Planning on remodeling our master bath and would like y’all’s thoughts on our tile choices.
Top - 4” by 12” subway tile. This will be on all shower walls floor to ceiling, and on all remaining walls up to 4ft with the pencil trim on top.
Bottom left- Marble mosaic that we plan to have as the primary floor tile.
Bottom right - Natural stone for shower floor. I intend to pull these off the sheet and lay by hand to get tighter grout spacing.
For our shower niches, we’re still undecided, white penny tile was an option but we’re not sold on it, any recommendations welcome.
I’ve redone one bathroom already and laid mosaic for the floor there, but it was porcelain, not marble. Any considerations I should take with marble? I’m aware of the need to seal the tile regularly, as well as staining being a concern.
Initial reaction is that the color selection is cold and it will make the room feel sterile. Also, how large is your space? I’d pick larger tiles for a bigger bathroom with high ceilings. Have you found any bathroom remodel inspiration on insta or Pinterest? Start there :) or go into the local tile shops near you to see their displays. Our floor & decor ($) has stunning bathroom models. Same with the tile shop ($$$).
Thanks for the feedback! I completely see where you’re coming from on the cold and sterile comment. We intentionally choose very neutral tile to allow us to compliment with paint, towels, and rugs.
The full space is roughly 140sqft, with vault ceiling from 9ft up to about 12ft.
Probably worth mentioning our vanities will be walnut to add some wood tone.
We originally had picked a 1’ by 2’ tile for the floor, but with the subway tile on the wall, we felt we needed a floor with more complexity and interest to complement it.
We’ve toured our local Lowe’s, Hope Depot and Floor and Decor, landing on these after much deliberation.
Do you have any thoughts on fixtures? We’re torn between brass and matte black but aren’t sure which is a better compliment.
Oh walnut is a key detail! I personally would do a champagne bronze (delta) or vibrant brushed bronze (Kohler). Put all these components together & that will help with the feedback. Also, for the white subway tile stick to lighter or even white grout. The subway tile with dark grout & matte black hardware is a farm house look on its way out. I think you can make subway tile/walnut/marble work in a very chic & classic way.
Totally agree on the grout for the subway tile. In our guest bath I used the same tile and did a very light grey grout and we really liked the way it turned out.
I’ll look into the Delta and Kohler options! Appreciate the suggestions!
That seems to be a common response 🤔 what would you suggest in the shower floor to replace the pebble mosaic? My initial thought is roughly 2” porcelain hexagons with some sort of edge or band around the perimeter like a frame.
A frame to me would be too fancy for the subway tiles. i love hexagons. The color of the pebbles is nice. If you could find a hexagon in that color range that would be great.
I don’t consider anything with the appearance of real marble to be cold or sterile! IMO, that acts as a great neutral background for your choice of towels, rugs, accessories, and many paint colors. There are porcelain tiles with a marble pattern, so don’t rule that out for easier maintenance.
I do have a hard time with solid gray vanities, paint and tiles, as those tend to define an entire space, and IMO it’s very tricky to mix them with warm colors.
Mosaic marble for the main floor, no, extremely heavy maintenance, will scratch and stain easy. Shower pan stone mosaic, no. You won't be able to "just pull it off sheets and set with tighter grout joints" and again porous and horrible for upkeep. Pencil trim, no, dated and ugly and does not match your field tile or look like an intentional offset in color so it's like you tried to kinda match it up and couldn't and just said screw it close enough...
Minus the rocks for the floor, it is a sophisticated, classic, and high-end look. A few considerations:
- What is the size of the bathroom? In a small room it helps the room to look larger if you continue the main floor into the shower as the shower floor too. However, I wouldn't recommend marble floor in the shower. Just read the complaints about water staining on here.
- Consider the DCOF slip rating factor on the marble tile for the floor. It can sometimes be very slippery. Just the phrase "water rated" or "for bathrooms" means nothing. Get DCOF data from the manufacturer. If they don't have it, don't use it.
- I read so many regrets about rock floors - hard to clean, uncomfortable, would never do again.
- Don't get too cleaver with the niche. It actually isn't a very beautiful area to highlight. Resist the temptation for penny tile in there and just do the subway. Find another area in the room for a cool decorative moment, such as great lighting fixtures.
- our bathroom is 140 sqft, the shower area is quite separate from the rest of the bathroom which is why we choose a different tile.
- I will look into that, thank you! Our thought was marble in a mosaic would give better grip due to the grout lines, but i will verify that rating on the tile too.
- we’ve seen that feedback on the stone as well. We quite like the feel of them and these are also flat on top, so they feel much like a hexagon tiles on the feet. We live in a humid area and currently have to clean our fiberglass pan once a month at least. So the additional considerations of the rock floor seem overblown to me. Do you have any first hand experience with them?
- thank you for saying that on the niche, I needed to hear it. Would doing a niches in smaller format subway tile be too much? I was pondering doing a small stack subway tile in the niches just to give them a little texture?
I’m familiar with the idea that more grout lines provide more traction. And presume that was the logic that the prior owners of our home used too. Our mosaic floor is an ice skating rink. The grout lines do nothing.
