I have a limestone counter with an onyx BS in the MBR, a pedestal sink in the hall bath, and granite in the kitchen and powder room. I say get what pleases you in each room, especially if you plan to stay in the house. If you were getting ready to put the house on the market, I would say keep it more uniform and neutral.

I think there are differences between continuity and builder-monotony.

My sister's builder house, which is pretty nice, don't get me wrong, has one light fixture in different sizes thoughout the entire house. The cabinets and hardware are identical in the kitchen and 2-1/2 baths. and the vanity tops are identical. All bath fixtures are identical. There is one carpet color that shows up sporadically where there are not hardwood floors.

Continuity can include repetition of materials, but without complete repetition of all materials or combinations throughout.

I think there should be continuity of style, but not necessarily of materials or fixtures. Houses with the same material on the bathroom vanity tops as on the kitchen work top scream flip house to me, especially when it's that ubiquitous orbicular textured granite, but maybe that's a regional thing.

I think there is a fine line, but I would rather see the repetition of higher end materials like soapstone, than a distinct hierarchy of materials based upon some scale of "importance" (like who sees what).

I have been in houses where the powder room has an onyx top, the master bath is marble, the hall bath is granite and the kid's jack and jill bathroom is cultured marble and sheet vinyl right off the rack at the big box store, with the quality of everything else placed on the same scale of who sees it and what sort of impression one wants to make in public vs. private. --in that house if they had had live-in help s/he probably would've been given a galvanized pail and a garden hose.

So while too much use of the materials may seem like "builder" or "flip, I think the other side of the coin is that too much of a discrepancy between materials from one area to the next can be at the very least inconsistent and perhaps going so far as to hint at budget cuts in the rooms with lesser materials.

I definitely agree with continuity of style (though I make some exception for children's bedrooms). And I can see the point and agree that some repetition is different from complete cut and paste everywhere.

Interesting that you mention the same vanity and kitchen countertops as screaming flip, Fun2BeHere, since that's the among the materials and locations in play for us. I wonder if it makes a difference if it's a less common material? The kitchen countertops are still very much an open question. I'm considering matte stainless steel, which I would not then consider for the bathroom. But I was also looking at quartzite and engineered quartz. And dh still likes the soapstone. If it worked to use up a slab for the bathroom, that might be a cost-savings.

I do think it is very likely that both bathrooms and the kitchen will end up with white ceramic tiles. The master already has white subway tiles (with gray pencil liner and light gray grout). I think the hall bath is likely to end up with 4 x 4 white ceramic, perhaps combined with white subways and a pencil liner of some kind. And the kitchen backsplash may be 6 x 6 white ceramic tile. So that might provide some continuity through repetition of the white ceramic, but not be cookie cutter because of the differing shapes/sizes.

That hierarchy is also an interesting point. We have a very small house so there are only two bathrooms. The soapstone is already in the master bath, which is the least seen of the rooms in question. The hall/kids bath is the one that may be remodelled this spring. I intend to use more or less the same level of materials throughout.

This thread really hits home. I'm not opposed to different materials in various rooms (no one room outshines another) and they all have a "wow" factor but I want everything to look like it all belongs and I feel like I've accomplished that in our addition and whole house renos over the last 12 years. We do have 3 different wall textures going on and that bothers me a little even tho it's not noticeable looking from one room to another. The exception is the master bedroom and ensuite. Totally opposite from the rest of the house (deep rustic colors and traditional w/ an elegant rustic flair. The master suite is tones of soft browns, ocean blue/greens and light travertine, a punch of orange (which can be found in every room of the house) & more modern. Didn't build for resale. Designed and decorated to make us happy :) I just can't help wondering if others find it acceptable. My mother is the opposite but loves what we've done.

We have a skip trowel texture in the dining room, long strokes. We're remodeling DH's bathroom/hall bath right now and he's shown me a picture of the same thing only smaller more dense strokes. I was hesitant but after reading this, I think I feel better about it...till I don't again (LOL)

I think that use of similar finishes for continuity also depends upon the size of the home. A 10,000 square foot home is going to look like a hotel if continuity is the driving design principle. (In fact, I know a couple who moved I to a 12,000 sq ft home and got tired of decorating bedrooms, and have at least three exactly alike--- same wall color, carpet, furniture and bedding.) But even a 4000 square foot house needs variety; you don't want five bathrooms and the kitchen to all sport the same materials......to me that also looks very spec house/ builder grade-ish, where in a smaller home that look would make the house feel more spacious because of the continuity.

None of my counters match.

I'm laughing at the idea of a 4000 foot square home. We live in the Bay Area, land of small, and very expensive houses. We live in 1700 square feet. Point taken though. There's less room to get overly repetitious in a smaller house.

And, of course, the countertops are the prime example for me at the moment. But I think there is a somewhat larger discussion that can be generalized to lighting choices, paint color, etc.

crl, I think the materials do make a difference. I doubt that having soapstone in multiple rooms would say "spec house" -- at least I hope not, since that's what we have. (Kitchen counters and bath floors). We did the white ceramic thing in baths too (subways/squares) but we only have a short splash in the kitchen. So, I think your plan sounds great:-) Good luck!

