I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and have started the new year off well. We had a fabulous Christmas at the lake and New Year’s in Florida, and I’ve spent most of January getting more organized at the new house. I initially got things to a “functional” place, but I really needed things in better order for my day to day sanity. Now I’m jumping back into the swing of business and blogging! I recently shared my inspiration for The Creek Classic master bathroom… The full reveal can be seen here. What I didn’t anticipate about designing our bathroom was just how hard it would be to pick tile. So I wanted to share my tile selection thought process, in case that helps you understand how to choose bathroom tile as you plan a new build bathroom, a remodel, or even a mini refresh.

How to Choose Bathroom Tile

1. Have inspiration photos to guide the process. As I shared in my inspiration post, I knew I wanted to keep our master bathroom neutral and timeless, and my first choice was a marble look tile. I tell clients to pull together 10-15 inspiration photos, and then I look for common design elements to serve as the jumping off point for their design. This inspiration photo from Classy Clutter was one of many photos that confirmed my instinct to go for white walls, marble look tile, and gold hardware.

   

2. Take your cohabitants’ tastes in to consideration. Luckily, in my situation, Adam and I were on the same page about what we wanted. We both love the timeless look of marble and subway tile. If that’s not the case for you, you may need to find some middle ground, since you’ll both be living in the space. Asking a neutral third party (or a designer) can help make finding that middle ground a lot easier.

   

3. Know your budget and allowances ahead of time. In our new build situation, I needed to know allowances for each area of the bathroom:  shower walls, shower pan, bathtub surround, and flooring. Builders in general are notorious for having low allowances, a fact which both of the tile specialists I worked with confirmed. If you have the funds to upgrade, bathrooms may be an area to allocate some extra money. If not, prepare yourself to get creative.

   

   If you are working on a remodel, set a budget ahead of time, because once you walk into the tile shop with all those beautiful options, it can be easy to lose your mind and blow the budget.

4. Take samples home. Tile is a fairly long term decision, so you don’t want to rush it. Most builders and/or tile companies have a checkout process so you can bring multiple samples home to consider.

   

5. Consider all design elements, not just tile. Factors such as lighting, wall colors, cabinet style and color, counter tops, and bathroom layout are all considerations in how to choose bathroom tile. For example, a cool marble or marble look tile won’t work well with warm white paint or warm white counters. Pulling samples of all of these design elements together in one space, preferably the space they will live in, will help guide your bathroom tile decisions.

6. Grout is the finishing touch. Don’t forget about this all important finishing touch. White subway tile has a very different look when done with white, gray, or even black grout. Here’s a great visual from Bedrosians Tile and Stone.

   

7. Don’t rush your decision. Sometimes you are on a tight deadline and this isn’t possible, but try to allow yourself a week or two to mull over your tile selections. In my case, I was trying to work within our builders’ allowances, and I went back to the tile store three times. The first time, everything I was shown was WAY out of budget. The second time, I worked with a different sales lady and she showed me some of the more affordable options. I made my selections, brought samples home to show Adam, and he was on board.I slept on it, woke up the next morning, and knew what I’d chosen wasn’t going to work.
   

   

    

   It felt too busy and generic for the timeless and classic feel I was going for, and Adam was super patient with me and looped way out of our way to make a third stop at the tile shop on the way out of town for the weekend, where we grabbed a few additional samples that eventually became our final selections.

   

8. Be willing to be flexible. I was determined to choose a 12×12 floor tile, as it felt more classic to me than the currently popular 12×24 you see in a lot of contemporary homes. This is the main reason I made the initial tile selections I did, but I wasn’t in love with the marble veining on the original choice. It felt generic and unrealistic, and while I wanted a ceramic tile, I didn’t want one that LOOKED like ceramic. On our third trip back to the tile shop, I broadened my options a bit and considered a 12×24 because the veining was super realistic and you had to look really close to realize it wasn’t actual statuary marble. When we pulled in a mix of matte white subway tile sizes and some glass hexagon tiles that were indistinguishable from real marble, we knew we had the winning combo.

   

9. Mix and match price points. The glass hexagon tiles we fell in love with were above our builder’s allowance for our shower pan, so we kept trying to find something cheaper. But we both had our hearts set on it, and Adam finally made the call that we were doing it and would either pay extra or figure out something cheaper for the rest of the space. When we started looking at all of the subway tile options, we realized a mix of sizes could be really cool, and the white would keep the different patterns and veining from feeling too busy. The final icing on the cake was that the subway tile was well UNDER our builder’s allowance for our shower walls, so when we did the math, the difference more than covered our more expensive shower pan option. After confirming with Paul that they would balance each other out, our decision was finalized!

   

10. Bring in an expert. When in doubt, it may save you both time and money to consult with a professional. Oftentimes what seems like an impossible decision can be made very quickly with just one or two questions answered from someone who deals with this stuff regularly. Check out my extremely affordable Designer on Call service if this seems like something that could help you!

I hope these tips on how to choose bathroom tile are helpful for you. If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!