I like this tile design in the shower and was thinking I can do the ming brick pattern tile on the bottom with white subway on top and some ming pencil border up top. Any thoughts on how this would look? Another idea is to do all white subway with a thick ming tile border. I don't want to use ming marble tile on the floors. I would like to use some sort of porcelain tile for ease of cleaning and also since it is more budget friendly. Any suggestions other than the wood porcelain tile?

This topic couldn't be more timely! I am in the process of selling my NYC condo and buying a Loudoun County new construction home. To start with, the condo had marble baths - vanities, floors, shower tiles, wall tiles - the whole thing. I hated it! Looking back, I now know why I hated it. I hated it because I always knew that condo was not my forever home. I was always trying to keep it looking fresh and clean and pristine for "when we sell". That meant that I was always wiping up water from the vanities. If we had guests, I would take every opportunity to go into the second bathroom to wipe up whatever water was sitting on the vanity. This was a constant issue and stress for me and my poor husband who was an innocent bystander to my obsession. One day my cat peed on the bath mat on the floor and the etching in front of the tub freaked me out and I couldn't look at it without worrying about a potential buyer's complaints. One night I put my contact case on the vanity without drying it off and to this day there is an outline of a contact case on that vanity. All this being said, the first person who looked at my condo made me a full price offer with no mention of the barthroom marble! Now that we are building our dream home, I have decided to put in 150 feet of Carrara marble kitchen counters and am plotting for that day In the future when I can afford to redo the builder 4x4 ceramic tiles in the master bathroom our budget requires we get now with Carrara marble tiles and vanities. Long story short, now that I know that this is "my" house and whatever I do with it only has to please me and not some future buyer, I am doing exactly what I want. The thing is that I am a relaxed person who enjoys things that feel warm and homey and used but have an underlying elegance. Marble is perfect for me! I can't wait to have it and enjoy it and appreciate it's characteristics rather than fighting them. Marble boils down to this, if you are going to fight every mark and indication of use - DON'T GET IT it is not for you. Stick with granite or something else that will look brand new in 20 years. If you appreciate a patina and signs of use, then get it and love it.

Checked on the online paint program on the Benjamin Moore website -- here's some ideas: "Sandy Hook Gray" (HC-108) "Silver Satin" (CC-#856) "Apparition" (CC-#860) "Victorian Garden" (CC-#1531) "Gargoyle" (CC-#1546) "Silver Song" (CC-#1557) Maybe one of these would work? Hope this helps! Jan P.S> here's a link to the site -- just scroll down the page and click on "Paint Now" under the Personal Color Viewer. Then choose a room -- and try some colors from the pulldown chart. Here is a link that might be useful: Benjamin Moore paint site

Oh I didn't think about cleaning the carrara... is it really that difficult? Ugh... I love the hex border idea. I thought about an area rug, but I'm nervous about getting the spacing wrong without the tub in place. Or having real rugs overlap with the tile one. I'm also nervous about putting them around the tub in case the tub goes in place and they are off centered or something. I have OCD fears ;) Thank you for showing me photos of your lovely bathroom shanghaimom! Any suggestions for a backspash? I'm thinking about a blue-ish wall color too. This bathroom is so pretty: