yes horizontally, its the short wall that I'm having trouble with figuring out. A contractor will be doing it, but I don't want to hear any excuses from them. Also, should I run a piece of bullnose past the top of the tub all the way down the wall, or just run the bullnose to the tile flange of the tub?

Thanks - that's the look i am looking for and also understand that i may need to compromise a bit as the geometry of the shower is not exactly setup for 12x24 so i will get some odd sized pieces. I will work with them this morning and see if we can work out the best layout that meets my objectives while also not end up with very small cuts of tile at the more visible ends. I think there may need to be a compromise somewhere but I think it can be done by working the corners within reason.

I am in the middle of a remodel and the guys have started tiling the shower walls. This is a reasonably large shower about 70 inches long and 50 wide. We are using 12x24 inch ceramic tile laid with a 33% offset. They have completed tiling the 70" side wall and we have got into a discussion on how to continue the tiling on the two side walls. It has always been my understanding that the tiles would "fold" at the corners and the section of tile cut off from the 70" wall would continue at 90 degrees. They say that they prefer to "frame" the tiles on the 50" walls to get the best layout on the 50" wall and then let the corners end up as the pattern falls out. What I can see that I end up with a pice of tile 3" wide on one side of the corner and then have a 8" section continuing - this looks a bit odd to me but they say this is a layout they commonly use - my thought is maybe not with 12x24" tile and in an offset pattern. Most of the pictures I see on the internet show the "folded" tile look which is what I think i prefer but since the tile layout was started on the back wall may end up with some odd cuts at the ends. Just trying to get some feedback from the experts here as they will be coming back to start on the other walls first thing in the morning! Thanks

Laying the tile vertical can make the room look taller while going horizontal can make it look wider (similar to the vertical vs horizontal stripes on clothes). I think it also gives a more modern feel. We went vertical with the 12 x 24" tile in our shower. Our house tends toward mid-century modern so the modern feel goes with the bones of the house. Part of the reason that we chose vertical is the tiled bench in the shower. By going vertical with the tiles, there are only vertical grout lines on the bench since the 24" direction of a tile is longer than the the height of the bench and longer than the depth of the bench. If we had used the horizontal direction, there would have been horizontal and vertical grout lines on the bench side and top as well as vertical ones. There are two ways to do a 1/3 stagger. In one, you move the tile edge 1/3 of a tile in the same direction for each row so you have 3 kinds of row. E.g. if you move to the left each time and start the first row with a full tile, the next row with 2/3 of a tile and the row after with 1/3 of a tile, then the next row you are back to a full tile. The other way is to use only 2 kinds of row so the rows alternate by moving over by 1/3 of a tile and then back the other direction by 1/3 of a tile. E.g. if the first row started with a full tile, the next row started with 2/3 of a tile and the row started with a full tile. I guess one could see the grout lines in the first way as looking like steps of a stair. Personally, I prefer the look with 3 rows of the pattern over the look with two rows. I don't see why one is "wrong" and the other "right". Seems like personal preference in which pattern is preferred.