First download this free ebook. Then hire a qualified tile installer. Then hire a certified bath designer (or interior designer if no or few layout changes). A design professional can provide help on colors, but a qualified tile installer typically is more knowledgeable about quality, proper size, color variation, etc. If you don’t trust your tile installer enough to involve him in the tile selection process, then you have hired the wrong tile installer.

What's dated yesterday will be tomorrows next big hit.
Forget what everyone else wants or does, it all boils down to what you, the homeowner, wants.

That's like the old saying to never throw out old clothing because it will come back in style again. I don't believe that. It takes at least twenty years to come back in style and then it's an updated version of the original.

Things that have been called dated or past trend recently in the bath forum--accent tile of any type, pebble shower floors, wood-look tile flooring, gray anything.

Now everyone is gaga over the intricately-patterned cement tiles. There's lots of showers with large rectangular stone-like porcelain slabs on the walls that make you feel like you're showering in the Grand Canyon. Now you better add some "soft brass" in your fixtures. How long before they're dated? I do understand that the design industry wants trends to cycle quickly so they can sell more. It makes it scary to commit to anything.

Everything dates but simple white tile is your best bet. Something I've noticed personally as a designer- 1920's homes, original bathrooms still look great! Timeless...

I have considered a white tile in a larger format but then I'm going to want to add an accent tile. And there is no safe choice in accent tile.

I think the easiest choice for a traditional home like mine is to use a marble-look counter, floor, or shower tile, but that forces you into gray paint or tile. My other colors are too warm for a white and gray color palette.

Sabrina Alfin Interiors is correct, it needs to work with your home's architecture. I also think almost any accent tile is going to look dated. If you want an accent do a whole wall not a stripe.

Good luck with your project. You made me giggle with the idea you will be too old to care. My Mom, in her 90's, complained about her bathroom, even when she could no longer use it.

If my house had style it would be easy. It's a west coast home built in 1999 with builder basic finishes--oak, polished brass, 4" white ceramic tile counters, vinyl floors. I have given it the architectural style of "casual traditional". We've upgraded everything except the master bathroom but this is my first major tiling project.

Mayflowers, maybe a calacatta marble tile will work for you. It has a mix of beige and grays.

I don't like white anywhere (that's just me), but I love craftsman homes with all the wood....but many people love it because it is classic. I think an accent tile can work if you keep it simple. Not mosaic. Maybe a tile that is the same color as the rest of the tile but in a different texture or finish....shiny or iridescent.

As the cliche goes, go with choices that you love and forget about trends. Of course it's easier said than done but don't you have certain elements of style that you have loved for a long period of time regardless of trend. What are your inspiration bathrooms like?

I am currently remodeling my condo including two bathrooms. My condo is a high rise which completely lacks any kind of architectural interest unless I wanted to do it in Bauhaus proletariat :-)

My bathroom is pretty much the antithesis of what is theoretically on trend - it's not white; gray or beige ha ha. I am completely unconcerned about whether it is going to be on trend in 10 years or 15 years or whatever the useful functional life of a bathroom is because it is - at least I think - completely out of trend. If I posted a picture of it, I don't think anyone could date it to an era or design trend. It might not reflect anyone else's design choices but that's an issue of personal choice and not whether I have chosen "timeless" design elements or elements that will make its genesis in 2018 evident.

I moved into an 18 yr old house 2 yrs ago. In the master bath it has white Corian counter tops and shower. I love it. It looks as good as the day it was installed and the shower up keep is a breeze- no grout either. Corian isn't the "darling" right now but I can tell you that it will age with you nicely.

If your colors are "warm" go with stained wood cabinets rather than painted as in 15 yrs or so if you tire of the wood you can change them up by painting them then. I've always liked my stain cabinets over the painted ones (I've had both) as I think the stain ones hide the dirt better and the finish wears better IMO. You can go with white /creamy white counters and shower and then if you want to put a little wow in the bathroom, you can do that with the flooring as that would be easy enough to replace down the road if you tire of it or is out of style.

This is a repost from another thread which I think is relevant to this one:

• You will never go wrong with white fixtures and white ceramic tile in any size. Cheerful, bright and never out of style.

• Use the largest tiles you can in the shower area. Minimizing the number of grout lines is the key to a shower that stays clean.

  Use darker tiles on the floor, but not too dark (shows dust and water spots), not too light (shows dirt), not glossy (too slippery), and not too uniform in colour (shows dirt) .

