I'm eager to hear what people suggest for your vanities because I'm hoping to have very similar color schemes. I'm having such a hard time, though, picking tile. Is the Best Tile in your photos the one on Route 18 in East Brunswick?

ahmnj, Which salesperson worked with you? Your bathroom looks great.

Thanks! It was a challenge - mostly due to a contractor who kept disappearing for weeks at a time.

Anyway, worked mostly with Linda, Tom and Jeanne. Honestly, everyone was helpful when I needed it.

Our custom vanity and linen cabinet are made of maple, stained with Minwax English Chestnut. They are fairly dark, and I absolutely love them! They are my favorite thing in our remodeled bathroom.

Donna

I'd be more concerned about natural stone in the shower than the wood species for your vanities.

We went with a lightly stained walnut grain-matched vanity in our "gray" master bath when we recently remodeled. Love all your tile choices and I think it's a good idea to mix it up a bit with your vanities in each bathroom.

All of your choices look very pretty! How exciting!!! I did a charcoal floor in my bathroom and then went with white quartz, faux marble tile for the shower, and mixed in real marble/mosaic glass pieces. I had my heart set on a white or gray painted vanity cabinet but I couldn't afford what ProSource was quoting so I went with a local cabinet maker who I went to school with. He said over and over that he wouldn't paint a cabinet so I just stuck with wood, and he talked me into cherry - said the grain was prettier and has more of a rich feel over maple. I love the end results. The stain I picked matches our hardwood that is in other areas of our house. I also ripped out the orange oak (that I hated) so just about any new stain looked better to me lol.

I also had to incorporate some more "wood" in other areas of the bathroom so I found a wood shelf from PB and wood stool from Homegoods - it ties everything together I feel like.

With your choices, you can go with painted or wood. I myself wanted painted, but now I'm over the moon with my new wood vanity. I believe maple is a littler harder than cherry which is a plus if you go with maple. Oak is really hard - but I don't like the grain in it (plus I was stuck with 90s oak everywhere so I just don't like oak right now)...

before & after

See pic below - You can see where we tied in other "wood" products to help match the wood vanity.

This may sound a bit remedial, but...

For which wood regarding stain versus paint? Stain, you'd chose the wood based off the grain pattern and color that you're looking for. A subtle grain versus a prominent grain. Wanting the valley and cathedral grain pattern that you'd get with flatsawn wood versus what you'd get with quartersawn. Wanting book-matched door panels. Depending on your style, with overlay doors and drawers, you can carrying a single grain pattern across the entire front of the vanity.

Some species take pigmented stain well. Others can take stain unevenly, so other methods can be used to color the wood. Gels, dyes, toners, etc.

Color? You can stick with a wood species' natural color/tone/shade, or the color can be skewed with stains or dyes.

Paint grade? Many cabinet shops have their "standard" wood for paint grade. In general, I use poplar for stile/rail/face frames and a good quality (not the box store) birch ply for the cabinet carcasses. Poplar machines well, holds edge pattern details well, and takes paint well. It's durable and in my locale, reasonably priced.

Your cabinet shop of choice should be able to tell you what they can and can't do.

grannysmith18- The best tile I used was the one in Schenectady. It's not the closest one to the construction, but my family is near there so I was able to go while they watched the kids. The store was nice and very helpful. Prior to that I looked in Paramus tile stores, mainly Wayne Tile. It was just way too overwhelming to me. They had a bigger selection, which in theory would have been good, but it just made me crazy.

ahmnj- Beautiful bathroom! Glad you also liked them. Did you buy their 'grout once'? I am planning to, assuming it actually works.

msmeow- do you have a picture?

sjhockeyfan- I was originally very against using marble and wanted the porcelain fake marble instead. The store didn't have very good imitation, and it was more expensive! They convinced me to go with marble and said it was very easy to seal. I hope they aren't lying. We are only doing the shower and counter, not the floors. I am nervous but I do like the look. I kept questioning the maintenance but the store seemed very sure it would wear fine (they would have made more money off the porcelain so I don't see reason for them to lie).

ck- do you have a picture?

mrsshayne- That's really nice! The wood looks great there. I love the tile behind the mirrors on the vanity. What did you use?

MongoCT- thanks! That was actually really helpful. I guess I knew those things in the back of my head but haven't actually thought about them.

Hi, Sarah -here are a couple of photos. I never thought I'd want cabinets this dark, but it's a big, light room and I love them!

ETA - They look very red in the photo but are really much closer to the color ck-squared posted below.

Here are a couple of photos. The shower is to the left of the toilet.

Sarabr2 - bought the "grout once", but then switched to the epoxy grout (spectralock - love it!), so I can't say. Need an extra bottle? :)

I know this is an old post but, sarahbr2, what size gray tile did you use in your powder room for the herringbone design? I'm wanting to do the herringbone design in our master bath

but the smallest porcelain tile is 6 x 24. I'm concerned 24" is too long and I won't get a good herringbone pattern look.

