I don't see a problem doing tiles all the way around the bath. But, don't make yourself crazy trying to align the veining; a good installer will know how to mix the tiles for a varied layout. Is your selection a rectified tile? That will have minimal grout lines.

A good tile layer will lay out tiles in advance to make sure that there aren't clumps that don't look right.

My bathroom and shower floors are marble basket weave but the tile setter made sure to scatter different variations around so that the end result looks great. This would be true of any kind of marble tile (real or faux).

The same is true of wood flooring as my planks have some variation and so whoever laid my wood floors went through the boxes so that different shades are nicely distributed.

I hope my tile guys does that too!

One more question- he is saying the 24 by 48 tile I want is too big because the bathroom is 60 by 90. I think the large format will make the small space look larger because of fewer grout lines. Perhaps he has no experience laying tile that big and so he is discouraging me.. thoughts?

I think the tile is way too large for this bathroom. My master is pretty large, and we used 24x24 for the floors and 12x24 for the walls. Ditto what the others said the tile installer will know how to lay it, you cannot match all the veins.

The big tiles are great in a small bathroom... match the grout to the white of the tile and you won't even notice them. Here is a heavily veined tile in a small bath... the customer loved it!

There are tile setters who work with very large format tiles but they are few and far between and I agree that size tile is too big for your space . 12 x 24 would be a much better choice and also easier to get a tile setter. There would be in your space no good way to lay such large format tile.

I ended up going with the 12 by 24. My contractor seemed uncomfortable with the 24 by 48 tile and I decided to err on the side of caution. Feeling a bit meh about the result- the smaller tile has more veining and looks a bit busy to me. The original plan was to use the same marble for the bathroom floor (except for the shower base which is going to be 2 inch white hexagon tile). I am now considering using the same hex tile for the entire floor or perhaps a plain white 12 by 24. Any advice? Fyi I am getting a can light installed which will help as well.

Oops forgot the photo!

Use a hex tile in a plain color, gray, off white. Don't do more of that on the floor. Grout lines look too big. He might have tried kind of matching them up a bit. I wouldn't do anymore of that tile. Think of it as the "backsplash" with a lot of action. So the countertop needs to be "quiet". A nice dark gray hex tile would look great. What are you putting on the floor of the shower. I would do both the shower and floor same time for a more "spacious" look.

Flo, that’s what I am thinking as well. Using small 2 inch white hex tile on the shower floor, so either extend that to the entire bathroom floor or maybe a larger hex tile? The marble tile is quite overwhelming as is.

I would keep scale of shower floor and room flooring the same. The less additional "motion" the better in your space. Sometimes you can mix patterns, but with that tile in the shower (and it looks really nice from what I can see btw) keeping everything else plain is the way to go. You can jazz things up with a pretty purple Orchid or some bright pink towels, things that can be switched out from time to time. The flooring is semi-permanent. (Nothing is permanent! lol) Good luck.

Here is what the small hex would look like on the floor...

I would do larger size hex and not soo white. What is color of your vanity again?

It looks like your shower may not be waterproofed correctly. I believe the redguard should completely cover all surfaces. I'm sure some pros will chime in.

Be advised. Cement board is not waterproof. If Redgaurd is used it would need to cover the entire board at the proper mil thickness. If a liner was used under a mud base and continued over the curb as required you can NOT fasten cement board through the liner. In progress photos would help. I'm aware you are looking for design advice. Just trying to look out for your wallet.