Our shower has tile all the way to the ceiling and it looks great. There is a fan window in the shower and even the window recess is tiled. The walls outside the shower and around the tub have tile up about 4 ft high. Sorry I don't have a picture handy to post!

Donna

Yes, we'll definitely do it to ceiling but I was curious about tiling those 2 shower walls past the shower and to ceiling also...

thanks!

Hi Fishies! I don't have an opinion on tiling your walls, but the marble tile in your bottom photo gives me great pause. Are you thinking of using that inside the shower? All those contours and gaps between tiles look like they could be a real grunge farm. How would you ever keep it fresh and clean on a daily basis?

Hi Linelle! Thank you... I was thinking same. They used a lot of grout in sample but I agree it could be a disaster! I may just do a flat marble tile if I don't do the porcelain calacatta which I'm sure would be so much easier to maintain! :)

I think it will look great in a bathroom that size to extend the tile out, it will enlarge the space by not breaking it up. I am in the process of tiling our entire bathroom now. It will have a much different look because although every wall will be tiled they are different and don't extend from the shower area. My original plan was like you question about, but after waiting and planning this remodel for sooo many years I just couldn't narrow down my selections I love!! That herringbone floor tile! Have you seen the marble with the dark horizontal veins (linea?) they would look amazing together.

Do you think using the 12" x 24" tiles on both full walls would look good to ceiling?? Or do you all think it would be better to just go 48" up once outside the shower. I wouldn't normally tile the full wall but I think with the 12" x 24" tiles would look good. Thoughts?

And do you think this would work for the bathroom floor against that tile?

I love your tile ideas! I used a grey herringbone floor and porcelain large format Calcutta for my shower in my new bath too. I did not tile walls due to budget and size of my bath but I think yours will be fabulous!

Have you considered moving plumbing? Your plan has only two foot and two and a half foot aisles which can be tight. Most new toilets will cut six inches out of your plan unless you go wall mounted. If you could move the toilet across the room it really opens the floor up a lot and you can get a five foot vanity too.

Oops sorry I missed that you have a window where I put your shower and toilet. That won't work...

We are doing a 48x34 shower. it was 36 but I thought 34" would help the walk space. Actually, my drawing could use a tweak. Our walkspace is pretty small now, too, and it works out okay. Right now, we have a tub on the far wall, and toilet net to small sink.

With your window and door placement it might be your plan is the only feasible option if you want a bigger vanity. I just envision being able to wash your hands while on the potty is all. Which hey might be very convenient too!

Hey this may sound silly, but would it be "okay" to lay the wall tile without staggering it? Just like in the picture?

Hi fishes, great your tile choices. I recently redid our bath and when I showered this AM I thought to myself how much I love that I used a stacked layout. My tile is 9x24 iirc.

One consideration for only tiling 48", might you want art over toilet or other wall? Or hooks?

Stacked tile tends to be used in contemporary designs, and staggered in more traditional designs.

I'm glad that you are leaning away from that marble with the irregular surface and large grout lines. Even if the grout lines were minimized as much as possible, it would still be a nightmare to keep clean.

Stacked tiles are definitely an option...it's what I did in both of my bath re-tiles. One is a large master bath, and the other is a small bath (smaller than yours), and they both seem to work in my opinion.

In the first photo you can see how the tile wraps around the walls near the shower, including a partial height tub surround, and the tile in the second picture goes up onto the ceiling.

Thanks, everyone... I am leaning towards doing the 2 walls to ceiling using stacked tile (12" x 24"). Can I put a towel bar still? I may need a single behind the door. I'm also wondering where I am going to keep a bath mat. I'll put a towel ring or small bar to the right of the window.

I guess my only concern is if I should go more traditional. We have a 1950 Cape and I know with my kitchen I tried not to go too contemporary (we did traditional) minus a few more contemporary elements.

The vanity will probably be more traditional, so really it's just the stacked tile to ceiling that's more contemporary but I feel like it gives a clean, slab look. If I do the 12 x 24's around the whole bathroom I feel I'll lose the effect that I am suddenly looking for. LOL

Also wondering if I should tile ceiling? It's not enclosed space. We'll have glass enclosure but not to ceiling... so maybe I'll forego that...

I have a painted ceiling and tile to the ceiling. I have exhaust in shower too. Never any issue after 3-4 years. Exhaust is key. There needs to be about a 3/4" gap Uber the door for make up air so exhaust works right.

I have porcelain 12x24 in the shower. LOVE IT. I have a cast iron pan. Click on the pic to get full view

Love it!!! Thanks, enduring! We also have a painted celling and no issues. Can you take a pic with doors open so I can see the stacking better? Or are they staggered? Have to look again : )

I think I'm going to go with stacking them and do BOTH full walls. I hope it looks okay! Do you think too much??

I wanted the slab look for my shower and more than stacked or off set is the grout line size and color. I only did up nine feet to my shower ceiling and now I wish I had gone up the ceiling too.

