White ceramics or porcelains are not the easiest thing to find because white is difficult to get "white". It's worse than the 10,000 posts a year in the Décor Forum asking about the "perfect" white. Most tiles actually aren't all that white when you objectively judge them against a white balance scale, especially the red clay based ones. White glazes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. And the whitest white tiles are the most expensive because of that difficulty. The whitest white tiles are usually a white bodied porcelain, with an expensive white glaze for the top surface. "Plain" is also more difficult to achieve than a tile with a little bit of a swirl or movement to the color, or texture to the finish. A plain glossy tile has to be absolutely perfectly smooth, or you notice it. Simple IS usually the hardest thing to create in any design, because of the much tighter tolerances and no trims to fall back on. You're asking for a double whammy, truly white and plain,

Bloved -- the floors have held up marvellously. I did have to replace one small bit, but that was from removing a ghastly knee wall someone added in the 1960's that had a leak in its plumbing. We don't have kids, but the bath has withstood 3 young families since the 1920's, being the only bathroom in the whole house. We used Waterlox with Fabulon oil-based poly on top, and this combination seems pretty bulletproof. Water stands on the surface until it evaporates. Your mileage may vary -- if your kids are really sloppy and you don't want the fuss of having to mop up, you might consider a different surface. But we've found the wood warm and comfortable, especially when stepping out of the shower or bath! :-) Thanks Kem! I found vintage fir wood at an architectural salvage place and designed the double chair rails to match the rest of the house trim. (Honestly, I couldn't afford the fancy ogee tile I really lusted after to finish off the top of the wainscotting, so had to improvise.) One great resource for tile -- and floor -- ideas is Jane Powell's Bungalow Bathrooms, if you haven't seen that book yet. Many great color combos and inspiration tile layouts (Amazon.com lets you look inside it for some sample photos). I might go with black for the versatility, but a darker period blue would be great too. A nice vintage effect is a simple black pencil liner with tiny bits of white (cut from white pencil liner) between each one. Someone on gardenweb did this; I'll scour the history to see if I can find that photo for you.

With those formal shapes on the floor and shower walls I wouldn't go free form on the niches. I would do 1-inch square glass tiles with some subtle color that references the floor. Or maybe see if you could cut the floor tiles to somehow work in the niches. Follow the lead of your inspiration rooms - you've got stunning floor and wall tiles- let them star and don't give them too much competition. Otherwise it starts to look too busy IMHO. Edited to add another option would be a solid color tile if you could find one matching one of the colors in the floor and a complimentary shape to the shower and floor. Free form circles just doesn't do it for me in your setting.

BeverlyFLADezinerthat is how they categorize it on the website for search terms ;) I think it's a beautiful tile but I think its beauty would be lost on a floor. The smaller scale, repeated pattern will not read as well. I feel like I have seen this in a larger format tile, or something similar. If you really like it for the floor go larger OR keep it as a backsplash. I would google search: arabesque floor tile in order to find a larger scale. However, even still, the pattern seems too decorative for a kitchen floor and would be better suited as a backsplash....my two cents. Hope this helps and good luck!