Are you selling soon? If so then stay neutral - maybe find a large interesting painting for that interesting feature wall or a treatment that may easier to change if needed.

I love the tile and would go right ahead and do it! Paint will never achieve that look. Maybe you can find a wallpaper that can give a cool feeling like that...

I find that many people love feature walls but then get scared for "resale " . I'd bet you would have more people like it than some plain gray painted wall...

Hopefully some others may have ideas for this feature wall!

What about trying a wallpaper on that wall? Lots of options for color and design.

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a gorgeous bathroom like that won't hurt your resale! Just don't paint your house like this...

(this house is actually on the market in my city right now)

I love the tile! Your kid has style!

Also behind a vanity and mirror, the tile will be in small amounts.

Again, it's a great tile. I would not have listen to you :-)

LOL! I was expecting to get reamed for letting my kid have too much input, so thanks everyone for your empathy. :) My tile person and I hatched a plan to run the tile up just part of the wall (with floating vanity in the middle), so I think we can live with it, especially since the rest of the walls will be white. Hoping to do a similar color on shower floor and niche. :)

@Debbi Washburn, the idea of selling in a "few years" sort of hovers over us, so yes, we're going pretty neutral for most of the house. Letting the kid have a bit of fun (and hoping it doesn't turn out to be a nightmare, lol!).

@Kitchen Tune-up Zeeland, Sales & Design holy moley guacamole and omg!

Wallpaper. Simple.

Wow, I love that tile! I agree with others who said paint just can't achieve that kind of statement/look. If you don't want to tile, wallpaper could look great too. If you do want to paint I'd recommend Benjamin Moore.

@cpartist, I think we decided he can go for it with the tile...in a modest dose. And hey, this may be old news, but I see Zillow claimed blue = big bonus on resale value--in 2017, at least! https://www.zillow.com/blog/blue-kitchens-sell-for-more-216631/

Agree with everyone, that type of blue is almost a neutral, your kid has great taste, I would be afraid to ask mine!!

Cpartist is spot on in her assessment! I would do the tiles as well.

LOL, I read some of these comments to him--he's quite pleased with your endorsements! :)

Love that tile, in fact I've now saved it as a favorite for myself! He has great taste.

Another vote for that beautiful blue tile! Make sure you pick a grout color that shows off the tile- I like the grout color in the sample photo.

Make sure you get a good installer. The tiles are not uniform in size.

@Kitchen Tune-up Zeeland, Sales & Design, I don't have a problem with houses that make a statement and that are unique. I can see how for a realtor this is a nightmare, as it limits the pool of potential buyers. But I can appreciate quirkiness.

Having said, it has to fit the rest of the property. And that doesn't seem to be the case at all in the picture that you posted. The rest of the house just looks "meh". In that case, the crazy colors scheme is as ridiculous as everybody says. The sellers would have been well-advised to pay a painter to prepare the house for listing.

Coming back to @Mittens Cat's question. Yes, go for an accent wall, and go make the room a place that people like to stay in. Not everything needs to be a "safe" design. White-on-white is the trend for new construction and for flipped homes; that doesn't mean it's what people want to live with.

@M I prefer houses that have personality and I think buyers do too. There is bold design and there is crazy! For all I know the agent recommended the paint it neutral and they didn't.

It’s so great that you let your son have input. It’s cute and smart how he said he wants to see the dirt. I feel the same way which is why I have a lot of white cabinets. I involved my kids in our kitchen remodel and bathroom remodels, in a limited fashion. Basically I asked them if there was anything in particular they wanted. 2 of my 4 kids didn’t have a single opinion, but the other 2 definitely had opinions!!

1 son and 1 daughter wanted interesting wall art. So I taught them how to use a stud finder, drill pilot holes and install the art. If they have a little skin in the game, they’ll take care of it better.

Well, he's not exactly a kid. He just turned 23! But he's always had strong preferences when it comes to color and design, and to my amazement, he always nailed it (or so others said). I ordered a sample of one of the crazy blue tiles. When it gets here, we'll see if I can handle it! lol

Post a picture of the bathroom.

It's down to the studs, with walls just getting insulated. But here's a diagram my son came up with. The tile in question would run up the wall behind the vanity.

All other factors being equal, I would pick a house with a tiled bathroom in a color I disliked over a wallpapered bathroom in a color I liked. I'm sure wallpaper is getting better all the time, but to me wallpaper in a bathroom is an adhesion problem waiting to happen. Especially a bathroom where a young guy showers...or do they stop taking boiling hot 25 minute showers sometime between 18 and 23?? :-)

LOL, @SapphireStitch, thanks for adding that last part because I thought it was just my kid who takes forever showers (though typically with more tepid temps)!

