Is this a complete gut or are there existing elements that you have to work with?

I always find it easier to pick the flooring or the countertop and go from there. Since you love hex tile--I do too!--bring some samples home and see how they look under bathroom lighting.

Eld, are you on Instagram? I get so much more inspiration there than anywhere.

The designer accounts I follow or look at have been moving in the direction of browns and warmer colors for a while now. One very popular account is Heidi Caillier.

I like to search hashtags for certain ideas, too. It’s like having a huge database of magazine pictures at your fingertips.

Houzz has tons of insp, too. I put in traditional and browns and got these:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-brown-bathroom-ideas-phbr2-bp~t_712~s_2107~a_88-3

Tans:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-beige-bathroom-ideas-phbr2-bp~t_712~s_2107~a_88-13

Greens:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-green-bathroom-ideas-phbr2-bp~t_712~s_2107~a_88-5

I also search out British rooms … in general, the ones I see lean more traditional and colorful.

I still like my bathroom tile, installed 4 years ago. I was determined not to do gray! This is dark brown/beige/blue. Vanity is dark stained wood.

PS the shower curtain was temporary while we waited for the glass door.

All of our bathrooms in CT are variations on white.

Our Maine house has pale green penny rounds in the PR, limestone floor and honed aqua glass in the MBA, and a vinyl floor tile with a floral pattern from the UK in one hall bath. The other 2 full BA have painted wood floors and .... white tile.

What style is your house? Any other colors that are permanent?

I agree that Instagram can be a great place for inspiration beyond the gray.

Here are a few images I found showing grays and taupes. Not sure what your style is, but the colors work well regardless. I think shades of green are warm and natural in a bathroom. The last one is one I've kept because I want to paint my clawfoot tub.

This bath is a mix of traditional and modern. I like large hex tile on the floor with a solid quartz countertop. They call this hex tile gray but I think it has brown undertones, and the shower hex looks brown. The paint is more of a mushroom than a taupe but it's a nice neutral. With a white-painted vanity, it would be a tad boring.

Petaluma Farmhouse · More Info

Petaluma Farmhouse · More Info

But if you want color, this aqua, black, and white color combination would do the trick. Black repeats around the shower.

London Fields House 3 · More Info

This tile is from Home Depot. I'd like a floor done in it.

With this herringbone on the shower walls.

I actually have that herringbone tile as a kitchen back splash in one house.

If you want a timeless look...? White.

Use what YOU like, not what someone tells you is in/out. I don't believe beige or white will ever be out. I like my base to be neutral so I can change things up if I want. I am drawn to blues and greens, so more cool tones. I like some pink here and there. I do not do warm/earth tones. Orange and purple are my very least favorite colors, followed closely by brown, red and yellow. I could never use those colors in our home. The fixtures in our bathrooms is "bisque" which is a light shade of beige. Flooring is a veined pattern. There is also some white in it, so white fixtures could also be used. One bathroom has an antique chest for vanity. Master bath has oak vanity, but I keep toying with the idea of having it painted some fabulous color. (Kitchen cabinets too, but that's another story LOL.) I don't think our home feels cold at all. My goal is light and airy, soothing. It's more cozy in fall/winter months when I use deeper shades of blue/green, throws, etc. We're opposite from Annie and have more months of warm weather, so the cool colors work for us. But mostly I think it's important to be surrounded by things you love, including colors.

FWIW regarding gray, I don't have any in our home, but we have friends who went the gray route when remodeling. Their guest bath is gorgeous. The wall tile is a beautiful creamy shade of gray, it reminds me of gray velvet. Floors are hex tiles with black/white/gray.

I agree with Jinx about Instagram. It's replaced all my decor magazines. So many ideas there and so many designers have accounts.

ETA: Sue, I love that blue tile!

Find a tile store that carries Pratt & Larson and has a couple boards of their billions of colors. Boring colors but also bright clear colors. Then pick your favorite.

I love that large format aqua hex tile that Eileen posted above. I'd do that in my bathroom in a heartbeat.

Here is the shower...

London Fields House 3 · More Info

My bath in California is done in shades of beige

Tina, the problemis the choices. Have you been in a time store recently?

Yes, Jinx and all I'm on Instagram. Never thought to use it for tiles!

Yes, deegw, a complete renovation.

Annie, yes I love your beige, but it's not current.

Mtn, I have a white bathroom and a beige here. I'm not fan if white time floors. I agree to muted soft colors.

I’ve been using Houzz.

My thought was to get real people here weighing in on what they recently done or seen.

No I haven't. Perhaps you can special order. Hope you find something!

I still haven't recovered from the powder blue and the avocado green bathrooms of my youth to even consider anything but white.

