Hi Sandy-

I live in 1860's house so I know from whence you are coming. The least expensive subway tiles from the specialty bath place tiles are $5.85 a square foot (Home depot probably cheaper) but as they are machine-made they are incredibly flat and regular. At the top of the spectrum they are $13.65 psf and are somewhat irregular, have a pillow-like look and are hand-made (or so they say).

I am about to order something in between but I also would like to hear from others on this subject...

I agree with other posters, the true vintage are very expensive. I went with Dal Tile. They are nice tiles. About $3.00 sq. ft. The pillowy subways are not vintage. So if thats the look you are wanting go with a nice, uniform, flatter subway.
I like mine just fine. We have 7 baths in our new home so definitely needed to find a good price point as all showers are subway. Here are a few pics

acountryfarm-- next time you want to use the Rittenhouse Square, go someplace else. There's no reason you should be paying over 2.00 a foot, and even at that they're making a good profit.

Hi sandwhy--

I was looking for true period style subways for my kitchen backsplash and went with Subway Ceramics. Like others have mentioned, they are quite a bit more expensive than some other options, for a fairly subtle difference that most people probably wouldn't notice. I am kind of a stickler for those little details, though, so for me it was worth it. Fortunately, I have a small kitchen (and small bathroom!) so the cost was manageable--if I had 7 bathrooms or was doing as much tiling as kgwlisa, I would have had to reconsider. (I'm not sure what the final cost per square foot for the field tile came out to be, honestly.)

Here are a couple pictures of my kitchen backsplash--I'll also be using this tile for my tub/shower surround, and to repair some original (1926-ish) baseboard tile that a PO damaged when installing a vanity. (The Subway Ceramics tile is an astonishingly close match to the original tile in my bathroom).

And for what its worth--I had a local tile shop special order these tiles for me, and they were so enthralled with the quality of the tile and how nicely it installs, they had every guy from the shop come to visit my kitchen to ohh and ahh over it. It really does give a nice 'old' look for a new tile.

Hope this helps!

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Here is a link that might be useful: Subway Ceramics website

Ohhh---and I also wanted to say you should look at the 'Gallery' section on the Subway Ceramics website. Even though they give full disclosure, it is a little sneaky since the pictures are of original tile installations--so not THEIR tiles--but they are great pictures if you are looking for period style bathroom inspiration. I think all the pictures are from Jane Powell's Bungalow Bathrooms which is a great resource if you are into that sort of thing (I have spent some quality time with my copies of 'Bungalow Kitchens' and 'Bungalow Bathrooms' over the last few years! :)

I've linked to the Gallery page below

Here is a link that might be useful: Subway Ceramics Gallery

bill_vincent--

just out of curiosity "Rittenhouse Square" ? is that what Dal carries? I was under the impression that it was a Dal product. Now I can't claim to be an expert because I am not, but that is what they told me. Not true?
I know I learned one thing when my builder decided not to be involved in building my house....
....that the tile business is really a crap shoot. Not sure that everyone in it is always honest or trustworthy. Luckily I felt like I had the most help from Dal. By far the cheapest of anyplace I went.

Rittenhouse Square is the name of the subway series that Dal carries.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rittenhouse Square

bill vincent- Thank you
I am going to dig out invoices just to check the pricing. We did a considerable amount of tile business with them and would hate to think they were overcharging. Probably not much to do about it now, but at least will be armed with right info for any future projects.

I appreciate your expertise once again.
Kimberly

Hi everyone and thank you all so much for the advice/opinions and photos! We certainly appreciate it. Keep 'em coming!!!

Sandy :)

acountryfarm-- because of the fact that I'm a contractor and don't do much in the way of retail sales, I'm in the highest price group that Dal has for their accounts, and even for me, it's less than 1.50 wholesale.

I love the clean line of subway tiles, from the "cheap" ones to the killer expensive ones (and $13 ish is NOT the top of the line unfortunately...you can go a great deal higher with the stupid things).