Fishies, my tile is staggered 1/3 or there abouts. I drew up the tile on a drawing program to make sure I had the layout just right. I succeeded with the layout but I do have some lipage. I did the job myself and it was hard. The tiles are heavy. I tried to do a very narrow grout line, 1/16". I suggest if anyone isn't a pro, that they use a larger grout space to help with the inevitable lipage that will happen, even if the tiles are flat, like mine are. The larger grout space helps with the transition from tile to tile. Click on the pics to get them to pop up into full view.

In progress to help define the layout pattern:

Doors open:

Here is my porcelain 12x24 tiled floor staggered at the same distance, or there abouts. It is way different than the walls. I love the contrast:

Our kitchen is right around the corner from this bathroom... very close. Now I'm worrying about the bath being too contemporary with stacked tiles but I'm thinking it will be fine? I like the clean spa type feel. We do have vermont danby counters in the kitchen. but the bath will have gray tones, obviously, which I usually do not use b/c I'm more of a cream/beige/yellow type of person! However, I'm in the mood for something different : )

Is this an issue? I may use a bluish paint in the bathroom like on my dining wall in 1st photo...

Our bathroom has 3 full walls tiled. The room is just shower and toilet, the vanity is in a separate space. I am really happy as it is a small space and I think it makes it feel bigger. It is difficult to get a picture, but here are a couple.

With the full walls outside of the shower area... do you put a baseboard over it?? Or just do tile to bottom and leave it?

The floor is the same for the entire room, so the three tiled walls do not have baseboard. The fourth wall is painted with baseboard. Our shower is curbless, so the tile flows seamlessly through the space.

OK... and the wall tile continues to floor or does one use a smaller tile to border it off when it meets the floor? Just wondering what is generally done.

Because we have the decorative tile in line with the window, we have a cut tile at the bottom and top of the wall. It almost looks like baseboard, but is the same wall tile.

My wall is all tiled in one tile, no baseboard tile or wood. The tiles are centered between the top and bottom of the wall so that there are no slivers of tile cuts at the top or bottom. That's another reason I drew my plan out carefully.

enduring-- how can there be no tile cuts? Well, I guess b/c they are 12", we would have 8 of them stacked on an 8 foot wall....

No, slivers of tile cuts. With the 12x24, there were all kinds of tile cuts to get the large format tile into my alcove of 60x36" shower pan, (here you can see my lipage that I struggled with). I started my tile design centering the top and bottom to be balanced. I inserted the niche in a logical spot after I got the design down. I had the calculations for the carpenter to put the shelf exactly where I wanted it, considering the added thickness of the cement board, thinset and tile thicknesses. I had the wall blocked for a grab bar too. Then you just drill through everything when youre ready to mount the bar The tile at the bottom, around the end of the pan is cut and continues to the floor in one piece. I planned for that too:

Here is my drawings of my tile layouts. They may be hard to understand, but I knew what I meant, lol.

Here is a great thread that might be of help too. Some of the photo links are broken because it is an old thread.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2259139/what-was-your-best-bathroom-remodeling-decision

OK, but looking at your first photo, those top & bottom tiles were cut, no? Sorry if I'm wrong. lol

Yes, both the bottom and the tops were cut to come up with a plan that fit the shelf in at a reasonable height, allow for the 3" transition from the shower pan and the floor, and to prevent unwelcome cuts. On the sides and the end walls there were alot of cuts too, to fit the large format into the space. I looked at the stacked option to minimize cuts but there where just as many IIRC. Some years back there was a poster that had a 12x24 tile shower laid out and she was very disappointed because only a few of her tiles remained full sized. She had a window to work around. I don't remember much more of those details, but she probably would have done better using a smaller format tile.

MongoCT, Bill V, & Stonetech hopefully will be able to give some insight into tile. They are who I relied heavily upon, as well as the John Bridge forum. Others, since the GW merger are posting with great input too. Its just been long enough since my remodel that I don't keep up with the BR forum as I used to.

Thank you! OK, when asking about this I was referring to the wall tile OUTSIDE of the shower and how to cap off the bottom of it that meets the floor, if at all. Makes sense now. Thanks again : )

My bathroom has tile outside of the shower, so I had to plan that with the elevation at the pan, the tile could transition to the floor without problems. See the image I posted 6 post up, and click on the pic to see the whole image. It shows how the tile is curved around the pan and onto the floor. The wall outside the shower is well spaced. As I mentioned earlier the plan is to take this tile around the alcove wall into the other space, I just haven't done it yet after 3 years :/

My bottom tile, that I put up last, after all the other tile was installed, sits about 1/8" to 1/4" up off the floor. I have a very straight cut on the tiles and nicely finished with a stone to smooth the edge. Then caulk of the color of the darker floor is used to join the floor to the wall (change of plane). This is to water proof the area as water inevitably gets onto the floor, no matter how hard I try. It isn't noticed, and since the caulk is the color of the floor, the nice white edge stands out.