• Always use smooth and glossy tile in wet areas. Easy to keep clean.

• Never use white grout. It never stays clean.

• Ensure that grout lines are as tight as your tile person can manage. Never larger that 1/8". Anything larger looks dated and will get dirty faster.

• Make sure the absolute straightest framing lumber possible is used under any surface that will be tiled. Perfectly flat surfaces are the key to quality tile work.

• For the shower floor, don't reject white fibreglass or acrylic shower bases out of hand. Tiled shower floors look great but never, ever stay clean very long. A fibreglass or acrylic base combined with nicely tiled walls and a custom frameless glass enclosure looks just as custom as an all-tiled shower.

• Never use tile on the surface of a shower seat, on top of a shower curb, or to frame a shower niche. Always use a solid-surface materials (marble, granite, man-made quartz, etc., custom-cut to size) which present no opportunity for water ingress.

• If you use marble in a bathroom, remember that it will always need periodic re-sealing to maintain water repellency (almost everyone forgets this).

• Take cure to ensure that silicone caulk is absolutely perfectly applied to every inside corner of a wet area. Even the slightest gap or bubble can lead to water infiltration and mold formation in short order.

• Make sure there is a 1" gap under the bathroom entry door or the bathroom ventilation fan will be unable to draw in enough replacement air, and you will get steam and condensation everywhere.

• Use wall-mounted vanities in small bathrooms to increase the sense of floor space.

• Buy your vanity and make sure it is on-site before any framing or plumbing work is done. Some vanities require structural reinforcement behind the wall, or have drawers and shelves in locations that could interfere with drain and water supply placement, and your framer and plumber won't know where to put them unless the vanity is on-site.

• If possible, buy your vanity mirror(s) and have them on-site as well so that your electrician will know exactly where to place fixture boxes above or beside them. This is especially important with double-sink vanities where knowing the exact distance between the centreline of the sinks is key to placement of light fixtures above them.

• Body jets in a shower are a waste of time and a source of amusement for about five minutes. A hand shower mounted on a flexible hose is vastly more practical and all you need.

• Install a heated floor if you can afford it. You will never regret it.

• Always install a recessed light fixture in the tub or shower area. You need light here, plus it highlights nice tile work.

• Don't mount a recessed light directly over a toilet. You don't need to highlight what goes in here.

• You don't need to spend a fortune on shower controls and sink faucets. Every well-known mass-market brand is good quality, and some carry lifetime warranties.

Here is a bathroom (in a basement) that has most of the features noted above, will last almost forever, and unlikely to ever look too out-of-date:

We have the cabinets picked out and we are using a medium-stained wood. Got the counter and floor too. We have to use LVT for the floor and I dislike their busy stone-look patterns so I picked the quietest one. So then we wanted a more interesting counter and found a remnant of White Ice granite. The shower is the problem. The granite (which is probably considered a dated choice but I didn't see anything in quartz I liked as much) has some blue so I spent a lot of time picking out blue-gray tiles but now I'm too nervous to commit to a blue shower.

This is that tile installed:

Floor has a little gray-blue too:

Thank you Home Reborn.... great words of advice. I am currently in process of re-doing our MB & just love your pointers.

home reborn,,good advice,,,but that pic of that white bathroom you posted,,,it's cold and lifeless, in my opinion. yes, it's nice. but blah. and the horizontal strip of that glass bar mosaic went out a few years ago. The vanity and sink top are more modern than traditional, and will looked very dated in 5-10 years.

my take on the tile choosing is this,,,,Get what you like. get what makes you happy and that in 10 years it will still make you happy. If it's white square subway tile, then get it.

mayflowers,,,I think that pale blue is very nice. even if you change out the granite down the road, the tile will still look great. and you can do white, navy blue, tans, blacks or grays,,,,if you ever want to modify the rest of the room.

for you shower curb, save a piece of the granite so you can use that. you don't want to tile the curb. if you have no more granite, see if you can get a remnant from your fabricator or local tile place. for 4-=6- bucks, you could get a backsplash piece in that same granite that would fit

I'd go with something in the creamy color of the granite instead. Otherwise that blue tile is going to give you fits when picking out the wall paint color.

I thought about the paint issue with a blue tile. With a cream tile, I could do blue paint.

