For nearly 20 years, we've lived with two travertine bathrooms done by the previous homeowners. Considering they were do-it-yourselfers, they did pretty good. One bathroom, our guest bathroom, has an antique hutch converted into a bathroom vanity with marble replacing the countertop surfaces (I love that piece), marble floors, a slab marble tub counter, marble on the walls, a marble wide windowsill, and a marble with wood trim tub surround. The wood was probably not the best idea around a bathtub, but it has not warped and has help up pretty well. It's required repainting, of course. I am mindful to keep the wood as dry as possible. The grand slab bathtub counter (don't know what else to call it) has held up well. We've had to replace plumbing, but the marble has held up. Maybe next year, we will have the marble polished up in there. That bathroom has light to moderate use and has, miraculously, no real etching even after 20 years. Some hard water deposits around the toilet base. The caulk (sanded caulk?) needs to be replaced around the perimeter where the marble on the walls of the shower/tub touches the marble slab counter. For what it is worth, we never put in a shower curtain there - it is a bathtub bathroom only. I think that helped preserve the marble and the wood. The marble on the windowsill was not done correctly. The windowsill had to be reworked by experts who chose to demo and replace it with something else. Our master bathroom is all pinkish travertine. This bathroom features the travertine shower with glass doors, pinkish (really flesh colored)travertine on the walls, and the windowsills as well. Same problem in here with the travertine on the windowsills. Those sills cracked, warped, and had to be replaced. There is a weird problem on the wall. It looks like there was some filler used in the travertine when it was sold/installed. Over time, the filler seems to have evaporated and has left a more pitted and hollowed surface. The affected area is directly above the wall mounted lights that flank the mirror. I think the heat from the lights might have contributed to it. It looks odd. I have found a tile and marble restoration person. After we finish other projects this year, I'll consider having him inspect and repolish this bathroom, too. This second bathroom has a travertine shower. The shower is badly etched and I don't trust the pan. We have had hard water at times over the past 20 years. The hard water is not kind to the marble. Also, we certainly should have recaulked over the years. Didn't know to do that. Probably sealer too? Not sure, but we had no idea how to take care of it. There is etching of the marble, too, where we used too harsh of cleaning products. I am the most unhappy with the travertine in this shower. I don't think I want a marble or travertine shower in any remodels in the future, but for lower-use situations, like our guest bath, it still works for me. If well-trained adults are the occupants, it might work. My husband, though, tends to nuke the shower to clean it on an occasional burst of energy without my OK. I should have a bathroom that he can nuke with Lime-Away if he wants to, not something with a picky product like marble. I have found a steam cleaner to be useful inside the shower for cleaning. Not sure if it gets the experts OK, but that is what I've been doing in recent years. I haven't needed to use the steam cleaner anywhere but in the shower. The floor in both baths is travertine. We had a bathroom scale that left a small rust stain on the floor where the plastic glide came off its foot. I was able to rub most of it out, forgot what I used - - some sort of Helful Hint - but a bit remains. I am super-hyper about no metal in the bathroom on the floors -- no metal trash cans or step stools, for example, even if coated in plastic. When we first moved in, people warned us that we would be slipping and sliding on marble bathroom floors. Knock on wood, no one has ever slipped on the bathroom floors. We've been mindful to not put down polishes that are meant for wall or counter marble. Polishes for floors must say floor on it. I am always worried about stepping out of the bathtub as it is rather a high ledge to get to the floor. I never step onto the marble, always onto the rug. That's our marble story.

Thank you Sue. I think the Nameeks sinks are about the same price as the ikea cabs if I get the ikea with the ikea sink/counter option. If I install my own counters/sinks, the ikea will be more money. One Nameek sink is $350-450 and the ikea will be about 400. I like the clean look of Nameek, but not sure about the lack of storage. Maybe I should put one floating sink in a bath that I have a ny loft storage cab. for, one ikea cab. in the guest bath suite, and the double floating sinks in the master? Or two floating ikea cabs in the master? I am not sure of the quality of ikea bath countertops... Thank you for the link for costco. I will def. check these out. They look like they may be more expensive than the ikea or nameeks options though.

Honestly, I don't think you, us, or anyone can make that call without putting the actual materials together and looking at them. In general, I certainly don't think that classy white tile will look "cheap" with a taupe-y room. If it's nice tile. But believe me, EVERY white tile, subway, square, whichever, looks different in real life. I've now had to choose subways for two kitchens and white field tile for two bathrooms, and the difference in appearance between them is amazing. In the last bathroom, I was on a super tight budget and tiling all the walls, so I had to choose a cheap tile. The two cheapest (Lowes and HD's subways and 4x4s, by American Olean and, I think, Daltile, but their low-end, big-box-only lines) are very uniform and have glazes that lack any sort of depth or lustre. I just couldn't do it. Interestingly, just a few cents more per tile buys the American Olean field tile with a different surface texture (ever so slightly wavy, which creates a bit of sparkle in the room) and slightly different colored glaze. The "richness" in the look between these 3 tiles, all of which were the same size, shape, and bright white... was incredible. All that is just to illustrate the point that you really gotta see it in person :) That particular bathroom, by the way, has grey-beige walls and a beige, limestone-look tile on the floor. White fixtures, and white tile. I think it looks quite elegant ;) If you want to add a masculine touch, and you want to use the dark medicine cabinet, would you consider doing white tile with a black (or dark brown- whatever matches the cab) accent? You could even run the tile around the walls of the room as wainscotting. Like this, sort of? Or some other way to bring that dark accent in... otherwise I think I would go with the white medicine cabinet... I also agree with you on preferring recessed medicine cabinets!

I think it would look weird to mix marbles. You’ve got enough going on with two tile rugs. I love your choice for the tile rug, but that tile is dramatic. You need to be able to rest the eye. Don’t also have 2 different marbles going on. If you feel that carrera is too gray, then you need to choose a different tile for your tile rug. Don’t start right off the bat with your first choice being a stone that you think is too gray. Everything will be based off the Carrera tile rug which you don’t even like. Whoa put the brakes on then, and choose something else.