I LOVE the blue hex tile as well. There is an article on retrorenovation.com that explores your exact problem with the same tile: https://retrorenovation.com/2014/08/21/porcelain-hex-tile-floor-options-vintage-pastel-bathroom/

With the blue floor, my choice would be using 4x4 white tile 1/2 up the wall, then finding a blue pencil tile to use at the top as an accent before the paint begins. These pics are opposite of what you are planning, but imagine the blue on the floor, white up the wall, then capped with a blue tile trim (instead of black)

Nice! I like Alana's suggestion. Blue without being BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can do shower niches and floors with the blue as well.

The secret to a proper 50s bathroom is proper tile trim pieces (like that coved floor-to-wall piece). Make sure that your selected wall tile has those available.

If you're willing to spend a little more--good thing it's a small room--many of the custom tile places have those (Pratt & Larson, Fireclay, etc.) which means you can pick your exact colors, too. But if you do white, your options for ready-made pieces (probably still have to special order them) go way up.

(And "handmade" tiles don't have quite the same close fit that genuine 50s tiles usually do...)

I have a bathroom that is all Daltile Keystones 2x2 porcelain in Waterfall. So you could do the walls in the Color Wheel Waterfall and the floor in the Keystones Waterfall in either 1x1 or 2x2 but unfortunately they no longer offer that color in Hex tile.

I was lucky enough to get my bathrooms done before Daltile started reducing their options.

But you could do an all-one-color in two Daltile formats if you choose.

Full saturation monochromatic (even with shade mismatches) was very popular in the latter part of the 1950s and early 1960s and I think the contrasting trim /sizzle strip thing was falling a little out of favor: that seems more like 1940s into the early 1950s. I am partial to the monochrome and have an all matching grey bath including fixtures.

The caveat I would offer is that we just did a bathroom with Merola hex tile (though in white) and found the quality surprisingly poor given the solid reviews. We used their 2" hex on the bathroom floor and were supposed to use their 1" white and green hex for the shower floor, and our tilesetter finally just gave up and told us he couldn't work with it and we needed to get something higher quality. (FWIW, the price ended up being about the same because the replacement tile was sold by the square foot, and the Merola comes in boxes of ~10sf.) They would often shatter when he cut them, and a huge number of the tiles arrived chipped or with finish problems so he had to check them one by one and pull those off the mesh to replace them. We replaced them with hex from a local tile shop (would have to dig up the brand, but not a common one) and that was so much better. (Home Depot did, to their credit, refund the cost and took all the cut tile back.)

For our shower tile, we used B&W Tile in Southern CA--they were great to work with and we were really pleased with their tile quality. They make 4x4 and hex in all sorts of great vintage colors, and weren't too pricey compared to some of the other vintage brands (though if you can find a Daltile color you like, that's probably the best bet). We ordered our trim, which was Daltile and worked beautifully with the B&W field tile, through Build .com, and it direct shipped from Daltile--that worked really well and they could get all sorts of colors or unusually shaped pieces. We did mint green and black, with white hex floors, for a more 1920s vibe (older house).

I actually like the existing 2x2 blue tile, does the floor have to be replaced?

I hate the existing floor. It screams 1980s to me.

@artemis78 thank you for the feedback on the Merola tile. I initially contacted B & W as that is what was used in my original green tile 50s bathroom and I love it. I was concerned about price, especially shipping from CA to TX. You’re now giving me pause and making me think I should go back to the original concept. I’ll reach out to B & W for samples today.

Incidentally your bathroom sounds gorgeous. Would love to see a photo!

I appreciate all the feedback, by the way!!!

If it helps, we completed a bathroom last year with Daltile Waterfall in 3 x6 subway tile, and mixed it with a porcelain tile for the niche and floors. It wasn't meant to be vintage-looking, but wanted you to see what a full wall of Daltile Waterfall looks like.

Beauty and the Baths: Guest Bath · More Info

@Ann admittedly we are in northern CA so were able to pick up the tile on a trip down to LA--I think it would have added another $300+ to ship it! They do have sales periodically, but unfortunately just finished one I think (and not sure they would work to do a whole room). We still aren't 100% done (need to get the window trim, towel rod, art, and backsplash up) but this is where our bathroom ended up--more transitional than originally envisioned, but we are enjoying it! Will post some better photos once we're finally done. The green is 40W; black is just Daltile's basic glossy black.