[edited to add -- our contractor works on a lot of spec houses in the Bay Area. They typically use Quartz or granite in the kitchen, and marble/large format/mosaics in baths.]

This post was edited by Oaktown on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 11:50

I think it's a personal preference, whether you use the same materials or different. I like the overall "feel" of the house to flow, and maybe see some flow or continuity of color. I like consistency of style, but not necessarily all the same choices per se.

We have done gut remodels of the kitchen and master bathroom, and are in-progress on the main bathroom. Nothing in the rooms is the same, but I think the styles are all "transitional" and fairly neutral:

The kitchen has natural cabs/mid-tone tile greyish-tan floor (hard to describe, it's tile that is supposed to look like some kind of stone and it has both warm and cool tones)/white glossy tile backsplash behind the range/Livingstone "Volcanic Ash" solid surface counters.

The master bath has glossy white tile shower/white Swanstone pan/light yellowish-beige stone-like tile floor (this tile is bigger than that from the kitchen, and it has a very "tumbled/distressed" look, DH picked it from off-the-shelf HD), white ceramic counter/sink combo (from Ikea) along w/matching drawer-vanity, oak-ish.

The main bath, though, has a medium-dark vanity, dark charcoal grey floor tile (not stone-like at all), and white glossy tiles on walls/shower but the tiles have a wavy surface. I hope to choose a vanity top that is lighter in color, to tie in with the light tops in the kitchen and master.

None of these rooms are exposed to each other, so I figure why not have fun? :-) Our home is small, 1200 sqf, but we've lived here for 13 years and may not have a chance to move for another 5+ years. If everything was identical I think it would be too boring. Next year we are going to re-do the carpet (to hardwood I hope hope hope) and the living room, and I'm hoping that the living room will tie in better with the main bath. But otherwise I've been able to sort of evolve and figure out what I like over the years. One thing I've learned is that I really like blue and green! I did not realize this before, which sounds silly.

Personally for me hardware and cabinets should be identical whatever you use be it granite or some other stone. Without being rude, can i say that when stones differ in texture they give a strange look often cluttered. If they are pastel colored then certainly they look great for all weathers.

I don't think that you need a house to be matchy-matchy like they did in the 1960s. If the only consideration in having the soapstone is to have it match, that's seems like the wrong reason to me. That said, if the materials are good, and are used well, you don't have to worry about builder grade.

For resale, you would want the house to have a good flow, so decorating in confusing or dissimilar styles in every room won't make the house look better. But flow and harmony doesn't have to be done by using matchy materials or the exact same materials.

That dark soapstone, though beautiful, might be a little stringent if used throughout a house, or like you suggest it would lose it's charm and seem undiscerning and therefore builder-grade.

I am sort of tired of seeing white tiles and subway tiles in particular, but I think that the buying public still like white, and like even more knowing or being able to give a name to what they are buying because it can feel like a choice they made themselves "Oh look honey, subway tiles". If you plan on all white tiles I might suggest that you lay one room at a 45ð angle, like the kitchen tiles. To me, 6" white tiles in a kitchen says builder grade.

I wonder if there is also something about using materials and styles that are appropriate to the house that helps keep of from feeling flip/builder. I have long thought that choices appropriate to the house are less prone to looking dated.

Our house is a French revival built in 1926. We are on the west coast so the soapstone is period appropriate but not geographically appropriate.

The white subway tiles with pencil liner seem very appropriate to the house to me, though I can see how that look might feel overdone in general right now. The current, original or nearly original, kitchen has six inch yellow ceramic tiles for the backsplash and countertop. (Snapshot below just for kicks.) We don't want to keep the yellow color and I will not put in a new tile countertop, but I am interested keeping some thing of the style of the backsplash.

Engineered quartz counters in kitchen and bath, with the same color in each, does seem more flip/builder to me, than some other choices even if the choice would still be the same in each. I'm not entirely sure why though. Maybe just that it feels like a common"upgraded " choice at the moment?

As far as the soapstone, it's more that I am changing my mind on wanting to use it in the kitchen and ds still likes it. So he's looking for arguments to sway me towards using it. If I say no, we won't use it. (I'd respect his veto too. But I'm the family cook so my opinion gets a lot of sway on this choice).

Rotated:

Why not stick to the square tile format for the backsplash rather than the rectangular subway format. By 1926, it would have been square, more likely.

Check out Silestone Life! or Zen series for quartz. Plain non stone-looking textures in bright or neutralish colors that would be modern but reference tile, linoleum or early formica counters.

This post was edited by palimpsest on Sat, Dec 6, 14 at 13:22

Yes, I am thinking 6 x 6 tile for kitchen backsplash. The subways are already in the master bath and I'm thinking perhaps a mix of 4 x 4 and subway (with pencil liner) for the hall bath. So it would be some repetition of material, but with variation in shape and size.

The kitchen countertop choice is difficult. Dh likes much bolder patterns, ala granite. I would really like to track down a matte stainless countertop to see in person as I think it would be very practical. I also think it might look somewhat appropriate as an approximation of zinc. Then there would definitely not be a repetition of the countertop material because I would not do stainless in a bathroom.