My experience with those grout bar samples has always been that the real grout dries lighter than those sample bars. Frankly, also with my experience, I would go for the darkest grout color which matches a darker color in the tile. I don't think you would go wrong with either a gray or a brown.

I had looked at those tiles last year and liked them, but they were "too dark" for my husband. He wanted LIGHT!!!! so, we got LIGHT, WITH LIGHT GROUT, guess who hates light grout? We had grout with an additive to make it stain resistant - NOT- at this point I'd like to have someone come in and remove all the grout and make it darker.

I know the style is now to match the most dominant color in the tile, in your case the light beige, to make it look more seamless. But, in reality, it's difficult to keep light colors clean. I've heard about epoxy grouts, while being easier to keep clean, are difficult to install, but I'm skeptical.

Grout, in my opinion, should match the color of your dirt!

Helene

Thank you blubird for your advice. I also love light and used the Spectralock stain resistant grout in my two foyer areas and it is getting pee on it that is difficult to remove from my little dogs using the puppy pads in the middle foyer. The front tiny foyer by the door seems to stay mostly nice but some of it in 2.75 years is a little dirty. I think I need a grout that I have to seal to keep it nice it seems...

Any pictures of your kitchen which sounds beautiful.

The grayish taupe edge on the tiles seems to be a hue in between Latte (40) and Parchment (61)on the printout from the computer from Laticrete�s pdf color chart and similar to the Linen (122) from the Polyblend Home Depot color chart but a touch of gray mixed with it. It is a grayish taupe color That is going to show around the tile but I don�t remember seeing it with the off-white grout my neighbor�s used.

The Laticrete Mushroom (#39) seems to pick up the lightest color in the tile like I wanted from the pdf printout that is not as yellow as the plastic bar strip sample from the store. I wish it had a slight more gray mixed in the color but a similar lightness. I was going to use the Toasted Almond (#52) until the store told me it dries with an orange cast and the stick has a lot of orange in it but the printout from the computer picks up one of the darker colors in the tile and it is slightly less dark than the Parchment.

The pictures are date stamped since the pictures of the kitchen was when I was sharing the new hardwood floors and my new appliances. My kitchen was much uglier before I changed the horizontal metal broken bone blinds on the sliding door window and the almond appliances and the family room used to have an old beige carpet before in September 2009 I changed the floors to BR-111 5" wide Brazilian Cherry Floors.

Trust me-you do not want lighter grout than your dirt ANYWHERE near the kitchen. I have light grout on the floors AND on my countertops AND backsplash. I want to gauge my eyes out. It is a housekeeping nightmare. It will drive you INSANE unless you enjoy taking a toothbrush to grout on a weekly basis.

I'd definitely do the darker grout for both looks and for maintenance.
What color wall will you be doing? I hate to say it, but the tiles don't seem to work with the wall color or blinds very well. It could be my monitor so YMMV.

Bahacca, thank for letting me know that I should go wit the darker color grout.

Dianalo, You are so right that I did not notice that the tile did not work with the wall color or blinds until I took the picture! I had the blinds open all the time and never considered them but now seeing the pictures, I am going to have to make more changes. The tiles are a little darker than I had wanted but were a great buy and I LOVED them in my neighbor's home with the Cherry Kitchen Cabinets and they look nice next to my Brazilian Cherry floors. I will be making changes to my cabinets so that did not bother me. They look nice with my Sand White (a creamy off-white) drawers from my furniture in my Master Bedroom and look great with Cherry colors. Maybe the blinds will have to go or I will have to put a curtain over them when I close them since they work so well with the dogs. The BM Bone White walls I felt I should reconsider after making changes to the cabinets in case I cover the soffit with molding or remove it. Thank you for your input.

