Something to consider doing with the old tile is getting a company to come in and repair any grout, then seal it with a color of the tile for a modern look. This will make a fairly drastic change and itâÂÂs relatively inexpensive and done in a day. The house I bought has a sort of off white creamy grey/beige tile through the living areas that I didnâÂÂt like much. The grout was nasty. After the company cleaned it all, repaired the grout and sealed it with a color match to tile it all looks brand new and really nice. They also buffed it all out at the end. ItâÂÂs also amazingly easy to keep clean because the sealer seals the porous grout. ItâÂÂs guaranteed for ten years. If the bathroom takes a shower curtain check out Deny curtains. If the cabinets are sound flat panel but nasty looking itâÂÂs very easy and cheap to resurface with a laminate or wood veneer. I have done it myself and it lasted the years I lived in a home several homes ago. Follow instructions exactly and you will have no chipping edges or lifting. If the countertop is gross there are some very nice FormicaâÂÂs out there. I would change that as itâÂÂs so noticeable. Keep an eye out at Costco as they sometimes have a nice Hansgrohe single lever bathroom sink faucets for under a $100. I put this in my sonâÂÂs townhomes 2nd bath where grown men have been slamming the handle for over two years now and itâÂÂs still perfect. Paint. How does the mirror and lighting look? You can get some nice stuff in the open box section of Lamps Plus. If you sign up for emails sometimes there is additional savings.

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.

Hi Kim, so many comments to fish through but I think the only for sure thing so far is the wood look tile flooring? SO do yourself a big favor here and commit to white tile. Keep it clean and classic. Bring in fresh color with your paint. If you want that blue tile then do just a touch as a stripe or trim in the shower. What are your counters? Cabinets? Fixtures? Here I've used the wood plank tile on a herringbone for floor. In shower kept it simple with a beveled white large format subway for walls. Inset niche with a Carrara hexagon and did the same on shower floor. It leans coastal with the paint color and Capiz shell chandelier.

@Angela - The OP's first paragraph stated marble over a concrete slab. " I really think you should remove the old tile." Why? If it's set properly It should last the lifetime of the structure. Bonding to it is not a issue. You'd need to remove the underlayment/top layer of subfloor to even the floor anyway after you rip out tile. If this was wood framed how could you determine that without knowing what underlayment was used and condition after rip out? Plywood, mud bed, CBU's, uncoupler, antifracture membrane etc. The OP is trying to gain height. Most likely you can leave the underlayment in and apply a self leveling underlayment on the top to achieve desired height.