What tile arrangement would look best in our bathroom?
May 28, 2020 11:18 AM Subscribe
We're in the process of a bathroom gut renovation. The bathroom is medium-sized (8.5'x11') family hall bathroom in a 1920s house.We have tried to keep our renovations looking not aggressively modern (e.g. elsewhere we have used 1920s-appropriate hex with inset daisies (like this)). We are not aiming to make it look specifically period; rather, we simply want to avoid it feeling jarring, and ideally create a timeless vintage-esque feel. I need to finalize our floor tile design ASAP, and am hoping for some help on three questions still outstanding!
We're doing the whole floor in marble - a white and black 7'x3' mosaic basketweave (e.g. here or here, here, here, or here) inset into a background of white marble 12"x12" tiles (I wanted larger format but our floor wasn't level enough so 12x12 was the largest we could go).
I'm trying to make three decisions:
(1) The 12x12 tiles, which are already purchased, are honed. Would the inset basketweave "rug" look better honed or polished?
(2) Should the border around the basketweave tile rug also be basketweave (e.g. here or here), or would that be too busy? The alternative available is a simple 1" black marble border in either honed or polished (like this but I think a bit thicker).
(3) Should the white 12x12 tiles be set (a) so that all four corners meet (e.g. here or here), or (b) in a running-bond pattern where there's a half tile offset (here or here if you imagine a tile rug inset into the room), or (c) in a diagonal (e.g. here)? I'm concerned mostly about it looking timeless rather than dated.
We're doing the whole floor in marble - a white and black 7'x3' mosaic basketweave (e.g. here or here, here, here, or here) inset into a background of white marble 12"x12" tiles (I wanted larger format but our floor wasn't level enough so 12x12 was the largest we could go).
I'm trying to make three decisions:
(1) The 12x12 tiles, which are already purchased, are honed. Would the inset basketweave "rug" look better honed or polished?
(2) Should the border around the basketweave tile rug also be basketweave (e.g. here or here), or would that be too busy? The alternative available is a simple 1" black marble border in either honed or polished (like this but I think a bit thicker).
(3) Should the white 12x12 tiles be set (a) so that all four corners meet (e.g. here or here), or (b) in a running-bond pattern where there's a half tile offset (here or here if you imagine a tile rug inset into the room), or (c) in a diagonal (e.g. here)? I'm concerned mostly about it looking timeless rather than dated.
I vote for a thin black border & diagonal tiles. I'd probably make the finish of the whole floor match.
posted by belladonna at 12:35 PM on May 28, 2020
posted by belladonna at 12:35 PM on May 28, 2020
1. Either could work - if you are going for an illusion of a rug on top of a tile floor, different finishes could accentuate that.
2. Basketweave border does look busy to me, I would go with plain black border
3. I would choose b, personally, but c would be fine. Both reinforce the rug illusion. Option a, all 4 corners meeting, really didn’t look good to me.
I think it will look great, hope it all works out.
posted by ElasticParrot at 1:07 PM on May 28, 2020
2. Basketweave border does look busy to me, I would go with plain black border
3. I would choose b, personally, but c would be fine. Both reinforce the rug illusion. Option a, all 4 corners meeting, really didn’t look good to me.
I think it will look great, hope it all works out.
posted by ElasticParrot at 1:07 PM on May 28, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks, all! Re. question 3, this helpfully reinforces doubts I had been having a layout that involved all four corners meeting (which was the original plan). My husband is concerned that the half-tile-offset layout looks weird with squares (as opposed to more rectangular tiles, like subway), and he's concerned that a diagonal lay looks dated/90s. Thoughts? I'm pretty agnostic about whether or not diagonal layout looks 90s in general, but I think that honed white marble doesn't give off that look regardless (we're also doing light gray grout, which I think helps it look more recently renovated).
posted by ClaireBear at 3:05 PM on May 28, 2020
posted by ClaireBear at 3:05 PM on May 28, 2020
I remember looking at the bathrrom floors in my grandparents' houses wondering if all those little tiles were set individually.
We redid a small bathroom a couple years ago which informs my comments somewhat. First, I congradulate you on getting 12x12 tiles. The 12x18 tiles which are the vogue right now look very bland to me. I don't much like the effect in the examples with these tiles, and it's very un-period. Second, I think the last example in your (2) bullet point looks terrific. A wider black line would also be fine.
Third (and deserving it's own paragraph) I don't like the diagonal look at all, and our experience would argue against it. We were going to have 12x18 tiles cut and set diagonally, but the workmen talked us out of it. Of course, they didn't want to do the extra work, but they also said, plausibly, that they couldn't guarantee they could cut the tiles without some chipping along the cut edge. Maybe they weren't that good as craftsmen, and they weren't that good at wall tile either, but it's a warning.
My only other comments are that workmen tend to do things their usual way which may or may not be what you want, and communications between a salesman or manager and the workmen may be poor. And everyone forgets stuff even if they've been told 50 times.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:36 AM on May 29, 2020
We redid a small bathroom a couple years ago which informs my comments somewhat. First, I congradulate you on getting 12x12 tiles. The 12x18 tiles which are the vogue right now look very bland to me. I don't much like the effect in the examples with these tiles, and it's very un-period. Second, I think the last example in your (2) bullet point looks terrific. A wider black line would also be fine.
Third (and deserving it's own paragraph) I don't like the diagonal look at all, and our experience would argue against it. We were going to have 12x18 tiles cut and set diagonally, but the workmen talked us out of it. Of course, they didn't want to do the extra work, but they also said, plausibly, that they couldn't guarantee they could cut the tiles without some chipping along the cut edge. Maybe they weren't that good as craftsmen, and they weren't that good at wall tile either, but it's a warning.
My only other comments are that workmen tend to do things their usual way which may or may not be what you want, and communications between a salesman or manager and the workmen may be poor. And everyone forgets stuff even if they've been told 50 times.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:36 AM on May 29, 2020
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For #3, I had a very visceral reaction to your sample images for all four corners meeting: No, bad, bad, looks cheap, looks like a lazy construction job using super modern tile. Either the half tile offset or the diagonal look much more natural and period appropriate.
posted by past unusual at 11:40 AM on May 28, 2020 [3 favorites]