Kitchen Pictures BEFORE New Appliances & Before New Blinds & the Paint on the Wall (changed from Behr Linen White with no contrast with the baseboards to BM Bone White with White Baseboard Trim) I have in the link below to remember how bad this kitchen looked. I live in a very expensive area where the houses and townhouses cost so much money and you get so little for your money since I live close to NYC. But almost everyone in my townhouse complex has invested money in new kitchens so I have to fix up my kitchen for my own enjoyment and for resale one day.

So you see from this new pictures (you can look at them via a slideshow), the kitchen has been improving and now with new tiles, decision on the blinds again, painting or changing the cabinets, changing the counters, revising the paint color unless the soffits can be covered with Crown Molding to match the white painted cabinets I plan to do in the kitchen (I also love cherry), I feel the kitchen will make me happy like my other rooms downstairs now do.

I just need to decide on the grout and if I want the tiles installed in a square pattern or a staggered pattern. Then I will slowly make the other changes.

Thank you for looking and being there for me. Any suggestions are always welcome.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Pictures BEFORE New Appliances & Before New Blinds & Paint on Wall

Our tile looks similar to yours but it's hard to tell from the photos. Are yours mostly beige except for the edges? Our edges are gray too (tile is light beige) but you can't really see that once you grout. Grout color is really a personal preference thing - some like the grout to stand out, some like it to blend in. We used bone colored grout because the sample we tested dried identically colored to the tile and I wanted something that would NOT call attention to the grout lines. My hope was that the final sealed grout would be either the same color or just a tad darker. The darker lines that we could see between the tiles because of the gray edging before we grouted were too prominent for my taste so I'm hoping it won't dry too dark. We just put the 2nd coat of sealer on the tile this morning and from what I can tell it's drying up fairly light - the same as the unsealed color. I don't know if bone is going to make me want to gouge my eyes out in the long run because of the dirt factor but we'll see.

I'll post pictures when it is dry.

EcoBuzz, thank you for your post.

I have been playing around with the grout color charts from online and I was starting to like the color Bone from the Polyblend grout colors from Home Depot but not sure if that is a good grout. I want to also match as close to the tile since I do not like grout lines standing out. I also find the darker edges to be too dark for me. The Polyblend's Mushroom color is much too dark for my taste while the Latricrete's Mushroom color is very nice but I wish it had a touch more bone color in it. My tile's main color is alight beige and the tile is made by Ilva and the Series with the White color called Aida is what I chose.

What brand grout and sealer did you use? Your taste sounds like mine in wanting the grout lines to not stand out. What grout width did you chose?

I can't wait to see pictures! Thank you again!

You want a grout that will flow with the color of the tile, so you do not get a checker board affect.

Thank you shar-az for your input. I agree that I do not want a checker board effect and want a grout that will flow the the color of the tile. I just have to find that grout color. I can't wait to make other changes once I get rid of that Linoleum floor that is in bad shape.

Lynn, I agree that you should find a grout that best matches your tile.
The Polyblend that HD carries is what we used on both our floor and backslpash.
It has held up with out any problems for a year now.
We found that the trick is to seal it well.
We used 4 coats of sealer on the floor and 2 coats on the backsplash.
So far clean up has been a breeze.
Also, as some have already stated, the grout dries substantially lighter than the color chart.
So it may be best to mix up a sample before you commit to a particular color.
I understand that you're re-doing your kitchen piece by piece, but be aware that by tiling the floor you may be trapping the dishwasher in place until you replace the countertop.
Be sure to post some pictures when the tiles are in.

Willtv, thank you for letting me know that you used the Polyblend that HD carries since I do like their Bone color a lot which looks slightly darker with less yellow tones than the Laticrete Mushroom grout without being too dark. I think you are right that I need to try out both grout colors before committing to be sure it is the look I like since grout does dry lighter. I remember when the Mushroom grout dried in my two small foyer areas (well one is a foyer area by the entrance that is so small and the other is a small hallway where the powder room, utility tiny room, closet and garage doors are that meet at the area in between the dining room and living room), I was at first disappointed it was lighter than I thought it would be but after a few days I liked it since the overall color matched the same hue as my tile and it was not too light.

