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)

 

 

 

Bathroom Tile: Vintage with a Twist

A few days ago, while my daughter was home during her spring break, we went tile shopping. She always offers a different perspective and great ideas so I took advantage while I could.  I have decided to keep things very simple in our new/old master bathroom. I would like to use period-inspired details but with a little modern twist.  

I was inspired to use small hexagonal (hex) tiles for the floor while watching an episode of DIY’s Rehab Addict:

 

DIY Network's Nicole Curtis, star of Rehab Addict

 

I have a vague memory of very similar hex tiles from when I was a little girl. I think my memory is of tile on the entry-way floor of the house we lived in on Colonial Avenue in the adjacent Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk.  We lived there during the time when Norfolk's urban neighborhoods were in decline and many of the amazing old homes had been converted into multi-family housing.  My family occupied the first and second floor of a three story.  If that memory is accurate, I could use similar tiles in our bathroom and they would be both period and locally appropriate. 

So, we set off to ProSource Wholesale Flooring to go tile shopping. My contractor and I have both worked with ProSource in the past, so it was a natural place to start. We had great success!

 

 

I had come up with an idea for a black and white pattern of the hex tiles after seeing something similar in the Better Homes and Gardens, Bathroom Idea File. We discovered that the pattern I saw is a standard pattern, so it should be easy to install and less expensive (a big bonus!). We are planning to use white subway tiles on the shower walls. Subway tiles are basic 3 x 6 tiles that were also used in 1920s homes. You can see both types of tile in this photo (the subway example is brown):

 

We decided on standard 2x2 square white tiles for the shower floor. The 2x2 size was better (vs. 1x1) because the size was not similar to the sizes of either the hex or the subway tiles and they compliment rather than compete. 

But that is where the authentic 1920s tile stops, and the twist begins. I have chosen Carrera marble for a classic vanity countertop with white cabinets.  What about adding a Carrera marble mosaic detail at eye-level in the shower to tie it to the vanity and add some visual interest? Maybe put the mosaic between two narrow rows of decorative trim?  We ran across a few black and Carrera patterns, and I liked the addition of some black but these weren’t quite right.

 

Then as we were about to leave the store, this caught my eye.

 

I think it is perfect. I plan to use five rows in a horizontal detail, which will leave the white marble to create a natural border, avoiding the need for a trim piece. I love it! And, it should also save a bit of budget (another big bonus!).

It was a successful and surprisingly quick shopping trip. That left us the rest of the afternoon to work on the blog and pack for the big move! 

For more examples of hex and subway tiles in 1920’s homes see Good Home Construction

For some modern uses of hexagon tiles check out this post in Apartment Therapy