Dtr123 I used a 6x24 tile layed in a herringbone. I like the small better but did not want all the grout. The room is 13x8. It looks like this

Thank you so much, roarah! Your flooring looks great. My concern is our bathroom is long and narrow, being 55" wide I was concerned the herringbone pattern would get lost but I think your flooring looks beautiful. Great point about the grout!

Thanks. It was a compromise. I really wanted smaller tile and more contrast with grout but did not want the maintance of that. I have very thin grout lines and the grout is very similar to the tile colors but if you want the pattern to pop more use a higher contrasting grout. You could also have your tiler cut the planks to your preferred size. Good luck.

Taking into consideration the maintenance but hoping the grout they use will be low maintenance. I'm going to do a black tile with most likely a light gray grout for contrast. I will ask about cutting the tiles to 12" but I'm sure it will add to the cost. I'm in love with the herringbone pattern and really don't want to settle for less. I've searched high and low for 6" x 12" without any luck. Those that have used that size had them custom cut and one individual on Pinterest got her 6 x 12 tiles from Italy. I'm afraid I'm getting in over my head for this part of our project. The 6 x 24 may work just fine though. It's a 90 square foot bathroom so not a large area.

I like3x12 or 4x12 best. the thinner than half looks great in herringbone and if the length and width are too close it is not as dramatic to me. Just find a great tiler so you avoid lippage while using a large format in this pattern. Good luck!

6x24

Ahhh 3 x 12 is perfect! Hoping it's doable for us. Thank you for the photos.

Hi! Just read this. I just went to measure. They are just under 12", like 11 3/4" by 4". The 3 x 12 is probably very similar. Ours is a small powder room so I wanted small to get the pattern in. Also I kind of like that it looks brick like. The bigger size has a slightly different feel. Here is the finished floor and room. I hope it helps you!

Your tile looks great, Sarahbr2! Did you purchase at this size or did you have them cut?

Sorry I hijacked your post Sarahbr2...I hope you don't mind. I just found American Olean brand tile uses Linear Express to cut their tiles to any size you want! This may now work for the herringbone pattern I want in my master bath. What brand tile is your herringbone?

Hijack away! They came that size. I knew I wanted some small-ish rectangle shape so I just looked around a local tile store to find something that size and gray. Just checked my invoice. It is Calisto Smoke 4 x 12. It was $5.99 sq ft list price at the store. We probably got it for a little under $5 a foot since we bought a house worth of tile. Looks like it comes in a few colors and sizes too. We used American Olean white subway in a lot of rooms. We actually just (finally) did the backsplash in that tile last week.

Thank you so much Sarahbr2 I'm going to head to a large tile store this week who supplies all our local floor shops. I'm thinking they must have 4x12 tiles there. No one locally does. Your tile is a reasonable price too....I like it!

Thank you so much Sarahbr2..found the website and I found several besides Calisto in color and size I want. Mission accomplished!!!

Yay! Happy to help :) Good luck with the project. Post pics when it's done

Back to square one on my porcelain tile for herringbone pattern floors. The Website I searched where you got your Calisto Sarahbr2 did not have my size as I was looking at bullnose trim :( I'm still not giving up although the contractor's installer said he'd charge $1,000 more for herringbone pattern? Now I need to research that cost too. I'm finding aside from natural stone no one makes tile 3x12 or 4x 12. I did find 4x24 but I'm afraid that's too long. Another challenge but I won't give up! :)

My installer did not charge any extra for the pattern. Also I just used a different installer to do my backsplash a few weeks ago. We did a herringbone pattern in a small area over the cooktop and he also didn't charge any extra. Just FYI. Not sure if that's normal but I'm 2/2 so far. Are you saying you need the bullnose in addition to the regular tile and they don't sell that?

Wow, I thought that seemed ridiculously high, Sarahbr2. I'm going to contact other installers. No, the tile I found in what I thought was the right size was a trim, bullnose piece not the actual tile for the flooring. I'm not sure why this size is so difficult to find. I've been to several tile shops and even Lowe's and a Home Depot without any luck.

Did you see if anyone near you sells the one we used? Though not sure if you like those colors.

My herringbone pattern for a slightly larger area was around a thousand extra. The pattern, grout line size and size of my tiles can lead to lippage issues and needs more skill and time to get right.

Sarahbr, although I like your tile very much, for my master bath I'm looking for a darker almost black color. The more flooring stores I go to I'm learning bigger is what's in even in herringbone pattern, therefore I'm only finding 6x24 as the smallest porcelain floor tile. I may cave and just do that. I went to two more flooring stores today and they both have installed 6x24 herringbone in mid sized and small bathrooms. I saw Chip and Joanne just do a bathroom in herringbone pattern and the tiles look larger. Lol love their show!

Roarah, thank you. I'm waiting for a cost from another flooring store I've used in the past. I'm curious what they will charge extra for pattern tile install. I appreciate your help.