I hope I did not mess up by running out to buy the tile since I was trying to be patient to do the floors and counters and cabinets at the same time and put the backsplash off until funds were available. But I saw the tile at a neighbor's house and fell in love but I see now I fell in love with their totally renovated kitchen with better lighting and those beautiful granite counters!

Sorry it took me so long to get the pics but I wanted to wait until the sealer was dry so that the color was as true as possible. Our grout lines are less than 1/8", probably around 3/16". Basically we laid the pieces as close together as possible without them looking crooked. We used very inexpensive tile from Home Depot and so far the only downside has been that the pieces aren't exactly straight. Since we wanted virtually non-existent grout lines this made it very difficult to line them up so that all the corners were perfectly straight. My husband was so meticulous about it - picking and choosing pieces and turning them every which way to get the best lines. Anyhow... two of these pictures show pretty true to color but the closeup shot looks very gray (vs. the beige color that the tile actually is....).

Tile: 18"x18" Ceramica DaVinci Safari ceramic floor tiles

Grout: Polyblend unsanded grout in bone (#382)

Sealer: 1st coat TileLab Grout & Tile Sealer, 2nd coat Miracle 511 Seal & Enhance One Step

The 1st coast of sealer (TileLab) was a zero VOC product but any good done there was negated by the 2nd coat of sealer which was a traditional toxic product. However the Miracle 511 sealer is a very good product from a protection standpoint and hopefully it's not as toxic once it is dry. It sure was stinky going on!

The color here is pretty close to what it looks like in person:

This one shows the grout line but the color looks more gray than the beige it actually is:

And this one shows a slightly closer view than the first. The color is pretty accurate:

Argh... meant to say that the grout lines are close to 3/32" :-).

EcoBuzz, thank you for the pictures. The tile is a nice happy color that is nice and neutral. Your husband did a very good job putting the tiles on the diagonal since that is what I had done in my little foyer and mudroom type of hallway coming out of the garage by two installers. The first installer was doing such a bad job that he quit and I had to buy so many new boxes of tiles for the mess he did to the tiles in cutting them into little pieces and doing a border I did not want.

I really appreciate you share the bone grout color with me and your tiles. I can't wait to see the rest of the kitchen when it is completed! Your new refrigerator is beautiful!

lynn2006 - you can still see the gray edges that we were talking about even after grouting but it's less pronounced. In person it looks even less obvious than in the photos. Keep us posted on what you decide!

EcoBuzz, Yes, I can see the gray edges in the picture and looking closely see the Bone grout that is lighter. I guess to avoid that, we both would have had to buy a through Body tile but we both liked the tiles we bought and got good prices on them.I will definitely keep all of you updated on my progress and what I have decided.

My kitchen fixture kept flickering so I took off the cover and my friend had not turned two of the bulbs on! Now the light is twice as bright and the tiles are even prettier with more of the cream showing and the detail on each tile clearer. I just have to find the right installer as I am also in a middle of a deadline.

I am hoping to get paid by more of my clients so I can continue the kitchen updating that will make me so happy. I guess I need to try out samples of the grout since I want my grout to blend with my tile and I will be sure to seal the grout well.

I have a cabinet company that does everything for kitchens coming by Thursday to give me an estimate by piece to see what I can do. I rearranged my square 18 X 18 Ila (actually are 17.25 X 17.25- I JUST measured and I am upset they are smaller than the size on all the boxes) tiles three ways with a friend: straight grid, brick pattern (scattered), and diagonal. I am now confused how I want the tiles in the kitchen. I have diagonal in my small front foyer and in the middle hallway between the dining room and living room with the bathroom. utility room, garage and coat closet lining up the sides so it was a difficult install with all the cuts.

Maybe I will post pictures of the three ways. I am 95% sure I am using the Mushroom PermaGrout by Laticrete. I also like their Antique White. The bone color at Home Depot did not look that great with my tiles like I thought it would.