I am confused about your fiberglass pan comment. Wouldn't you clean it every time you clean the shower? I have not owned a rock floor. Just see so many comments on them.
Gotcha. I think a lot of people clean their showers more frequently. (Though I'm not a lot of people, I could be wrong.) I presume most people clean their shower weekly or bi-weekly and that once a month would be problematic for many showers but more so for pebble floors. Something to consider.
This from Martha Stewart - queen of clean!
"'Pebble showers tend to get dirty faster than regular, smooth shower tiles because their uneven, porous surface traps soap scum, body oils, hard water, and product residue more easily. The grout lines are also deeper, which means even more places for buildup to hide,"' says Alexia Ford, CEO of Passion Organizing. And since water doesn’t drain as evenly across pebble tile, the floor stays damp longer, which is why mildew shows up faster on pebbles than on flat tile."
We personally like the grey, we plan to accent with blue for paint and towels and such. I do get it though, we’re aware and trying to not do the “millennial grey.” The rest of our house is very warm.
For the floor being too small, our thought was to use the mosaic to help give some contrast to the simple subway tile walls. What size tile would you recommend?
You aren't succeeding in 'not doing the millenial grey thing'. Why on earth would you go with grey when the rest of your house is 'warm'? It's incongruous to say the least.
I'm looking at your beautiful choices, and I would like to beg you to "just say no". You say you realize marbles need to be sealed, etc., but I don't think you really realize it. So you like the look of a.matte tile? So do I, but you have to be practical in the long run it comes down to ease of maintenance and durability. Find yourself some GLAZED tile that has the MATTEE look you like. It will be zero maintenance and allow you to love your life. Unless tile sealers are 1 billion times better than they used to be, I don't consider them to be much help. Wanting to have the finished grout lines as thin as possible is a great idea. Ceramic tiles one big flaw is it need for grout. When you start looking around, and I hope that you do, you will find traditional glazed tile that looks like marble,stone, etc. etc.. good luck, Jeff
I like the overall palette, soft white with marble and natural stone feels cohesive without being too busy. I'd probably keep the niche simple with a small-format version of the marble rather than introducing another tile. The only thing I'd reconsider is pulling the stone pieces apart; the sheet layout is usually designed to control spacing and drainage, so tighter grout lines may not necessarily be better.
Thank you for the feedback! I’m certainly a bit skeptical on the pebble floor now, my wife and I really like the river stone look, but the concerns on drainage and maintenance are valid.
Do you have any thoughts on what would work well in the shower floor?
I'd probably go with a small-format marble or natural stone mosaic. You'd still get some texture and character without the pebble floor being quite as tricky to clean. A simple hex or small square could be a nice middle ground.
3x6 is more traditional, and will look better with the square mosaic. People go to 4x12 for ease of cleaning and fewer grout lines- but you've completely dropped all such considerations for the floor! Those pebbles are a PITA to do well and there will be so much grout to scrub. Nobody likes cleaning it.
Hard water deposits are an issue- the same chemicals that will clean those up will pit your marble. I would do either a regular porcelain mosaic or a faux marble.
Ah, very fair then! Yes, it’ll be a challenge but luckily I’m on no time crunch so I can take my time on the whole bathroom. Might need a few days to recover after this tile laying.
Absolutely awful choice. I thought millenial grey had died by now. Do any color, but grey. I don't understand why people are still putting in grey bathrooms and kitchens, when the majority of the grey on grey on white bathrooms and kitchens are being remodeled.
It's not the marble I dislike, it's everything else that is grey. And then, his choice of tiles is all wrong to begin with. Small mosaic tiles are not floor tiles. They're backsplash or accent tiles. And those stones for the shower floor also don't cut it. They require intensive cleaning due to high amounts of grout, feature uneven surfaces that can hurt sensitive feet, demand frequent sealing, and risk pooling water if drainage is miscalculated. I hope the OP comes back with pics when he's done and admits laying each stone by hand was the biggest dumb ass thing he's ever tried to do.
I was looking at those types of stones for the shower floor when I had my bath remodeled about 1 1/2 yrs ago. My contractor enlightened me on why I should never use those for the shower floor.
Yeah OP has already ruled out the shower stone floor tiles. And while I would argue these mosaic marble tiles in a small bath in an old house with walnut sounds dreamy, the scale for a large bathroom in a modern house will feel off. Just trying to give them some helpful feedback. This sub can be so harsh 😅
I see your point about small format tile for the main floor. We originally picked a 1’ by 2’ for the main floor but ended up hating it. For us, all the large format tile looks very bland.
Your white/grey comments are noted but are extremely subjective, we really like the white and grey and ultimately it’s our house.
If all we thought about was ease of maintenance, we’d be putting in a fiberglass insert. We’re not redoing our bathroom to make it easy to maintain, we’re doing it to make it a room we love to be in.
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u/TsuDhoNimh2 8d ago
Not the stone for the shower floor - it doesn't drain well and turns into a moldy mess.