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. From August 12, 2011 I think the flash in this one is making the grout look lighter than it reads in real life and the tile shinier. From August 12, 2011 Good luck with your powder room. I look forward to seeing the finished pictures!

I just painted big squares of different paints right on the walls. Then, my drywall man gave me "the look" because he had to skim coat the squares or they difference between unprimed drywall and the painted squares would always show through my paint. Who knew? So... I'd do what most wise people here do: Paint on big pieces of cardboard. Not only does it not screw up future paint jobs, but you can move them around in different light. Sure, if you have an extra cabinet door that would be great. Keep in mind that the sheen of the paint used can also make it look different. So if you're going for some kind of a gloss, the flat samples are going to appear different. I saw a credenza painted in the dark navy blue I was thinking off. Thought of this thread, but didn't save the link. If I can get ahold of it again, I'll post the pic. GORGEOUS.

Black stainless steel is simply regular stainless steel with a thin coating of paint. At some point, you inevitably will damage that coating. While stainless steel can be buffed out to remove scratches, this is impossible with coated steel. And even worse, rather than having a minor blemish in the grain, now you have a highly-visible difference in color.

Please post some pictures.