NO

I agree completely with Gem Marble& Granite Corp.,beautiful product,improperly installed,sad. It must come out.

thank you all...please keep opinions coming. we need to make some smart decisions, going forward.

I'm afraid if I viewed a home with this shower, I would have to price in a bathroom remodel. Beautiful marble, poorly done. Could have been beautiful.

What decisions going forward do you have to make, maybe we can offer some advice. Although I like the tile, it's not suitable for this application, sorry Doug.

Hate it, I would have to take Dramamine before I took a shower. But if I was zebra and was trying to get away from hungry lions I would like it. Sorry Doug.

This shower is only appropriate for burning man. Is your home located at black rock city?

It is too busy for my taste. I think if it would have been installed vertical and the lines matched it might have looked cool. Apparently the installer did not pay attention to the marble detail. make sure to seal if you are going to keep them.

I hope you purchased the home with this shower already installed. If not you were certainly steered in the wrong direction. Unless you already know which direction you wish to take in replacing this marble, take your time deciding what fits your overall design scheme and make it yours.

Really crazy busy. Reminds me of a cave. Too much of a good thing ?

not sure if it was a DIY project but if you paid to get it installed sadly would be a waste of $$$. No use crying over spilled milk get the right people in to do it right. ill have to agree with most whether vertical or horizontal its a bit much for such confined space. good luck with future projects and if you ever fix this plz upload pic.cheers

Unfortunately, the pattern of the marble is too strong and very messy. I actually like the sparkle bits -- but the marble is a mess and headache-producing. Maybe rip out the marble and put in white to make the accents actually work? I am so sorry. This would be a very difficult bathroom to sell to someone else. Good luck with the finished product. I would rip out the marble immediately.

just wrong :(

I agree with most of the comments made. It is too busy for a shower. I don't know what recourse you have, but if it were me, I'd have it taken out and start over. This looks like a big $$$ error.

Oh dear! good idea to stop and rethink. Step back and look at what needs to change. IMHO, the marble is the major issue and not salvageable. It is not appropriately installed or even a good idea in this space. A simple white or grey tile would set off the niche nicely. Ask yourself what look are you going for. Opulent? Spa? Zen? Ect. Lastly, consult a professional designer. I think it would be worth the expense not to have to redo it again. Good luck. What a bummer.

Guys will love it. Girls, not so much . . .

Jeez…really busy. I hope this wasnt too expensive because I could not live with this at all. Talk about crazy :( Ugh!!

Little headache effect going on. Really would not want to have to see this every morning.

No.

My tile guy talked me out of marble tiles for the guest bath recently. He said that they need to be resealed every 6 months and after a few years would look dingy and scratched. Even though the guest shower gets very little use, I took his advice. I'm all about low maintenance!

Just looking at the photo makes me nauseous, I can't imagine using it! This doesn't look like a professional job, they didn't even attempt to match the grain. I'd have it replaced before moving forward.

The foliations don't even match up. And the overall look of the patterns aren't cohesive. Showers are a time for de-stressing and that marble just gives me anxiety.

Definately not my cuppa...

This is hideous! It looks like tile no one else wanted. I hope you can get your money back!!

Oh, boy, that's a sad use of material. No goose. Now that I said that, what are you planning to do? I'm sure this forum can help.

D+

Ok, I think it's a consensus. Maybe it's time to let doug grieve a little and move on.

thanks to everyone for your views. you're pretty much affirming our opinion. we're thinking about retaining the mosaic and replacing the marble with white or pale gray large-format porcelain. what say you?

Not my cup of tea.

I'm a fan of subway tile, but large format tile sure saves grouting! Either white or pale gray would look great with the mosaic, IMHO.

It's interesting that they didn't try match the pattern horizontally from tile to tile so that it flowed together more evenly. I think that would have made a huge difference. At this point, I agree with most of the other folks here - you're wise to change it - although I also prefer a smaller subway tile format.

This is not pretty, too busy and not well done. I also hope you can get your money back!

Perhaps they were going for an edgy look.

Good idea to do a simple floor plan and a pic of the vanity area. I always like white in the bathroom, it looks so clean to me. Would you consider repurposing the marble? It needs to be cut straight into tiles (cut with the grain). Use the white in the shower and on the floor (marble is very slippery when wet) and use the marble tile half way up the walls, the pony wall and a detail in the shower. In the shower detail the niche and wall ceiling to floor with the marble.
I have attached a pic showing how this is done the right way. If you don't trust your marble installer, forget the entire idea! (To see a better view of the pic, roll your cursor over the image)

By large-format porcelain, what do mean? Describe it for us doug.

thinking 12x24 size...same as the marble up there now. too big?

denise, thanks for the great images. we got a couple of sketches, but the tiles weren't laid out for flow prior to sticking them up. we've called a strategic pause on the job conjure a solution. also, the mosaic is thin, and was installed directly on the wallboard, and the marble tiles are noticeably thicker...not a proper flush installation.