Hey Beth, wondering if you can swing by this thread. I believe you've made back splash suggestions with this countertop before. Sorry to hijack this thread for a minute.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/help-with-grout-color-and-tile-kitchen-backsplash-dsvw-vd~5458443[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/help-with-grout-color-and-tile-kitchen-backsplash-dsvw-vd~5458443)

I like the cream tile better and the blue paint looks doable. I think down the road if you wanted to change things out other than the shower it would give you more options rather than being tied into blue.

Cleaning a bathroom is first and foremost a priority for me. I live with 2 boys...3 boys really. I went with vinyl sheet flooring and acrylic shower (seriously). I focused on a nice vanity with quartz countertops (again easy cleaning). I figure any bathroom will be dated in 15 years so I'm going to put in what I like and can live with. Here is the Boys' bathroom ideabook. Yep...that's sheet vinyl.

I did the marble/ white tile/white grout in our first remodel. Never again.

mayflowers-

I know you are asking about tile,

But maybe when you are re-doing your shower, you might want to think about getting the kind of shower that is barrier free.

Just in case.

Also, can you build in a concealed niche to put in a laundry bin on wheels so that you can just wheel it to the laundry room as opposed to having to carry it?

Just because someone else sees a tile (color, shape, application) as a trend, doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to love it for a very long time.

@Home Reborn - While your pointers regarding certain technical aspects of remodeling a bathroom in terms of quality of construction are helpful, I agree with Beth H that the bathroom you posted is not really timeless but is more a bathroom that is devoid of any kind of personality except for the stripe of mosaic tile which is not what I would denominate as timeless and would certainly date the construction to a certain era. In other words, I actually don't think your bathroom is "classic".

Speaking for myself I can't imagine that most people except those designing for a rental or a flip would want a bathroom that is so devoid of any kind of personality reflecting the owner's taste or personality. I think inoffensive design is not necessarily non-trendy but is sometimes confused with being classic.

I think the issue is more of whether a bathroom (or any room) is remodeled using what are design cliches which don't reflect their own taste because then one is left with the worst of all possibilities - a room that one never really liked but selected because one was afraid to opt for design choices one loved.

And there are some design choices that might date a room but remain gorgeous design choices which are appreciated by many if though they are not "on trend". The gorgeous colorful Art Deco bathrooms or the classic white and black bathrooms of a New York City pre war apartment remain appealing to some rather than being viewed as hopelessly dated. Different strokes for different folks.

If this is your long time home, then do what you like.

Sure an all white shower might be “timeless” but for me it would be bland. I wouldn’t enjoy it for a day, though it’s inoffensiveness may mean I don’t tire of it either. I just wouldn’t *like* it. It would remind me too much of a hospital. My husband would likely compare it to a kill room. Others would love it.

Honestly I don’t personally know anyone who renovates their baths and kitchens every 5-15 years to keep up with “trends”. Maybe I don’t move in those circles. I guess if you made choices at one point only because they *were* a trend and not because you liked them you may tire of them. But if you picked something you liked - trendy or not - it can become timeless to *you*.

I like body sprayers, large format stone looking tiles, darker grout, frameless glass doors, and acrylic shower bases (easier to keep clean and honestly grout on a shower floor kind of gives me an ick feeling underfoot or when it starts discolouring). My master is not fancy but it is clean, simple, and functional. As is my house. My bathroom works for me, what I like. what is easier for me to keep clean. And best thing I did for my shower was to put in a whole house water softener; cleaning hard water spots off glass, tile, or plumbing fixtures sucks!

Maybe my bath is not trendy, maybe it is even dated. I have no idea. I like it. Sure there may be trends in five years that I like but I don’t have to follow every trend and rip out my my bathroom to do so. It is possible to admire something, from a friends new bathroom, to a beautiful painting in a gallery, to a new Tesla parked at the supermarket, and not need to bring them all home with you.

If your house does not have “character” of its own that can be a great place to be as you can add the character. That can both be easier and harder than being led by the existing character of the home. Is your style more glam? Then maybe marble and a crystal chandelier is for you. Modern? Maybe large format glossy tiles for all your walls - including shower - with minimal grout lines. More unusual? I saw a bath recently with glossy diamond polished and dyed concrete counters and bath ledge - they had a “live edge” formed into them. They were intriguing!

Really, design if for you and your tastes. You are the one who is living there 15+ years.

Personally I would not do blue anything in the bathroom. Not tile, not cabinets and certainly not granite.

IMO Neutral finishes with accessories and lights that be change out to make the room spectacular.