I'm a little confused. Are you laying these vertically? Have you sketched it out to see which way YOU like it?

I did sketch it out. I planned on the tiles laying horizontal. The bathtub is 5' so I figured for the sketch two and a half 12x24 tiles would go above the bathtub. The entire wall above the bathtub would be this pattern not staggering the tiles but stacked above each other. I am now thinking maybe I should put the tiles vertically on the wall. Then above the bathtub the tiles would be five of them. The 12" part of the tile would be next to the bathtub.Does it give the bathroom a different look if I put 12x24 tiles vertically? The bathroom is being completely redone. The mosaic tiles are glass and there are glass 4x4 tiles as the backsplash behind the vanity. I tried to post the sketch but unfortunately I am having trouble scanning it. Thank you for help

It will look quite different if you put them vertically. It's totally up to you which way to do it. Have you looked at houzz to see different examples? Whichever way you do it, center the tile (or grout joint) on the back (long) wall. Since you're doing stacked and not running bond, I wouldn't worry about wrapping the corner, unless you prefer it that way. Most likely you won't get exactly whole tiles across the back wall. 12" tiles aren't typically 12" (that's just a nominal measurement), and then you have to take into account the grout joint width. Also, the 60" measurement is likely the rough framing size. Then you have to add the wall material, which will reduce that size. So, you'll probably be trimming tiles.

I am doing a 12x24 horizontal tile too. The tile is not a true 12x24. This is one layout like you described. I probably will not be using this. But instead a variation of a running bond. Anyway this is to show you the symmetry that can be achieved with tile. It is all about symmetry, You don't want to stick small pieces in the middle of the layout unless you are trying to do something specific, artistically. It sounds like you want to install the tile in the most efficient way possible. That should not trump symmetry though.

With a stacked pattern in large format tile, our goal is to have a symmetrical back wall. The side walls? You usually want them to be mirror images of one another, but the layout design doesn't have to be centered/symmetrical.

One other idea?

Have a full 12x24 tile centered on the back wall. On each side of that have an 12x18 tile. Wrap the cut off 6" piece around the corner onto each side wall. Finish each side wall with a full 12x24.

If you prefer to keep all the large tiles together, then keep the pattern on the back wall the same, an 18" tile, a 24" and another 18".

But on the side walls, have a full 24" tile come out of the corner, and finish each sidewall with the 6" offcut.

With a few sketches, you'll find a pattern that appeals to you. It's your eye that is important.

When people have trouble visualizing a tub surround, for a typical sized surround I'll sometimes recommend they cut a piece of paper 10" wide by 5" tall. With a scale of 1" of paper equals 1' of wall, that paper encompasses the two side walls and the back wall of a typical tub surround, with the walls tiled 5' above the tub. Adjust the dimensions as you need to for your situation.

But for that typical surround, using a 10" wide by 5" tall piece of paper?

With the paper in a landscape orientation, measure in 2-1/2" from the left and right sides of the paper and draw a vertical line. Those two vertical lines represent the two inside corners of your tub alcove. You've now divided the paper (from left-to-right) into a 2-1/2" wide side wall, a 5" wide back wall and the other 2-1/2" wide side wall.

Draw your tile pattern. Crease and fold the paper on the vertical "corner" lines that you drew earlier, fold each "side wall" upwards so you have a "U" shaped piece of paper. Stand it up on edge and it'll represent the three walls of the tub surround.

I want to thank everyone for your help. I am going to try different design ideas and draw it out on paper. Just deciding between the 12X24 tiles being vertical or horizontal has been a hard decision. We are going to put them horizontal (24" wide and 12" heigh). We are having the three walls around the bathtub tiled to the ceiling. We are going to have tile on the rest of the bathroom only half way up the wall. We are running a glass mosaic strip around the room in the tile. By the vanity I plan on using 4x4 glass tiles that match the glass in the glass mosaic strip.I have posted the first drawing we had. I am going to take everyones advise and work on it. I greatly appreciate everyones help and all the great advise I have gotten. If you have any ideas to help me please let me know your ideas.

You have done a nice job of centering the tile side to side on the back wall. And it looks like you've centered it top to bottom with relationship to the floor, the back of the tub, and the ceiling height. You don't want to wind up with really skinny pieces to fill in at the top or bottom.

The ends, I don't know how I'd like how you laid it out. Do a more exact drawing to see what that looks like, if you start with whole tile in the corner. Then compare it with a drawing where you have the tile centered over the tub ends, then continue on into the room as your wainscoting.

Thanks for posting the drawing. They are so helpful.

Enduring is right about needing to avoid skinny pieces on the top or bottom. If you start out with a full 12 inch tile on the top of the tub, you will have 96-20 inches to fill to the ceiling. Which will be 72+4 inches which might just be perfect with your 4 inch glass mosaic strip. Just make sure though you won't end up with like 1/2 inch space on top due to uneven ceiling etc. Measure all around the tub to make sure the distance works. We had that problem in our house and had to rip out some tiles and add extra glass mosaic to compensate.

Measure and draw, measure and draw and measure and draw again ;)

I wish I would have spent more time laying out our bathroom wall tile. I did draw it up a few times, but then we changed our minds at the last minute and I didn't think everything through. We did vertical brick joint on the back wall (split the 12x24 in half to 6x24) to match the floor. And we did horizontal 12x24 on the side walls. We ended up with some small tiles at the top of the back wall. I wish we would have centered it so that we'd have the same small piece at the top and bottom. But oh well!! And regarding the side walls, I thought I wanted the grout line to match up with edge of bathtub. Well, now I wish we would have centered on the wall and worked outward.

Luckily nobody has noticed but me so far! This is our guest bathroom and we plan on doing our master in the next year or so. I definitely will be more picky on our master ;)

Good luck!

Here is a pic of our wall tile