I thinks that's what get you into this mess in the first place. Unless it has no pattern or grain whatsoever, I would go with something smaller (maybe a lot smaller) to keep it in proportion with the mosaic. Don't be afraid of more grout lines! Grout lines do not equal ugly.

Wow! Denise Marchand! What a difference. That looks awesome! Can the marble be repurposed? Will it come down without damage?

12 x 24 is too big for that size bathroom, doug, nature is so beautiful, don't disregard all of that stone. We have an older gentleman in our area that has done stone work all his life and he is truly an artist. I am sure there is someone near you. Go directly to a marble yard and ask them for a name. Also, you can hire an interior design student to oversee the project and they can put it in their portfolio. Do away with the mosaics all together. Please post your vanity. This bathroom can be a jewel! Don't get down on yourself. At least you knew there was a problem, before you finished, which means you are very very smart!

I am very into repurposing, even changing the use of rooms! Thank you, Cathy Goodman, for your kind words.

doug..... be careful..... be very careful.... that is a large and bold design to be to cutting down into smaller tiles. Before committing to repurposing that marble, remember the maintenance marble requires. If you still want to repurpose it, lay it out before putting it back up to be sure it will meet your expectations! It would be better to sell your marble to someone to recoup some of your investment in it, then go with a more classic design using materials that are meant to be used together.

This happens when you get a small sample and not around when tile guy is laying this out. It is hard to invision what it would like finished with a small sample. It really needs to be laid out on the floor and it would never have been put on the wall, only taken back to the store.

I think I'd consider taking out the vertical mosaic tiles. Let your niches be the jewelry and use those large porcelain white or grey tiles. As we say in the South, bless your heart.

Agreed it is too busy. Since there is so much pattern in the marble there needs to be a flow to it. It would look better if it was book matched or even one whole slab.

I agree with happyasaclam The bath photo at the top of the page would be an automatic "no buy" if I were house shopping, no matter how much I loved the rest of the house, schools, neighborhood. Not meant to go in this fashion in this room. Picture standing in that to bathe?, It could cause one to skip showers all together! You have received a lot of helpful suggestions. Hope it works out.

doug, what it boils down to is that the wrong material was used for more than one reason. The tiles were too large, they were too thin and the pattern was inappropriate for the intended project. Had it been laid out in advance to have maximized the beauty of the stone, it still would have been the wrong material. If you have it cut down into appropriately sized tiles, it will still be wrong. As I said in my precious post, sell the tiles to recoup some of your costs if it is possible to remove them with as little breakage as possible, keep the mosaic if it can be worked around and then choose new tile. You were failed by your design consultant if you had one, your contractor and the subcontractor. It was the contractor's job to have never allowed one piece of that tile to be applied. That's what he gets paid to do. If you are acting as your own contractor and design consultant it is time to hire both. Save both time and money and start fresh.

I am so sorry – that is just awful. (I am assuming you did not do it, Doug.) And whatever contractor did should be hanging his head in shame. Did they not lay the tile out to see how it would come together?! It is way too busy. The mosaic tile going vertical with mismatched marble going sideways. (Is this a joke?) That bathroom would be a deal *breaker* if you try to sell that house. People will just walk away and remember that house with the really ugly bathroom. I hope you re-do it and get yourself a designer. I am looking to redo our 1970s baths and I have just learned a lot of what *not* to do in terms of tile. I hope you change it. It looks like a big space that could be a wonderful retreat with the right professionals on board. Good luck.

(Your pictures remind me of those movies they showed in high school Health Class where they talk of the perils of doing drugs and the movie tries to simulate a person on a drug trip and how they see everything – spinning and mis-aligned and nauseating.. I feel like I am going to fall and hit my head…) I am sorry but it is just the worst.

AND, whether this is new construction, a major remodel or just this bathroom, from this point forward, call your contractor everyday for an update of what was done that day and how things are going, if the project is still on schedule, etc. If you are not living there, go by every day and look everything over. If you find something you don't like or don't think has been done correctly, call your contractor and get him out there to go over it with you. I think you have the right to breath down his neck after this incident.

Too busy for me and I don't usually care for the embellishments of mosaic inlays. I prefer something cleaner and something that doesn't scream for attention.

OLD THREAD.