I don't know about subway vs square. But here is a picture of a bathroom at the hospital I work at that was built in the early 50's. I took these several months ago as I was getting ready to tile my 4x4 wainscot. In my old bathroom it was plastered to replicate 4x4 tiles. This bathroom was built either in the 30's or 40's. Hospital bathroom: Here is my new tile: Here is the old plaster embossed tile shapes from the 30's or 40's. Note the versatile white duct tape to cover the gaping holes in the plaster: This room had reached the end of its life 15 years ago!

Where do you get the PVC beadboard? This is unrelated to this post but get this...hubby met with a painter today to get quote on interior painting. We put wood beadboard individual boards in our little guest bedroom floor to ceiling. Hubby asked painter what was the process to paint the beadboard. He said, "well, first we will have to caulk all these lines." What the heck???

Short novel ahead... If it were entirely up to me, I'd go with white beadboard (a personal preference, and very "vintage"). We're in the process of installing beadboard in our own bathroom, and it's being painted white (we had a similar blue vs brown paint discussion, but went tan due to the shower tiles we picked out). Colored painted beadboard isn't unheard of - just a different look. Traditional colonial style often used trim painted anything but white - a lot of green, blue, etc. Most of the pictures of colored painted beadboard that I've seen were done with beadboard that runs 3/4 or the full height of the wall (rather than the waist-high stuff that I suspect you have). But that doesn't mean the decorating police are going to show up! Does it help you make a decision if you ignore the fact that it's beadboard? Talk about what types of "blues" it is that he wants - lighter? Darker? Greyed out? Vibrant? Green based? (I recommend raiding the paint chip bin, taking one of everything that catches anyone's eye, then start pairing them up - much easier than trying to describe colors verbally.) Once you have some ballpark colors, think about it like you were painting the wall above a chair rail one color, and the wall below the chair rail another. It then becomes a matter of where you want the darker color and the lighter color, since that can affect your perception of the room's size. Then you can pick the "actual" paint colors and test them (...says she who never test paint colors). With the marble floor, what about going a very light, almost white, blue-based grey on the beadboard that picks up a color in the floor. Then paint the walls above with a medium blue (also grey undertones). That would get some color on the beadboard without being too dramatic, and tie everything together. Your color options for towels would go up as well - anything from bright white to blue, grey, brown (vanity color), some combination thereof. And, in the end, the two things I always repeat to myself when remodeling with hubby.... 1. Who cares more about this? (aka "Is this worth arguing over?" LOL) 2. It's just paint! It's one of the cheapest and easiest things to change if you live with it awhile and are unhappy. Your bathroom sounds lovely!

Your ideas are possibilities, Funkycamper. We talked about doing glass over the beadboard, too, but I do wonder if it would look funny.(?) I also wonder how successfully we could blend "real" beadboard with ceramic beadboard. That's part of why I was considering transitioning to a totally different medium behind the range, so that it wouldn't be real and fake right next to each other. Thanks for your vote of confidence! I revel in all of the possibilities, LOL, it's making a "final" decision that's tough! Thanks for sharing the tile you got, iroll. Since you did the beadboard only behind the range, I'm curious what you did elsewhere. I don't think crackle snaps or pops for DH, unfortunately. I found some gorgeous (or so *I* thought) crackle tile by Enser. DH response was "Oh, yuck! What's wrong with that tile?" So much for that, LOL. Your question of how much the eye "needs" is a good one, Rococogurl. I don't know. I love color, and I like neutrals, too. I'm not sure how much my eye, or the eyes of my family can handle. I also know that I love to change things around, so committing to a color feels a bit constrictive. I get you on the difficult appliance choice. So glad to hear that your final decision is made! You must be relieved. I was talking to a friend whose son works in China. He said, "Mom, life is so much simpler over here!" She visited him and saw that they don't have much kitchen to speak of, they wash their dishes in the bathroom. She questioned his idea of "simplicity", but he then explained how if they need a fridge there are only 2 choices at the store. A big fridge or a little fridge. That's it. There is no agonizing over which thing to choose. I don't care for the medallion/mural in the picture I shared, either. I didn't associate it with a certain era, necessarily (says the girl who just put her 1997 Chevy van to its final rest...) but I think I'd tire of the same picture back there, day in and day out. My daughter and I were talking about how we can't wait to turn the calender to see the new picture each month because we're tired of the old one. So, no stone murals for this household! : ) I don't mean to be a tease! ; ) Let's put it this way, right now I feel like I'll be as surprised how this kitchen looks as you will be, if that's any consolation. I plan to post pictures, no worries! Thanks for sharing the picture of your beadboard tile combo, diymom79. Both my mom and my MIL have the vinyl beadboard in their bathrooms and love it, too. MIL has hers with the wide plank look. It's very pretty. I feel like I'm at a beautiful beach cottage when I'm in there. : ) I picked up some fabric samples today from a local store. They are quilt fabrics, so I don't know if they'd be a good choice for curtains, but they do give me an idea of how the colors work with the cupboards. Fun! I like them both--Oops. One is light colored background with blue flowers, and the other one is a black background with pink and cream flowers with green leaves. Maybe I could make both summer and winter curtains?? I need to go to the city to find decorator fabric, but the weather isn't being very cooperative for that endeavor. So, if I must, I'll stare at the cotton samples for a few days. Here's a picture, so that I'm not teasing, LOL. This post was edited by laughable on Fri, Jan 30, 15 at 23:10