I am using a hand made crackle tile from the Statements tile line. While it's fairly uniform in shape, it does have some variety in it's final product in terms of how much crackle you might see and how flat they are. I loved the tone of these with my granite, but also the overall look. They are quite thick, which is a difference you see from the cheaper stuff to the expensive stuff. Because they're a crackle finish they are a bit higher in cost, but the luminous glaze was to die for. Not period...but just another option to show you :)

In a soft green or sky blue...e gads they're lucious! Really.

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klb, your kitchen is definitely period correct tile worthy. My house is not period correct anywhere, although I do have antiques mixed in there. I also have WAY too many projects to be spending that much on tile when there is something almost as good for a teeny percentage of the price. Once you have natural maple kitchen cabinets though, it's not going to look like an old kitchen regardless.

The liner is soooo pretty too, I love the alternating bars and dots.

Igloo - Do you mean those gorgeous custom order crackle subways were only $13/SF? Tell me it ain't so!

I also used cheap ones from HD but someone on the kitchen forum had beveled subways and they were gorgeous.

LOL Sweeby...I said that $13 sq ft was NOT the top of the line (someone posted that earlier as a high cost subway).

It ain't so :( Because I have both field (posted above) and bullnose for the ends of the runs, I can't quote both prices specifically...but I can tell you that the field tiles ran about $68 sq ft...the bullnose were more, but I can't find the invoice (I'm thinking they pushed up on the $90 because of the custom coloring to match the field tiles).

The poster wanted to see brands and quality heh heh so here's a brand, and it's quality (dang I hope so).

But what I love about subways is what you see in the other posts here...that basic stuff from Home Despot looks so danged classy JUST because of the traditional "subway" shape. I'm using that in the rental remodel.

Oh and there is a way to ruin subway tiles. I have them in the entryway here in the rental. Plastic coat them with pink and red to simulate brick...::shudder:: Really...yuck!!! LOL

OK - Thanks Igloo -- That restores my faith in economic parity and my own determined bargain-hunting. I searched high and low for crackle subways in gorgeous colors and ended up with Walker Zanger's Gramercy Park tiles -- Gorgeous colors, elegant shapes and trims, but pricey... (At least it was just a small backsplash.)

Sandy - If you like the thicker hand-made'y tiles and can live with white or cream, check out Emser's Classica line. Some lovely trims and unusual shapes to complement and a great price point.

I am being misquoted. What I said was $13.85 was the highpriced tile in my LOCAL tile store. Not that this was the top of the line for subway tiles. Sheesh.

i'm sorry i read that wrong missl.

I love everyones very detailed answers (and pictures) including kgwlisa. I am doing a bathroom and a kitchen backsplash in subway tiles. We have a HUGE backsplash for the kitchen. I'm totally sold on doing the cheapie loews tiles for the bathroom, but kgwlisa I know you mentioned you did another brand for kitchen. Is there a comprimise between klb 2000's beautiful tile from Subway Ceramics and the cheapie Loews ones? Thanks so much in advance...

I used ADEX subway tiles for my kitchen. The reason I used them is because I wanted something pure and milky white. ADEX tiles are an opaque glaze over terracotta tile and just have a slightly different look to them. You'd think that would be less white than a tile with a white base but it's actually MORE white. I believe these were about $5/sf.

IMO (and this is just my opinion) unless you are looking for a specific color or specific trim pieces, there is very little reason to go above generic daltile/AO subways to any of the other subways (and unless you are going for all white, people have successfully mixed and matched less expensive field tile with colored trim pieces from other lines and the results have been beautiful. But as far as the shape and look of the tile - there's a pretty small difference between generic subways of different lines (not counting specialty subways like period reproductions or beveled or handmade looking etc).

Like I said, the reason I went for the ADEX was the milky white color that didn't look off next to my appliances and bright white trim. As far as how they look installed though, there's not a huge difference between those and the cheapies. Here is a picture of my far better crafted backsplash (because I did it myself, SOB)

This is before the trim was painted white though.

kgwlisa, really appreciate your thoughts,pics,recs. Thanks so much...cheapies it is!

I too appreciate the opinions and photos. Gorgeous work there those of you who posted photos... I'm so jealous/impressed with your handiwork!

Sandy