fashioned-by-mission-tile-west/revival-malibu/

Tabarka Studio has exceptionally beautiful tile...they have so many though, many collections with a tad different sensibilities..but look through them

http://tabarkastudio.com/terracotta-tile-collections/

now. there's also Arto(first store carries some of theirs). Check them out..

http://www.arto.com/decos

in terms of colors and mood they come pretty close to that first pic

I'm sure there are more..that's what I remember now

The staircase is beautiful. I recommend proceeding according to the first photograph. Good luck and have fun!!

I ended up purchasing my tiles from Casa Castillo. They are online and on Houzz - https://ml.houzz.com/AzGf/v1p5mWgfxI

I've had some changes along the way and had some tiles come in incorrect. However, Casa Castillo has been very responsive and has continued to make everything right. Part of this is the nature of handmade items. I'm happy to recommend them. They are able to do custom colors and finishes (matte, gloss, etc.), and I did make some custom changes. I'll be sure to upload pictures once the tiles are installed. I'm happy to answer any questions about the tiles.

Did you finish your stairs? Can't wait to see it. How did you work out on the samples with Casa Castillo? I mean did you buy what they have in stock or did you make your own design? Thank you

Not finished yet, as I am tackling many projects at once. In the meantime, here are pics of some of the tiles I chose. I used some of their standard designs, but with custom colors and I changed them all to a gloss finish.

How did you manage to explain the company, what colors you wanted to make on the tiles? Did you, in general, told them what colors you wanted to have or you made your own drawings? I would gladly use their designs, but I need to change colors and I have no idea how to explain it to them. Thank you.

I chose from colors they had on some of their other tiles. Their website has the colors listed on each tile. They were good about email communication.

Great. I'll try to do this. Thank you very much

Hi Drew, Did you order samples of tiles for which you changed the colors and paid set up fee? Thank you

Beautiful!! Well worth the time and effort to get it right. Congratulations!

That looks great.

Make sure the tiles are well protected when they stain the treads. One of my tiles got stained when we refinished our hardwood. Take before photos and remind them to check and clean off any excess stain that might seep through.

Oh, that's fabulous! Thanks so much for posting here. Great to see how it worked out so beautifully.

Gorgeous!

WOW. hooray and congrats! and huge thank you for sharing

Just beautiful. Isn’t it nice when a plan comes together?

Thanks for all of the kind comments. We couldn't be happier, despite the patience it took. Finding someone who is confident in refinishing the newels may be the hardest part yet. I'm certainly open to suggestions in Dallas, TX.

I love this line of tile too! We will be using it in our risers for the front stairs leading into the house!! I was really drawn to the beauty of the Santa Barbara tiles as well with their high relief look! Can't wait to finish our project!! If you are in the San Diego area you can find them in San Ysidro at the store Tierra y Fuego.

Just gorgeous. Bravo!!

i am going through the same project now. Getting conflicting suggestions on using 6x6 vs 8x8 and trimming. What did you go with? Much more challenging finding 8x8 with enough negative space to trim without losing the pattern, but don’t want large grout lines. Not sure if you’re still watching this string. Your stairs look great.

I went with 6x6 tiles, which fit almost perfectly. I think a few had to be trimmed slightly. It will largely depend on your stair riser height though. I found that some were a little taller than others, but none were anywhere tall enough to go with an 8x8.

These pictures were taken just as they were finishing staining. I can take some pics of the trimmed tiles if you would like. I'd definitely recommend this project if it fits with your design. Nearly every visitor comments on the stairs.

Fabulous!

if you could share those photos that would be much appreciated. Our risers are 7”, so trying to avoid too much grout. Assuming you have standard risers as well. Any feedback is extremely helpful. We are about a week from starting this project. Thanks.

Are you also replacing the treads on the stairs? If so, will the risers be the same? Standard step height is usually 7.5 inches, but 1-1.5 inches of that will be the tread. This leaves 6-6.5 of actual riser. Of course, this varies based on local code.

I'll take some pictures tonight of any areas where they had to vertically trim down tiles (it wasn't much). Depending on the design, I think trimming half an inch off of the top and bottom of your tiles would be too much and would be difficult to make consistent and vertically centered. I think, if you have 7 inch risers, you'd be better off using 6 inch tiles and adding a trim piece to the top of the riser, underneath the tread. A simple quarter-round or cove would work. Here's a picture (not mine) of a cove moulding underneath the tread. This will reduce the vertical height available for the tile.

Here's the best I could find on one being trimmed down. The one right-of-center had to be cut slightly on the top.

Thank you for sharing. This is extremely helpful in our planning.

No problem. Of course, now you have to post pics as your project progresses.

Haha. Will do...

That’s just beautiful.