Bathroom Tile Grout: A Clash of Opinions

So, I promised you pictures of the bathroom tile? Here we go ...

Shower stall and floor of new bathroom. The floor tile looks wonky but only in the photo!

 

Let me say, right up front, that things are happening pretty fast and by next week we'll be ready for paint! So more pics to come!

Bathroom looking back toward the closet and bedroom door

 

Back to the tile. Last Friday I was doing some research at the library and, like a good doobie, I turned my phone off. Why is it that your phone hardly ever rings until you turn it off? When I left the library I had a long list of missed calls from our contractor. He was out of town and the tile installers had called him CERTAIN that they had received the wrong grout for our job. The installer said "we never use gray grout on white tile," and many other phrases like that. Hence, the multiple and somewhat frantic call attempts.

 

Back on March 19th I blogged about our tile choices in Bathroom Tile: Vintage with a Twist. In that post I told you how I was inspired by Nicole Curtis on DIY's Rehab Addict. She's a rehab rock star! She has often said that the small hex tiles for the bathroom floor and the white subway tiles for the wall are inexpensive and appropriate for turn of the century houses. What I didn't tell you is that she uses gray grout - on everything - always.

 

 

 

Why? Because in those days grout, as we know it, didn't exist. Tile was installed using cement because that was all they had. Cement is gray ... so gray grout. And, you have to admit, when you look at that photo above it definitely looks old school, right? Well, I guess you would have to be as old as me (not telling) or have been in an old house with the original finishes to know that? Additionally, the many, many grout lines in our 200 square foot space, will never look dirty! So after a short delay we were back on track!

 

At the end of the day, we were a little short on grout and two pieces of marble trim. No sweat, everything else can still move ahead! Yay!

 

Now, if the weather would cooperate we could get some new siding installed ...

 

 

Tile sources:

Floor Tile - American Olean, Ceramic Mosaic, Satinglo, Matte Ice White w/Black

Shower Wall - Daltile - Rittenhouse Square, 3 x 6 field tile (subway), Artic White semi gloss

Shower Floor - Daltile - 2 x 2 mosaic, artic white matte (maybe Permatones)