black/white octogon & dot could use a darker grout

I will be watching this thread with interest. I am trying to pick floors for a similar situation.

We will be remodeling our bathrooms in the next few months and I am so stuck on the floor tiles. I live in a Craftsman home with fir floors. We are probably going to do the soft white subway tiles from the Heath Basics [cheaper] collection. It is a perfect match for the hex tile sample I got from The Tile Shop, but I want something different, less expected.

I'm thinking of using some sort of large, dark handmade tiles on the floor. I'd love to use Motawi, but the price is jaw-dropping. I work near the Heath outlet, so I am keeping an eye on their weekly overstock lists for just the right thing. Any other suggestions for a different, darker floor most appreciated. Like the OP, my bathrooms are small.

Here is a link to some beautiful options-subway tiles and liners in all sorts of colors, plus the Handcraft Floor tile I am considering. I have seen the floor tile in person; it is beautiful stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: Malibu Ceramic Works/ Handcraft Tile

I'm almost to the tile stage in one of my bathrooms. The walls and shower will be white subway and the floor will be terracotta-color 6 x 6 porcelain tile with dark mushroom-y colored grout. It's the left over tile from the kitchen at my last house, and it goes great with the pink paint that DD chose for her bathroom. (She gets to choose the paint, which is the easiest thing to change, and I chose all the rest.)

Connie

I kept & refinished the fir floors in my bungalow bathroom, which look fabulous against the white subway tile:

circuspeanut, looks nice. is it hard to maintain wood floors in the bathroom? since my kids will be in the one with the subway tiles, i'm afraid there might be some water getting on the ground.

Greetings,

There are many things that are currently undecided with our bathroom upgrades. Windows wall tile and floor tile have been dedided. We will be going with white subway tile on the walls and the floor will be 3/4 hextile from The Tile Shop.

http://www.tileshop.com/products/detail.aspx?categoryID=6&subcategoryID=22&familyID=434&record_id=1647

Here is a link that might be useful: 3/4 hex

circuspeanut,

love the white offset subway & liner deco band in above the tub!
Thinking of something similar for a custom shower but with black or blue trim with white subway walls, if anyone has any suggestions
thanks!

Bloved -- the floors have held up marvellously. I did have to replace one small bit, but that was from removing a ghastly knee wall someone added in the 1960's that had a leak in its plumbing. We don't have kids, but the bath has withstood 3 young families since the 1920's, being the only bathroom in the whole house. We used Waterlox with Fabulon oil-based poly on top, and this combination seems pretty bulletproof. Water stands on the surface until it evaporates. Your mileage may vary -- if your kids are really sloppy and you don't want the fuss of having to mop up, you might consider a different surface. But we've found the wood warm and comfortable, especially when stepping out of the shower or bath! :-)

Thanks Kem! I found vintage fir wood at an architectural salvage place and designed the double chair rails to match the rest of the house trim. (Honestly, I couldn't afford the fancy ogee tile I really lusted after to finish off the top of the wainscotting, so had to improvise.)
One great resource for tile -- and floor -- ideas is Jane Powell's Bungalow Bathrooms, if you haven't seen that book yet. Many great color combos and inspiration tile layouts (Amazon.com lets you look inside it for some sample photos).
I might go with black for the versatility, but a darker period blue would be great too. A nice vintage effect is a simple black pencil liner with tiny bits of white (cut from white pencil liner) between each one. Someone on gardenweb did this; I'll scour the history to see if I can find that photo for you.

thanks for the tip circuspeanut. no, my kids arent really too sloppy...no more than a typical 3 and 5 yr old :) i have always liked the look of a dark walnut kind of floor with the bathroom so i'll look into that. still contemplating between that, carrera marble like porcelain, and the oct & dot...that's really neat to find things at the arch. salvages places...need to find out where those types of places are! :)

We used a 2" polished ceramic hexagon tile by Olympia Tile. It worked great with the white subway tiles we used on the walls and because it's polished, it won't absotb dirt and is easy to clean. I don't have any good photos of our installation but below is a link to the Olympia tile website. These tiles were a bargain at about $2.30 a square foot and we have been very pleased with the look and durability. We have them installed in 3 baths including our main floor powder room.

The tiles we used are manufacturer code: UM.JP.WHT.0202.HEXGL Jasper White polished

Here is a link that might be useful: Olympia Tile Website