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What kind of floor with subway tiles?

14 years ago

I would like to have 4x8 subway tiles on the walls of my master bathroom. However, I'm not crazy about having small mosaics (hexagons, basketweave, etc) as the floor tile. Can I go with a 12x12 or 12x24 instead? How should I lay the tiles...diagonal, grid, or brick-style?

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Comments (3)

palimpsest
14 years ago
I think this would be fine. IMO you could even do running bond on the floor because the format is so much larger, but I would explore *any of the patterns you suggest as an option. The viewpoint from the door, how much of the pattern is going to be seen and the size of the room are all factors.
pepperidge_farm
14 years ago
I might suggest a large format tile, as your subway will be a little bigger; I like the diamond with a border (even same tile in a narrow band) that runs around the room. I like the visual of the 2 together. Diamond seems to open up a space.

Grid is simple, but you won't go wrong.

I am not sure without seeing the tiles, but imagine that "brick"/subway may be a little too much both on the floor and the walls, but probably depends on the tiles.
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Should the grout be the same color? Not necessarily. Will it look weird to use a darker gray on the floor and a lighter gray in the shower? Not at all. Any recommended colors for the shower and floor tiles along these lines? I've been getting stuff at Lowe's and they carry MAPEI Warm gray for the subway tile, and silver for the hex, if you lke a darker grey for the hex. Silver is actually a medium grey, but it'll appear alot darker with the white tile. Our bathroom isn't perfectly square. I think a colored grout seam that is uneven will be really obvious(that's my understanding where you would do any flubbing). Can you grout just the seam white? Can you skip grout and caulk it? Any suggestions here? Grout everything on the floor the same color. it'll actually show up more if you try doing what you suggested. It'll literally draw attention to it. What you want to dpo is make sure that you're square to the most obvious walls from the door. Especially with the hex, it won't be quite as obvious as you think, unless it's WAY out, and then nothing you can do will hide it, even using a blending color grout. One other thing-- that joint where the floor hits the walls should be caulked, but still caulk it with a caulking that matches the grout, both color AND texture. Does anyone know what the measure is for hex tile and subway? For subway, use unsanded, and for the hex, use sanded.
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Thank you everyone for your comments! We did a couple sample layouts tonight based on your advice, and we’re going to do the charcoal in the shower floor. If I can’t find a good quartz/etc remnant for the curb, we’ll do the large hex cut in half - with the darker gray grout we’re considering for the floor, I think it will look better than the white grout example I posted. I just can’t believe they are finally starting to do real work in the master bath - so much is changing in the house as a whole, but this is our biggest single room project with all new materials and design elements. Exciting and terrifying all at once!
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Lil B
14 years ago
We're looking at the classica cream subway tiles or a beveled brick bone subway tile for the Master Shower. We won't have it on the walls, except for an 8" section around the perimeter of the tub deck. The shower floor is likely to be a rounded light-multi-colored pebble. For bathroom flooring, I'm looking at a 12x12 Crema Marfil Country or Country Beige honed marble, probably on a diagonal (our bath is sorta galley style). I'm also considering Rojo Alicante for the vanity tops. I think the subway tiles and Rojo and Crema Marfil will all tie together nicely. But I've had the same thoughts about the small mosaics for the floor tile.

I didn't come up with all these choices alone. I've been to 3 different tiles places that are very helpful. They all have agreed that the look could go nicely. We are several months ahead of install, so I'm just going by their expertise at the moment.

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