Original plan was an alcove shower with a curtain, but had to be changed as we started construction due to some structural barriers (this was an office before). I actually like the glass more than I thought I would, but it does make the space feel a lot more modern. We also used a light green grout on the tile because my partner actively didn't want white and we couldn't find a gray that didn't look pink; I think it works, but also makes the look more modern. The shower floor is the replacement hex tile, which isn't quite the same color as the 2" floor hex, but luckily there's a marble shower curb and a row of black porcelain cove base tile in between so you'd never know. It was supposed to be 4x4 cove base, but our tilesetter cut it all down to match the shower curb height and I didn't realize he was doing that until he was almost done, so we just rolled with it. (There's a 2" black bullnose liner and a 1/4" black pencil liner that aren't visible here, too, so hard to see the full effect--need to get some better photos, but it's a tiny room so hard to get things into frame!)

@sabrina thank you! My home is all shades of blues and greens and I love that waterfall color. It’s so beautiful. Well done!

@atemis78 thanks for the photos, it’s stunning!!!My original tile bathroom in the house is 40W green and I love it so much.

I reached out to B & W for samples. They did tell me their hex floor tiles rated for bathroom floors are matte and only available in a few colors so I’ll have to see what I think once I get the samples, I’d prefer to support them over a big box retailer and If I get the look I want it will be worth the extra cost. Thankfully it’s a tiny bathroom (about 30 sq ft with the shower).

oh swoon to all these bathrooms. keep them coming houzzers because i will also need to gut mine eventually and am debating how to keep the original feel and these photos help.

i really like the idea to go with blue floor and white wall with blue trim.

here are the daltile keystones and the sales sheet indicates types of tile are available in waterfall: https://www.daltile.com/products/mosaic/keystones

i also saw these recently that caught my eye, like a retro terrazzo hex. i havent seen it in person but may be an option, comes in retro colors: https://www.tilebar.com/terrazzo-hex-blue-9-matte-porcelain-tile.html

Applause to all of you who have reproduced these iconic bathrooms! @Ann - you’re getting very good specific advice here.

I just used Merola porcelain hex on the floor of my bath remodel. Not sure if it's the same color you are considering? Maybe they have a ceramic tile that's not porcelain. It is absolutely beautiful and the quality was great. I was a little hesitant because it came from HD, and I had to order it sight unseen. My tiler had no complaints about it. In fact, I was originally going to use it just on the shower floor, but when I laid it out and saw how gorgeous it was, I knew I had to use it for the whole floor.

Thanks @stephanie. I’ll check out those options and might swing by the Dalte showroom here to get some guidance.

That’s super pretty @olychick! I’ll look for that on HD’s website, maybe I can get a sample.

Here’s my other bathroom and the look I was trying to replicate. This is original to my 1958 house? And is 40 green B & W mud set tile. It’s in really great shape.

It's good to hear others had better Merola experiences--possibly the issues are limited to the white color, or to the particular production run? (We also had samples of their mint green hex that we'd intended to use as accents throughout the shower floor, and those seemed fine.) These were ours--I apparently didn't get a photo of the issues when they were cut. (I sent this to Merola and posted it to HD's site back in March, but never heard back from either--the review is still "pending review.")

The issues seemed to be much worse for the 1" hex for some reason--nearly every sheet across two boxes had some kind of damage, and when cut they just shattered into little pieces. (Because we were using it with flush cove base tile, we needed perfectly clean cuts with little room for error since they'd be visible.) The 2" had a few problems but nothing major--occasional chipped or unevenly spaced tiles--and seemed reasonable quality for the cost. The replacement 1" hex was called Aurora, from a local tile shop. It was great as far as not being chipped or unevenly spaced, but neither brand was a perfectly flat period-style tile.

Definitely not wanting to move forward with the white hex Merola tiles now. Thank you.

I'm not sure the 2 blue tiles are much further apart then the green floor, tub and wall tile. I think you could go either way.