that was so nice and helpful of you, Kevin. it appears to me that the only thing changing is the grout, which looks wetter temporarily. i wonder why on earth my tile is also getting so wet. by the way, your shower inspired me and my guest bathroom floor is now a black border with white square marble mosaics and the shower floor is a smaller size black marble square mosaic. it looks really sharp.

Mark - thanks for the link. I loved loving at your bathrooms with all their different decorating styles and choices. My original search was for shower niches, thanks trudymom. I don't really like the shower niche you show, but I love having the opportunity to consider it as well as the other specifics of your bathrooms. Just so you can tell what a person in the planning stages might be interested in seeing: Kohler shower bases vs. small grouted tile bold vs. bland countertops various tiling patterns and color use windows in the shower area tile vs. paint in the non-shower portions of the room

Nopushover, would you mind saying what brand and color or grout you used? NICE! Right now I'm leaning towards the Oyster gray color in the Prism line, but it does seem a bit light. Blue, I vote for 1" hex, too. That's what I've just used in my very small bathroom. If it ever does get grouted, I'll try to post a pic. Good luck. pup

Yep, I took all the doors off first. I just used a bucket of warm, soapy water and cleaned everything off. Then we sanded a tiny bit and filled in the holes where the old handles were and wiped them all down again. I personally think the primer is a make or break deal. You need to get a really good primer to make the paint adhere. I did two thin coats of the primer on everything. Then I used a semi-gloss paint and did three coats of that. I used a 2 inch foam roller from HD. I had to use a brush very little because the roller got in the cracks pretty well!! My kitchen color actually goes throughout most of my downstairs and up the stairs too. It's Lowes American Tradition Churchhill Hotel Hazy Yellow. It is a gorgeous warm yellow - here's a truer pic of what it looks like... The bathroom wall color is called Timeless Taupe from Olymic at Lowe's. I can't remember what the black is at all, but I'm pretty sure it's Olympic as well.