Thanks, Diana. I see what you're saying about not using both tiles in the same bathroom. I'm definitely using the marble basketweave on the floor - all bought and paid for and I love it. I'd use marble in the shower before changing the floor tile. I got the marble online. The porcelain hex is from my contractor's local supplier, so I should be able to easily exchange.

I agree that the marble is beautiful--I have the same in my master bathroom, except that the little square tiles are black. The shower floor is a challenge to keep looking nice, though, and I would not do it again.

I put a stop on the shower floor tile and they are installing the marble floor and wall tile today instead, so I have a bit of time to figure out a new option.

Diana, that is helpful first hand information. I will save using the same marble tile as a last option. (I bet your bathroom is gorgeous, though!)

Zimmer, thank you for the advice. I will look for a white porcelain in a similar pattern.

No way would I do marble. Especially that basketweave. It’s too high maintenance. Stains and etched and damage from cleaning products is not what most people want to deal with.

Hex everywhere. And pop out a few of them to add in some gray or black ones to create a subtle design. After you discuss that upgrade with your tile professional.

Dottie, I think you are going to have a real challenge trying to select a tile to coordinate with the basketweave. Remember you need something very small with a lot of grout to provide enough grip not to slip. Trying to match the marble basketweave with a porcelain basketweave is not going to look very good.

However, you might consider this small 1" square mosaic:

Piscina Square Blanco Brillo Porcelain Mosaic Tile, Case of 10 · More Info

Thanks, Sophie. The marble floor is going in right now. I'm very happy with my choice there.

Diana, good idea. I appreciate your suggestions! My project manager is going to pull some other options for me and I'll ask that 1" square mosaics be among the options.

Here's my bathroom with the black and white Calacatta marble basketweave:

Diana Bier Interiors, LLC · More Info

Diana Bier Interiors, LLC · More Info

Wow! Some beauty is worth the trouble. :)

Diana, how much of a challenge is it to keep that floor looking nice? I really, really love it. I am very careful and have a housecleaner in twice a week. Please tell me I can have it in my reno :-)

PS Your bathroom is utter perfection!

"My master bathroom remodel began last week and everything is going well."

Except for the fact that Kerdi membrane is not to be installed over moisture resistant drywall. I was 99% sure so I just called Schluter to confirm. The 1% doubt has been erased. Now back to the tile discussion:)

Rita, you can contact me privately and we can discuss it. My email is dianabinteriors@aol.com

FWIW, I am having basket weave and dog bone marble tile in my master and guest baths respectively - on the floor as well as the shower floor.

I've researched extensively and talked to friends who had marble floors - including shower floors - and they said they had no particular issues. Of course, I am not going to be bent out of shape at inevitable etching - I've seen that and it's fine with me because to me, it's subtle and just another form of patina.

That said, I don't do egregious things in my shower - I don't dye my hair or wash dogs or even have to wash off dirt from farming or construction work.

If you are fine with the marble on the floors, you have no doubt researched and are fine with the issues and maintenance - continue the same floor in the shower.

I think I will do that, Helen. Thanks so much for your very reasonable comment. I actually had marble on the floor and shower walls in my previous bathroom and it was not a problem.

Diana-I have known I liked your taste from your comments and posts but have never looked at your work-GORGEOUS!!

You must do the shower floor in the basket weave. The comments about the shape and color of the other tile are right on. I have honed marble in my shower and the cleaning beef I have 3 years later is the GROUT!!! I chose a light grout, and because you cant use caustic cleaners I have to scrub it with a stiff brush, ph neutral cleaner, plus baking soda. I get in there naked and just get it done :D good luck getting your cleaners to do that. Mine did ok but they look way better since I started doing them myself.

You can totally get away with dark grout, especially since you opted out of the dark tiles in the basket. You will not regret it. You might as well consider marble subway too since you won’t be using bleach anyway.

Word of wisdom: don’t let the glass shower people caulk under the shower doors or put the gross strip on the bottom of the door. It is a mildew factory and who cares if a tiny bit of mist splashes on to your tile floor? I finally scraped all of mine out and I am so much happier.

Also, cleaning the floor of the bathroom is not a big deal-it is the SHOWER where the grout turns pink. Ick.

check out these gorgeous bathrooms with dark grout:

I love the champagne hardware, too. Stunning!!

I'm doing a reno right now of my master bath, and I've been kicking myself because I'm not perfectly happy with the shower floor tile I picked. It ended up turning too yellow on me even though before it was installed I thought it was right on the money. So I don't think it matches as well as it could with the floor tile. But when I look at Diana's bathroom, I don't think her floor tile matches very well with the style of the rest of the vanity area or with her wall tiles so I'm not feeling as bad about mine now if 74,000 people think her's is okay.

I'd bet that, with white grout and glass separating the two, the change in pattern wouldn't bother you. I'll bet that, over time, that white grout on the floor will be a total headache, but you won't be worrying about the pattern...

Another tip: make sure the tilers seal your marble before grouting. Particularly if you take my very very very good advice and use dark grout! ;)

@CTEC

Oh my consider the savings there :):)

Haha, greenfish. I guess some cleaning jobs you have to do yourself, if you want them done right. Those inspiration photos you posted are lovely. I'm using warm gray grout with the marble, which should be dark enough.

acm, you make a good point. It's probably better to have marble tile with gray grout than porcelain tile with white grout as the shower floor. I have a friend who grew up in India and she said there was marble everywhere and it wasn't a big deal, but the white grout on her bathroom floor here is impossible to keep looking clean.

cpaul1, I feel your pain; it's so hard to know if a particular material is going to work before seeing it on a large scale in the space. Makes tile decisions very tricky. I try to remind myself that all these tiny little details I'm fixated on right now won't really make a difference in the long run.

Creative Tile, thanks for the information.

I was assuming that whatever choice I made, I would have a professional come in periodically - whether it was to clean the grout or spruce up the marble.

My building has limestone floors with grout which were installed 20 or more years ago. The stone has worn well but the building does hire professionals to clean the grout and clean and polish the stone.

I am assuming this kind of maintenance by professionals would be standard. At any rate, my friends who have marble and grout tell me that the problems are blown out of proportion and advised me to go with marble if that was my aesthetic decision.

For me, nothing was quite as beautiful as marble or other natural stone finishes as opposed to manmade materials that replicated the look of marble. I first went to a high end place because I was worried about maintenance and everything looked a bit sterile to me.

I'm not against tile at all as my bathroom walls and kitchen backsplash will be ceramic tile - albeit handmade and hand glazed ones that don't look super industrial :-)

I agree, Helen. Marble has a beauty that cannot be replicated. I have no problem with the patina of marble over time. That's part of the beauty. My home is filled with antiques and vintage pieces with natural patina, and marble fits with that aesthetic. And I do plan to have grout professionally cleaned occasionally, for sure.

Well Dottie, I'm sure you know what you are going to do now! Good luck with the rest of the renovation. I'm sure it will look just fantastic! Make sure you keep us updated and post photos of the final product!

To cpaul, the colors you see on the monitor may not accurately reflect the actual colors in real life. This is why it is very difficult to recommend colors to anyone seeking information online--computer monitors do not render color very well. I am very aware of and am affected greatly by color, and I can assure you that the colors in my bathroom are to my liking.

To greenfish1234, thank you for your lovely comments! I appreciate your letting me know that you value my advice--I do try to be as honest as I can when giving advice about something I know. I hope to be helpful when I comment on the Design Dilemmas!

Okay, one more question! I've decided to use a carrara marble tile on the shower floor. Now I have to decide if I should use the same basketweave pattern or something different. I know the porcelain hex tile clashed with the basketweave, but that shouldn't be a problem with matching carrara...right?

The three options I'm considering are below, shown with the white subway tile (white grout), wall paint color, and trim for the floor border around my tub.

Option A: matching basketweave

Option B:

4" Hex

Option c:

Octagon with matching gray dots

I think a different tile on the shower floor would look good, but I'm the same person who picked out the porcelain hex, so...

I'm working with my designer who has the shower floor the same as the basket weave Calacatta tile I am installing on the bathroom floor. Guest shower has Carrara dog bone tile and that will also be installed on the shower floor.

I have frameless glass doors for both showers.

The curb is using the same marble as I am using for the counters.

I have seen renderings of it and it looks good to me - especially in a relatively small space it doesn't break up the space as much.

Is there some reason why you want a different tile? To me (and I am NOT a professional LOL), it seems nicer to have a seamless looking floor as much as possible. That said, I am having very contrasting tile walls.

Colors are NOT accurate at all except that they are teal blue/green with copper and blush accents. The center in the master bath is marble mosaic in a floral pattern.

Master Bath

Master Bath

Guest Bath

This is so helpful to see, Helen. Thank you! I'm leaning toward using the same basketweave in the shower. I wondered if a basketweave would look a bit fussy on the shower floor, but your plans and Diana's photos are beautiful, so I guess I shouldn't worry.

I will also have a frameless glass shower door and marble curb, plus marble countertop.

I'm excited for photos of your bathrooms when finished - I hope you do post some.

There are so many beautiful tiles you can get carried away. Keep it simple and use the same tile as on the bathroom floor outside the shower. And don't use a border. Sometimes using restraint is the best course of action--using a different tile could make your room look like a tile showroom!

Again, I am NOT a designer but I would think the same tiles would look LESS fussy than changing the tiles. Not having the same tiles for both shower and bath floor was never an option suggested at all by my designer.

I will be very excited when everything is finished as I am getting a bit grumpy at how long I have been crashing in my rental :-). The showers are framed and the GC who I met with briefly yesterday said the rest of the project should go more quickly since they have discovered all the problems LOL. I started packing at the end of February and officially moved out on March 26 so it feels as though I have been displaced for a LONG time.

The wrinkle is delivery of the tiles since there is a four to five week lead time so everything could be finished except the showers in terms of kitchen and bathroom, painting, flooring in four weeks - i.e. by the end of June but no showers so I would have to rely on the kindness of my neighbors if I moved back in.

Thank you both so much for talking me down. You're right, it's easy to get caught up with all the choices, but continuing the basketweave into the shower is the best plan. Diana, I plan to stick with the tub border for now, but my contractor will lay it out first so I can make sure I like the look. I chose the basketweave primarily because it looks so elegant with a border. Helen, that is a long time to be out of your house. Sounds like you're in the home stretch now - good luck!

Creative Tile, I took some time to look into the Kerdi issue but didn't find much. Schluter's customer service is closed on the weekends. Would you mind giving me a little more info before I talk to my contractor tomorrow? This is far out of the realm of my knowledge. The shower passed inspection on Thursday.

I'm sure it will look fine, Dottie! Lots of times there are no right or wrong answers, just matters of opinion!

For the benefit of anyone referencing this in the future, I talked with Schluter customer service, who said you can "absolutely" use Kerdi with moisture resistant drywall.

For the benefit of anyone referencing this in the future. I was told the exact opposite by Schluter several times in the past and when I called before commenting on this thread just to be sure. Well Dottie the only thing we do know for sure is the drywall company specifically does not allow their product in a wet area period. Other systems with better perm rated membranes will not approve drywall as a substrate in a wet area. Schluter will approve kerdi membrane for residential steam showers also. Even though it does not meet current industry standards. Just a couple more reasons I no longer use the product.