Here's another tile that caught his eye. Much less drama, but still...not a hue for decorating wimps like me! https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/emser-tile-ombre-6-x-12-ceramic-mosaic-tile-in-glossy-blue-emt11290.html

That’s pretty, too, but I like his first choice better. The colors in the Ivy Hill have more depth to them, and the size of the tiles seems a better proportion for a bathroom.

BTW, this is the vanity he's hoping for (IKEA Godmorgon plussed up with custom mahogany veneer fronts). He specifically chose blue tile and mahogany because he heard we were aiming for a Midcentury Modern vibe and he knew orange and blue were popular MCM colors.

My tile person (a childhood friend) sketched up three designs for this vanity/tile. This is my son's pick. We were originally going to do a mirror across most of the wall, but I think this could work. Plus, he's really into plants and wants to use part of this wall for his leafy buddies. We're seesawing on whether to take the blue tile under the vanity, though. The shower will be all 12x24 glossy white tile, his request (and affordable, whew!). Floors at the moment: a textured graphite grey porcelain in 12 x 24.

I would also do the tile like your kid wants.

what about one tile on each side of the mirror?

@localeater Son decided he liked the crisp look of have mirror and tile edge line up with each other. But here are the other two sketches, fwiw:

[I've tried to post the other two sketches twice, but the Submit button seems to be rejected them.]

I'd wanted a full mirror across the wall to bounce around more light, but he is a big fan of plants and wanted to have room for a small plant wall across the rest of this wall.

ohmygosh. my passion for DIY and home decorating came from having parents who were really good at it and let me shadow them around the house. it's awesome that your kid is so into this!

I LOVE the blue tile choice and really like the idea of the tile being an accent above / below the vanity. inexpensive, and easy(ish) for future replacement when it comes to that.

Fine paints of Europe brilliant would create an interesting wall.

@B F, at ages 8-9, he spent months on SketchUp designing (in his eyes) our future home. We sort of humored him about it, but the designs were actually pretty dang impressive. My husband and I have very little design sense (which is why I live on Houzz!), so you were lucky to have good role models. I think our son may be trying to save us from ourselves? :-D

@User, lovely paint! But I see I cannot buy (or use) at my California location due to VOC restrictions.

Mittens, What are his ideas for lighting the mirror? You mention plants, where are the windows.

@localeater, we've got three recessed lights going in, plus some sort of light over vanity (another choice to make). As for windows, there are two 36x18's on the wall directly to the right of the vanity.

I just tried to add a photo and it won't load. Hmm.

OK, sized it down. The vanity wall will be straight ahead on this back wall. Toilet to the left of it. Shower to the left of camera lens; shower faces toilet.

Mittens Cat two of my favorite blogs are by people who got their start fixing up their rental apartments in new york, and then moved on to fixing up entire houses. one of them went on to get a proper education in it and is now a professional decorator (not sure what his official title is because he designs and does some of the construction work himself), and the other is a graphic designer. They happen to know each other.

anyhoo, your son might get a kick out of them:

http://manhattan-nest.com/

http://doorsixteen.com

Don't put the blue tile under the vanity. You want the focus to be above the vanity, not below. I would consider bringing the tile all the way to the wall behind the toilet. Otherwise, you need to consider how you would finish the edges of that irregular tile.

It sounds like you are more comfortable with the tile, but if you end up not liking it you can use a glazing technique to give paint more depth.

@calidesign glad to hear you think that because I was just staring at the space today (see purple drywall below) and that's just what I was thinking!

@Lady Driver, I am all ears on glazing techniques in case we go back to paint.

Alas! We received the sample Blue Mose tile today and were disappointed. The color was much darker than what we're seeing in photos, including the photos of customer reviews. Wondering if I should order another sample? Try a sample from Wayfair instead? I think HD and Wayfair are the only sellers of this crazy tile.

BTW, the house was drywalled today, so now this bathroom is easier for me to see what it would be like to do a vibrant color tile across the bottom half of the wall, with mirror across the top. (I'm not very good at visualizing on my own.)

here is the first example of glaze on a wall that came up when I searched Houzz. Currently it is a little out of fashion and is mostly used on cabinets. https://www.houzz.com/photos/edwina-drummond-interiors-traditional-family-room-boston-phvw-vp~122388

Hey, I think we found our favorite tile! Seneca Tile! (Thanks to Helen, I think??) The blue and green tiles are from Seneca. So rich--in any light! Love! Son prefers the lighter blue at bottom left. I think mixing some would be amazing. Thoughts?

@Lady Driver, interesting! Thanks! Noted.