The skirting is inside the shower, but the difference in the depth of the tile at the upper edge of the skirting and the large tile is not much. Yes, the cornice piece has a slight edge, but no more than the Sonoma tile. Here is the profile of the Sonoma tile. I completely understand the concern of the protruding edges or ledges, but I'm not sure how you'd get the look without that detail. I don't mind using a squeegee or wiping down the shower after use. As has been discussed in other threads about the microfiber towels, wiping down the shower keeps it looking like new and requires very little 'cleaning'. We currently have 4" square white tile in the shower with white grout and after 25 years, it still looks very good. With the larger tile on the bottom 2/3 of the shower, we'll have a lot fewer grout lines.

Off-topic and please forgive....but a designer - not you OP! - posting to the world a photo of a Chicago Lake Shore Drive (ergo, super-pricey) residence with a cruddy filled wastebasket front and center?? Twice - thanks to the mirror. What were they thinking?? Sure not a good advertisement for their business. To the topic at hand, I think the swirling sand effect is very different and pleasing. And the thing about a neutral or serene effect in a bath is how easy to change the look with colored linens, a few accents, etc.

A good quality manufactured shower base/receptor can be very nice. Kohler make some nice ones from acrylic and some from cast iron, I think the reason people don't usually like them is that they've stood on ones that flex....cast iron won't do that. Then there is stuff like Corian that is sold through dealers. They make the floor installation a lot easier, but you obviously have to like the way they look. But it is far more sensible to use a continuous waterproof tray made in a factory that you just put down rather than assembling layers of plastic, mortar, waterproof membranes and finally tile and grout that is not waterproof. I very nearly used a Kohler base, but they didn't make a large enough one in cast iron and so I would have had to get a custom solid surface one and it was just easier and faster to put down a mud floor and waterproof it and tile. I think your contractor should remove the existing floor as who knows what's going on with the liner or maybe install something like the Kerdi system that you tehn tile over. They have a system that makes a lot of the tricky aspects of shower construction quite simple.

We're starting our master bath renovation in July and it's time to start making some design choices. This is a TINY (6'x7') bath in a 1898 Victorian foursquare home. We are not slaves to Victorian-era décor but I do want to use materials that generally look like they belong in a house of this age. Here's the proposed layout: As you can see, there's not a lot in the way of floor space, but what there is will be tile. I plan to tile the two walls of the shower enclosure floor-to-ceiling, along with the shower side of the brick chimney stack (we may or may not tile the vanity side of the chimney). Remaining shower enclosure will be glass; shower floor will be tile. Outside of the shower, I have considered using the shower tile to tile the walls up to wainscot height, but my contractor also suggested that beadboard or another decorative wooden wainscoting might be a nice alternative to tile. I am open to this option but I want to make sure I don't have TOO many different things going on in such a small space. Style-wise, I want to keep it somewhat simple but I am sick to death of white subways. I'm fine with some white, but I want to focus on soft greys and blues/greens/aquas in this bathroom. I really love the look of encaustic tiles and while I understand that true encaustics aren't suitable for wet environments, I'd love to find a porcelain look-a-like for the room floor, something like this: For the shower floor, maybe grey pennies: And then I get stuck. Coordinating grey subways for the shower, perhaps with grey wainscoting on the walls? Or pale blue subways in the shower and white wainscoting? Something else that's NOT subways? Marble hex on shower floor and walls? The choices are overwhelming, especially since my budget range can be pretty wide since I don't really need much in terms of square footage. I haven't chosen a vanity yet but I am planning on something grey with a white/grey marble or quartz top, most likely (and will use the same material for shower curbs/door saddle). Something like this: Thank you very much in advance for your suggestions!