I share your love of marble, however, I don't think every single surface in the bathroom should be marble. If I were you I would consider the whitest Corian or quartz for your countertop. For the floor, I would think twice about the size of the tiles. I like traction in a bathroom. I realize with your husband's preference for small tile on the walls you may feel stuck with larger tiles on the floor, but I am not so sure that is the case. Maybe a herringbone pattern or hex would provide a nice contrast to the walls?

Here are two bathrooms I like a lot. Notice how they are very white and strongly feature marble, but don't use it on every surface for the sake of contrast (though I have seen 100 percent marble bathrooms that were glorious in their own way, but they tended to be in a category all their own architecturally s well.)

Good luck with your project and enjoy the process.

PS I think a white vanity or even a wooden one would look very nice with the Carrara, otherwise it may be a bit too much gray.

Any better tile store will have plenty of options in the type/size tile you want; it won't be hard to find.

We recently renovated our ensuite, using Carrara-look tile and quartz everywhere and we love it. It’s a clean, timeless look. One caution I will offer though, since you have a specific countertop in mind, get it first (or a sample) then find your tile. Every tile shop offers Carrara-look tiles but the whites vary greatly and it’s really important that all of your materials have the same white.

Here are a few photos. I used 9x18 gloss ceramic tiles on the wall and 12x12 matte porcelain on the floors (I’m not changing any of the other 12x12 tile in my house and I wanted the ensuite to look as if it were original to home). BM Collingwood on the walls and Cloud Cover on the trim and cabinets. I also kept the colour in the accessories so I can just change them if I want a new colour.

Thank you! It’s my dream bathroom too. I love how clean and fresh and elegant it looks. I used Benjamin Moore Collingwood on the walls and Cloud Cover on the cabinets and trim but I pulled those colours from the tile and stone I used, so they may or may not work for you. I just bring tile, stone, etc. samples to my local BM specialist and she narrows my choices to a few colours for me to look at, in my own home, with my own lighting. This step is very important.

I was a little nervous doing all one finish but I am thrilled with the results. Interestingly, I found that using all the same finishes makes the room look much bigger and, honestly, all that white was better than adding a window! I’ll include some before shots. It’s hard to believe but the new wall colour is actually darker than the old wall colour.

Befores:

Wow, it is a HUGE difference!! Amazing job you did there! May i also ask what color you used for the walls outside? Also, what did you use for the shower stall floor?

I went to the local tile store and actually found 1 carrara look alike porcelain that comes in 24x24 but it's $10 sq ft vs $2 from lowes.

Yes, it is a huge difference but, we’ll worth it! Not only does it look so much better but it’s so much more functional for us. I also found tile prices varied greatly. I believe our tile was about $4-$5/sqft.

I don’t know if I understand what you mean by “the walls outside” but, if you mean my master bedroom, which leads into this room, I used BM Soft Chincilla. It’s actually a greenish blue but, in my room, the green doesn’t show at all. It reads as a very sophisticated, restful, greyed blue, which works really well with my bedding (thus my comment about seeing colours in your own light).

The shower floor is the matching 2” mosaic, in a matte finish. We’d wanted a curbless shower and linear drain but the retrofit required cutting into our joists, which we decided against.

A couple of other tips I picked up doing this were to raise the medicine cabinets, so they don’t sit on the countertop, and run the backsplash (countertop) up to them. That suggestion was brilliant! I also hid the outlet in the side of the medicine cabinet, which I really like and moved my floor register so it was under the double towel bar (towels dry very quickly and are warm in the winter). One last thing I did was to add a cabinet to the water closet. It now feels like a powder room, versus the closet it literally was before. The open area is a charging station for toothbrushes and the shaver and, since the w/c backs onto my laundry room, I had the upper cabinet left open at the back and paired with a cabinet in my laundry room, creating a pass-thru. My clean sheets and towels get put away in the laundry room and are available from the ensuite, when I need them. Beautiful, fun and practical!

Pass-thru cabinet and vanity:

Master bedroom, obviously the colour looks a little darker at night:

Sorry to bombard you with all the questions, i absolutely love everything!! Yes, the bedroom wall color is what i meant!

Thank you for all the details! May i also ask where you get the tiles? I can't find 9x18 in any of the tile stores, but prob online? Not sure if tiles shipping will be okay... Want to keep it under $5 sq ft! :)

Many thanks for all the info!!!! :)

emjoythejourney THANK YOU so much! I was able to find the Marauis matte 18x18 in my local tile store!!! What grout color did you use? Do you mind taking a closer pic of your shower stall floor?
Also your vanity top, is it marble / granite or quartz?

THANK YOU again!

I would most likely do a different tile on the floor. Something in gray. Like a large light gray 12 x 24” I’d do carerra marble counters. White cabinets. In Shower id maybe do a 6 x 12 Beveled white tile on bottom 2/3 then on top 1/3 do a carerra in a chevron pattern with a 2 x 4” border tile in white between the two. Shampoo shelf bump in maybe a small hexagon carerra tile. And a small hexagon Carrara tile on floor. Seamless glass shower surround if you can’t do a glass less entry. Hardware is do all in polished nickel.

You’re welcome. I’m delighted you found the tile! Our vanity and tub deck are quartz. Here are some additional pictures. I’m in the midst of another renovation at the moment so I’m a bit behind on my housework so just ignore any mess :)

Shower

Vanity Top:

Tub Deck:

Grout (this was supplied by the contractor) Colour= 77 Frost

Inspiration Photo (there were other things I loved but couldn’t do, for various reasons, but you may get more ideas):

Tea Fire Residence · More Info

Daytime photo of paint colour:

Bedding, if you’re interested. I bought a coverlet but bedspread is also on option.

https://www.jcpenney.com/p/royal-velvet-coralie-damask-matelasse-coverlet/pp5002400286?pTmplType=regular

Thank you so much for all the info!

So sorry, one more question, since your vanity and tub deck matches the tile so well, do you happen to remember the name of the quartz? If you didn’t tell me I thought the tub deck was the same material as the wall tile!

Sorry for the delay, I had to check with the fabricator. My quartz came from G&T Stone (product number 9005). It is an amazing match to the tiles and, in my opinion, very realistic-looking. Hopefully your fabricator can get it for you.

http://www.gtstone.ca/