I haven't used any of these sources, but buytile.com and decotile.com have reasonable prices on tiles, including marble subways. I like to go to buytiles site, as you can "drill down" on their options and find tile pretty much to your specifications. They are also very helpful on the phone.

If you have a Carpet One store (it's a franchised store) their prices seem ok. At my store they have a 3 x 8 marble subway called Bianco something for 7.99/sf made by A and A global supply (their web site is in Turkish). They are also carrying the Daltile products, which are very reasonably priced. Daltile has a newer line out called Stone a la mod -- carpet one carries Daltile as well. I was pleasantly surprised at the Carpet one prices.

Also check out Segbrown's kitchen -- she used a 6 x 8 tile that I really like, it's very reasonably priced. I think it's made by US Ceramics?

I just ordered bianco carrara marble subway tiles (3x6) from a local tile store for my kitchen backsplash... they were just under $15 sq/ft, plus a bit more for shipping. My cabinets were just painted BM White Dove as well, and my perimeter counters are going to be honed absolute black (just templated on Friday) so it sounds like our kitchens will have a similar vibe. If you shop around some local places, you may be surprised! Plain ceramic subway tiles are VERY inexpensive @ Lowe's or HD, even at a local store they should be under $2-3 sq/ft.

As far as purchasing marble tiles online, I went back and forth w/buildersdepotdirect.com, but was not impressed with the fact that they had no problem charging me to send out a sample, but are next to impossible to deal with because I want to order a small quantity (~25 square feet) and they say it will be hard/impossible/not cost effective to ship (???). He claimed it would have to be shipped on a pallet. I emailed James a week after he said he'd look into other shipping options, and he never responded. So even though their product was beautiful, I can't say I'd recommend buying from them. I emailed him 3x the first time before I got a response. Their site states that quantities over 70 sq/ft can sometimes be a problem, there is NOTHING that states a minimum quantity or that ordering a small amount would be an issue. Disappointing to say in the least.

Good luck finding something that works for you!

thanks to you both for the suggestions. I just ordered some samples from buildersdirect so am glad to hear of your experience- not what i want to deal with.

will check out all that you suggested!

L

Sorry to go off topic.

What finish of White Dove - semi-gloss, egg shell, satin?

I didn't buy online, but looked at a couple of places that sold granite and also at Floor and Decor which you don't have in your area. I ended up buying my subway for a little less than $5 a sq ft from a slab provider (also not in your area)

When I lived in PA I got carrara subway tile from a shop in Lancaster for $8 sq foot. Shop around! Carrara is a cheaper stone and I think shops definitely have leeway on the pricing. The real trick is finding a place that carries it in 3x6 subways.

lauriec-I'm always surprised to learn how inexpensive some people get their marble for. I haven't had such luck. Just a word of caution, I purchased calacatta from buildersdepot and they looked terrible. Mabey their cararra is better. I have a sample board of calacatta from GBI tile. The only place in my area that carries their marble is United Tile (not sure if you have one near you). It is beautiful (more so in person) but it is around $29.00 sf. I know this is high but just thought I'd through it out there. I wouldn't concider it mega bucks...I think 40 dollars a sf and up is mega but to each their own. The cheepest yet still good looking marble I found was from Deko.

GBI calacatta

And just for inspiration! (I'm sure you've see this) White subway is beautiful with soapstone!

Here is a link that might be useful: katieob's white subway

thx all, am considering white subway ceramic- but aka cabinets, which white subway with BM white dove paint...any suggestions - and what type - beveled, not, hand made, not..

aaarrgghh, this is feeling just like faucets :) - i clearly just cannot do this on my own.

off to HD etc to look around.

L

I feel your frustration. Beveled or not? That's just a personal preference. It adds an interesting twist on the subway tile and looks very nice. I prefer the clean lined look of the flat classic subway. I'm not sure how quickly you have to pick this out but my DH is at lowes as we speak getting plain white off the shelf subways. I can email you a pick when he puts them up if you want to see what the inexpensive tiles look like. We have moonlight white on our cabinets ( a bit darker than white dove). I like that there will be a little contrast in color. I wish you the best as I know how incredibly hard this decision is!

Another option that could keep the cost down is to cut down 12 x 12 stone tiles to the size you'd like. I couldn't find statuary subways anywhere for a reasonable price, so I bought 12" tiles from a local stone supplier for about 7 bucks a foot. My installer cut them down to subway size and used some type of hand sander item to hold each one and re-bevel the cut edges (just enough to mimic the original tiny bevel around the outside of the tile). It added about $300 to the install cost, which was well worth it when compared to the price of the only statuary subways I found.

megpie77, thanks, would love to see your pix. Have figured out that even at $25+, we do not have so much sq ft that it will cost that much... (after everything else we've spent).
we did see some marble subways that look nice but am still thinking it will compete with the soapstone... so am back to plain subway tiles, but of course then will have to do what make, what color, what size grout line, grout color..

so send along pix if you can.

and niffy, we were JUST talking about that idea - thanks for sharing that it went well with you having your contractor cut it down. send pix??

thx

L