I suggest perusing Fireclay Tile's bathroom gallery. I don't know if Fireclay is in budget, but there's lots of inspiration there.

https://www.fireclaytile.com/gallery?application=bathroom

Daltile makes garden-variety tile shapes in a wide range of colors at an affordable price point. They might not be appearing in your local tile store, but they are being made.

We have been to a lot of open houses, and white marble. white subway, white hex, still rule in the Boston area. I've not seen anything memorable. It seems that, if it has been done in the last 5-10 years, it is white not cream.

Black fixtures or accents very popular. Less tile in K, where you tend to see more slabs. Encaustic in entries or mudrooms. Live brass becoming more common too.

I have Fireclay (in gray ceramic hahaha and green glass (which they don't have anymore)) in a bathroom. They make trim pieces! So does P&L which I used in the kitchen. In green.

I like green. And I dislike Schluter trim for tile so I select tile by (1) trim piece availability and (2) proper shade of green. Oh, also (3) is it durable enough for the use which is why P&L beat Fireclay for the kitchen. The green I liked from Fireclay had a more delicate crackle glaze that I thought would be a liability on a kitchen counter. The Fireclay tiles I used in the bathroom are tough as nails...

Samples are important always.

Why does it matter what is current? I hate gray. I hate bright white. If I was buying a house and it had either in it , I would run away.

One of my bathrooms is gray (original to 1991) and one is white DAL subways. I love white, white fluffy towels, white fixtures. It makes me feel clean and virtuous.

Here I would say that white, often with some accent, is still number one here, and a strong #2 is still that beige porcelain tile that allegedly goes with everything, but doesn't go with anything in particular that well.

And then maybe grey is third, but the grey bathrooms are still mostly white.

I have an all grey bathroom including all grey fixtures, and this is only because I live in a 1965 house and I wanted an all one color bathroom like these houses often had. It's only grey by default, right before I was ready to pull the trigger, Kohler killed off pale yellow, pale blue, pale pink and pale green fixtures, any of which I would have done (the house originally had something yellow in one bath and pink in the powder room, we found bits of debris in the LR ceiling.)

What matters is current can pose a problem because of what is readily available. I have a Daltile Waterfall (blue) bathroom, and that tile was available but special order.

You can look at Daltile Color Wheel. They killed a lot of colors in their lineup but there are still some decent colors and they are not overly expensive.

Sherry, because you have to buy what is available today.

Nope, I would rather have old cracked pink or blue tile than gray.

ETA: I would just wait until what I wanted came back. My husband rushed me into a remodel of my bath and the newish is awful. I liked the old much better, but I can never have it back and I cannot afford to fix the crap that is there now.

:) virtue, delivered by the bathroom (I heart this!)

Do you make mood boards and know your choices before you begin? I like to decorate like I am putting together a puzzle. Pick one thing that I love as an anchor and then fit the other choices around it. The one thing strategy is especially helpful to me when I am starting from scratch.

The whole color vs. feeling thing is interesting. I would not mind most pastel tones for bath fixtures except maybe yellow. (pink, baby blue, mint green, pale grey) to me these are "clean" colors. I would not want avocado or harvest gold, brown or red bath fixtures ( T'ang Red or Persian Red fixtures an exception)

But I would not mind Avocado green appliances or fixtures in the kitchen because in there it's a food color. I have seen a couple kitchens where the green or brown appliances looked much better than their white or stainless modern replacements in my opinion.

I have a brown refrigerator but it's supposed to be black!

Teeheeheeheehee

I do have a 1950s original bathroom with minty green tile...on half of it. The rest was demolished in a half-renovation by PO. It is a joyous color. (My pinky brown bathroom? Not so much, but it's mostly there still.)

We did a blue penny tile on the floor with 3 lines of white tile running through the blue. the rest of the bathroom is white.

I ordered some tile from Tile Bar because, like you, I couldn't find anything close to what I wanted available locally. They send samples for REALLY cheap! And then they send coupons for MORE tile samples really cheap, lol. They have just about everything you could want and all I sent for were great quality. I bought this Iris Apfel inspired (whatever that means) tile from them and it's gorgeous.

Then I took a chance and mail ordered a box of blue hex floor tiles from HD because if they weren't right I could return to the store. They are porcelain and beautiful quality (not carried in the stores, or at least not mine).
I did settle on a pearl colored subway tile, tho I didn't want that, because I could NOT find a porcelain square tile in a creamy white like I wanted. Very frustrating!

I had a terrible time trying to find a floor tile I liked. I finally chose a blue gray hex tile from HD. I was worried it might be to boring, so I went with a light grout to highlight the shape. I’m happy with my choice. It looks more blue in person.

Here’s a green version from HD.

I have a grey floor also in a bath. White fixtures. But my walls are probably not of the latest fashion but I love the color so that is all that matters to me. Ashes of Roses:

We just remodeled a bathroom. I chose this porcelain blue hex tile for the floor; it does have some gray.