Picking the tile

The next step in the washroom reno is to pick tile. Although I feel most comfortable going with small white subway tile for projects (like in my kitchen and in the basement washroom) I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and going with larger tiles that will give us a more modern look in the shower. But I'm careful of the fact that we don't go SUPER modern.


I'm actually loving the large tile look. Less grout, it feels more fresh and spa like. I think that you can do these large stiles in two ways - Either stacking them one of one another which gives you an ultra modern look or alternatively you can place the large tiles in a subway pattern, which brings the style back to somewhat traditional.  So in order to keep the washroom from going too modern, we'll go with a subway pattern which will soften the look.

Even though it is a small washroom, costs add up so we've decided to do the shower walls in a porcelain tile  vs. a more expensive tile like marble. From looking through tiles at the store, it's amazing that you can find in tiles that mimic the marble look. Like in our kitchen - we want the look of marble without the upkeep. Above you can see I brought the samples into the washroom to actually see how they looked in the room. I've learnt to borrow samples, bring them home and really see how things look in your home. Immediately I ruled out 2 out of the 4 tiles because they were way too gray however in the store they showed up as white. The tile I ended up picking is the one resting against the tub and is by the manufacturer Cerim, and the style is Precious Pearl.   I'm a *wee* bit concerned that the catalog shows a lot of variation in the veining so hopefully we get more subtle tones.

Next up is the floor tile. For looks I initially wanted the larger tile to continue onto the floor. But less grout lines and the tile I picked would make the floor SUPER slippery and therefore, dangerous. So that was out. We had some octogon marble tiles leftover from our basement washroom, enough for me to see if they worked - and I think they will. I went into The Tile store on Bermundsey and they have a huge amount of marble tiles and I'm debating between...

... Octagon or, Herringbone marble tiles. I posted the picture above last night on twitter and asked for opinions. Most people said herringbone. Truthfully I'm torn. I have always been a fan of herringbone. If we did either, it would look beautiful I think to do a border like this. 

Jumping back, one of the initial concerns I had was whether mixing two types of tiles would work - would the marble floor be alright up against the porcelain? Thankfully I had my Mom come over and give me the approval that it does, so that is now a decision I'm comfortable with.

So that's where we are at. We've picked the wall tile, and are torn on the floor. :)

Toronto Resources: Stores we visited for style consideration (tiles haven't been bought yet - we're price shopping)  are The Beach Tile Store and, The Tile Store.