I know this is much more than you are asking for ;)

I also used dark, floor color caulk, at the toilet too, so the crisp finished white edge of the toilet would stand out. The caulk visually recedes into the floor, which has some uneveness due to tile texture, and grout lines. If I were to use white it would have accented the uneveness, and the white wouldn't have matched the toilet either. It would look like a white strip at the bottom of the toilet.

enduring-

That looks quite nice. I can see a bit of lippage, but it's pretty minimal. I will point out for the benefit of the OP that one benefit of stacking is that lippage is typically not an issue, because, if there is warpage in large tiles, it is usually fairly consistent and by stacking you are matching the slight curve rather than overlapping it.

Kudzu, LOL most of my pics that I post on GW for this shower are taken with no light so that the lippage is minimal, though it looks like the light is on in this pic. I think I'm getting over the lippage thing. BTW, your showers are gems.

This is an interesting topic, how best to use the large format tiles we have today. 2Little Fishies, firstly, I love your kitchen. I want to go sit on your built-in and take it all in for a few hours.

I am thinking that the staggered, running bond style of tile setting better matches your home. Also, we do not know if the stacked look is going to catch on and become one of the regular choices people use in setting tile in the future or if we will be saying "that's so mid-teens" by 2025. So why chance it with something as permanent as tile when the traditional running bond pattern so matches your home?

Look at Enduring' s shower. Do you love it? If yes, find yourself a tile setter willing to do the kind of planning she has done and chose a grout that matches best to make the tile look like a slab wall. She picked over her tile very carefully to get the flow to have that effect. I bet she spent several hours - if not a couple of days - choosing which tile went where, but look what she achieved! You can do that work on your kitchen floor (I can help direct from my perch on the built-in.)

If you stack the tile, you may not be able to get the "faux slab wall" effect. Why not? The veins cannot be manipulated by matching the end of one vein to the beginning of one on another tile. Look at Enduring' s wall. She runs a vein through three or four tiles in places. One is at the upper right corner of the niche. Looking again at your tile, I see that most veins do go from side to side. So look at installation photos, if you can find some of your tile, and see if you are able to get that pleasing effect of veins matching up from tile to tile on enough tiles to get a "faux slab wall" effect. THAT is what makes a marble (or marbleain) installation for ME. If you can do that, if the veins mostly go from one side to the other side, then stacking the tile CAN get the pleasing effect and all you have to think about is whether the stacked tile will look dated in ten years.

I was going to buy marble mosaics for the niches but now am thinking of using the shower tile like enduring. Any thoughts?

You might have indicated above, but what are the dimensions of your niches?

the inside will be about 18" high and 13.5" wide

I prefer the wall tile, but I think it is a matter of preference.

To me, the shower that I posted is a contemporary look and simple design. Having mosaic in the niche, imo, is more traditional. Though there are a lot of mosaics in niches that are contemporary. I would say it depends on the style of the tile and layout, along with the style of the room. I think of 12x24" tile as contemporary tile. My vanity has a 4" marble backsplash that matches the countertop.The vanity is very minimal in presentation. So I kept the minimal layout in the room throughout.

This is an Ann Sacks showroom pic I took in their bathroom in Seattle 4 or so years ago. This is more traditional imho. I think its lovely.

Thank you. The vanity wall and window wall will be painted and the 2 walls where shower is will continue the whole wall. My vanity is traditional, but the sink is square and I feel like I'm mixing some of the elements so do not want any element to go TOO far into one direction. The sink has a 4" marble backsplash. Also, our toilet is the same one we had before which is more traditional. If we put a different tile in the niche, I am looking at 3/4" marble squares and figure the squares are not overly traditional nor contemporary. Here are some other pieces we are using.

I still have to choose a faucet and want something more transitional. I don't think it should be too contemporary with the vanity if I'm not mistaken.

LMK if you think I am wrong. lol

CHROME TRIM for hardware, etc.

CHANGING KNOBS AND THIS IS NOT THE FAUCET. PLANNED TO CHOOSE SOMETHING MORE TRANSITIONAL.

HERRINGBONE FLOOR

THESE ARE THE LITTLE MOSAICS I AM CONSIDERING FOR THE NICHES.

OH, Also we are doing this Robern Medicine Cabinet

Overall, I'd like the feel to be crisp, clean, spa-like--- less traditional than the rest of our home but not totally in another world either. This is our main bath which is also our master bath. The shower will be clear glass walls with a large frosted section in the middle that will actually hide the niches anyway!!

In my opinion, same tile in niche is less fussy and more serene. But then I used 5 different tiles and white quartz in one 5x8 bathroom, so I also believe if you absolutely love it, use it. I did use the wall tile in the niche. I will see if I can attach a picture. Bathroom is almost complete

For those that were following this thread, can you look at my recent one? I'm in a bind! https://www.houzz.com/discussions/crown-to-cover-3-at-ceiling-or-use-tile-also-mosaic-or-wall-tile-dsvw-vd~4424734