1929 foyer floor. Okay, there's quite a bit of gray tile in there too which means there isn't any contrast at all...the grout is a grayish concrete color (and probably was even when new). I don't think gray grout is inappropriate even in white floors. It's not busy and lets the design show nicely.

I don't have a black and white floor but we recently installed a solid black floor using 1.5-inch black hex tile with charcoal grout. The original bathroom in our mid-1940s house (band-aid pink and maroon) had 3-inch pink hex tile on the floor and I wanted to respect the original, but with a twist (and with no pink!).

I pondered long and hard and posted many questions about whether a solid black floor would be hard to keep clean or always show dirt and dog hair. The responses were very mixed (some people were adamant that a black floor would be a BIG mistake) but I went ahead with it.

It's definitely the coolest thing in the bathroom. And even with two teenagers using it hard it never looks dirty. Of course we've only been using it for six weeks or so but I think I'd already have a sense of a problem if it was going to be one.

I had intended to use black grout and was upset when I saw that the charcoal grout was lighter (just a bit) than the tile. But I think the difference allows the shape of the tile to show a bit more and in the end was probably a better choice.

Any way, if you're interested I could go take a picture. I'm quite pleased with it. In my opinion, in such a small place (our bath is about 7x9) mixed colors on the floor might have made it look even smaller. But I do love the idea of doing the reverse of the usual white with a bit of black.

Oh and here are a couple of images from my inspiration file. I pondered white hex with dark grout for a while before I decided to go with the black. I apologize for not remembering where any of these images came from.

This was my black tile inspiration. From the blog Door 16 (doorsixteen.com). Penny tile instead of hex but the same idea.

Ooh, I have to say that I don't care for that dark hex tile. It looks like commercial grade anti-slip mats that you'd see in an office building foyer on a wet day. Love the others, though.

I'm so glad you posted, sw_in_austin! I saw your post with that link and then read all the cautions that followed and began to worry about whether I'd really like so much black if it's always going to look dirty.

I love the look, and now that I read your positive review of the cleaning issue, I may just go that way after all! I'd LOVE to see pics of yours and, also, I'd love info about what brand you ended up getting. If DH likes it, which I suspect he will since he loves everything black, I may just copy you--I hope you don't mind! :)

I love the other pics, too, especially fori's foyer pic. I'm feeling SO much more encouraged that I was just a few short hours ago. I love GW!

Holligator -- I am so glad to do you any kind of favor. Your kitchen with that beautiful soapstone was one of my first inspirations for using soapstone in my kitchen -- which we love above all things (if you look at the bathroom pics below you may be able to see the soapstone I snuck in there as well). And it's funny what you said about your husband liking black. Mine does too, as long as it's not shiny (which made soapstone perfect for us). So what goes around comes around on GW! I love that.

Anyway, the floor definitely doesn't show dirt (even with a muddy-footed dog running around!). That's a bit hard to see in the pics (where the flash shows up every piece of lint) but in real life they just look good. We're very pleased (we had a great tile guy who was meticulous in laying and spacing the tiles, which were on a very loose mesh backing).

It took some looking to find larger format hex tile. The tile we ended up with is American Universal in a matte black, 1.5-inch size. I really like the matte look (the penny tiles on Door 16 are matte black, from Nemo Tile in NY, with black grout) and I'm glad we went with the slightly larger tiles (the other choice was one-inch tiles, which were easily found at Daltile). The American Universal tiles were shipped from California (although the box says made in Japan) and had a lead time of a week or so; my impression is that they are fairly widely available (we got them from a local tile store).

These photos aren't great (and the trim on the new pocket door is still not painted!) but maybe they'll give you an idea. The first is probably the best representation of the way the floor actually looks.

I think the flash in this one is making the grout look lighter than it reads in real life and the tile shinier.

Good luck with your powder room. I look forward to seeing the finished pictures!

This one's mostly white, but it also has black grout. You'll see it's not that obtrusive:

This is amazingly helpful. My paralysis may finally be over!! :)

Here is our black and white floor tile. It's mostly white but maybe it will help give you an idea. Our house was also built in the 1940's. We used gray grout, not sure of the name but it was whichever gray they had on the shelf at HD. If I were doing it again I'd go darker with the grout; I love being able to see the pattern. Good luck with your decision!

here is are bathroom.done with silver grout.

{{gwi:1471227}}

Not my bathroom:

Greetings all! I found this site while searching for black hex tile. SW in Austin...your floor is exactly what I was looking for! I wanted to see what a matte black hex looked like in a real setting. I think that will look great in my bath. I did a little different take on the subway tile, doing a pearl grey grout.

Don't mind the windows! Those are being stripped, reglazed & fresh shellac on the inside.

Well....I pulled the trigger & ordered the black hex! I'm SO excited, I cannot wait to get it!

I know its been years, but I stumbled on this site when searching for a black and white bathroom ideas. bungalowmo your bathroom is exactly what Im looking for. Do you happen to have any finished photos? Thanks!