I feel your pain. Just when I thought I was done making decisions I too was asked what grout color.

My suggestion is to buy the frost color and white. Bring them both home and put a couple of subway tiles together and pour the dry grout in between. I know the color will vary a little but it should give you an idea.

White grout will give you a uniform look while a soft gray color will be much more noticeable. I prefer a uniform look but I've seen lots of pretty spaces that have contrasting grout colors.

My thoughts exactly. I like crisp white, but the designer is saying the white grout can yellow over time. Mapei has two colors in the white family - Avalanche and White. I still have a little time to mull this over, since the shower floor has not yet been tiled, as well as the room floor. The floors will be a fairly light grey, so maybe the very light grey grout is what I should use. I just don't want the grout lines to be too noticeable. I'm very hard to please, I think I'm really testing the patience of our designer.

I have white subway with white grout. It is 12 years old no yellowing. It is regular grout, not epoxy. I once had white epoxy grout on a backsplash and it yellowed in less than a year. You really should have a test board made to see if it is exactly what you like.

I'm pretty sure the designer will not be happy with me, but I'd really like to see the Frost grout and the White grout before I make a decision.

Edited to add - I just googled 'does white grout turn yellow' and found this thread about white grout turning yellow. Maybe I would be safer with the very light grey.

Help - white grout turning yellow

You are paying a lot of money for the designer and construction. You have to live with whatever you decide. If the designer is not happy I would remind her/him of that fact. I would search for photos of subway with gray grout and ask for a sample board before I made any decisions. You have to live with this for a long time.

I used Mapei's white grout a couple years ago. It hasn't yellowed. But my shower called for while grout and white grout only.

My contractor tried showing me "antique white" but it looked yellow next to my white tile.

I have never cleaned the white grout above my sink and it's still white.

"I just don't want the grout lines to be too noticeable"

Light gray seems like it could be the easy answer, but I'm telling you, if you have a white subway tile, even a soft gray will "pop" from the white tile. Just how "noticeable" will this be? Well, to each their own.

Samples

gray grout

Now I do like this sample - it seems to be the perfect gray that doesn't stand out too much. Of course lighting and real life may look different. It shows the grout is from Lowes color is ""silver shadow"

FeatherBee - The second picture of samples of grey grout is very similar to what we're doing. We have the 3X6 on top with a 4X16 on the bottom. That grout looks a little darker than the 4th picture (which I agree with you looks like the perfect grey, but may not look like that IRL!). I like the white grout in your shower. However, our tile is very white and honestly, when I held up my tile to the Mapei White grout stick at the tile store, as well as the Mapei Avalanche grout stick, they both looked slightly yellow. The designer keeps telling me I have to trust her on the choice of the Frost grout.

I have had both. I greatly prefer the non-white color that I have in our upstairs bath vs the white grout downstairs. It is so much easier to keep looking fresh and clean with a little color in the grout.

kats - would you be able to post pictures of the tile in your two bathrooms???

Pictures would be very helpful. But one good thing is once it is all tiled you can stand back and get a really good idea how the grey grout would look. As the ungrouted space between tile will look like grey grout from a distance.

In case anyone is still following this thread, I finally have a sample of the Mapei "Frost" with the white subway tile. It's not white (of course), but it's pretty subtle.

Sorry bac717, it didn't tag me before.

Here they are. First is Tec Dove Gray, with 'historical white' tile. (The wall color in person is much closer to the color of the tile)

this is generic white tile with traditional Maipei white grout, 9 years old and I haven't done much cleaning on it lately.

He's advertising his drains! Lol!

The Frost looks nice, bac. Do you like it?

I've always recommended a slightly off white grout. Usually from Mapei, it's been Warm Grey, Silver Shadow from Laticrete, or Platinum from Custom. But the Frost accomplishes the very same end-- to show the brick pattern without overpowering it so that all you see is the grout.

I like the Frost grout more than I thought I would. I was afraid it would be darker,

I know this is a few months old but do you have a finished photo of how your shower turned out? Did you use Frost? I am about to start tiling my shower with white 3x6 subway tiles and my aunt( after receiving advice from her designer) thinks I should go with white grout but I'm concerned it'll look dirty quickly so I was thinking of using frost since it seemed like a very subtle grey.

Hi Savannah, I am in the same boat, I'm worried the white will discolour over time and I don't want to be cleaning grout more than I have to. I'm even considering going with black grout as I have black tap fittings and a black bath....

Going with Laticrete's Silver Shadow, Mapei's Warm Gray, or Custom's Platinum will do exactly what you're looking to do.

This is grouted with warm gray:

I think white tile, including subway tile, with white grout looks too much like a hospital or other institution. The light gray grout, in my view, just disappears and makes white tile look clean and warm and shows off the subway tile desigh. When I look at it, I don't see the gray, I just know I've got subway tiles.

Hi Bill - Did you also use the Mapei warm gray on the black and white octagon and dot floor or is that a darker grout?

No, we actually used Mapei silver for that.

Years later, but does anyone have pictures of white subway with white vs frost grout in the kitchen? We are using Shadebrick! I would love to know what you decided, as your post came up when I did my search.

I am also curious about what people on this thread chose and would Love to see pics!

in case this helps anyone, I took a picture of sample Mapei grout colors.

Top left is iron

Top right is cobblestone

Bottom left is avalanche

Bottom right is Frost

I am planning to use Frost at the recommendation of a kitchen designer But I’d love to hear from personal experiences.

thanks!

Hi & HELP!!!!!!!

In my master bath, I will have shiny white subway tile in shower and shiny white penny tile on floor. Was planning to do Mapei's Avalanche on walls of shower (subway tile) and a very light gray on penny tile floors.

I'm torn between Mapei's Frost or Warm Gray (for floors)

Frost seems maybe a bit too cool and warm gray seems a bit beige-y.

This will be my vanity below and the stone countertop is white like below with a bit of gray and beige veining. Which color grout would you go with for the penny tile? The frost or warm gray?

Thanks!

Hi & HELP!!!!!!!

In my master bath, I will have shiny white subway tile in shower and shiny white penny tile on floor. Was planning to do Mapei's Avalanche on walls of shower (subway tile) and a very light gray on penny tile floors.

I'm torn between Mapei's Frost or Warm Gray (for floors)

Frost seems maybe a bit too cool and warm gray seems a bit beige-y.

This will be my vanity below and the stone countertop is white like below with a bit of gray and beige veining. Which color grout would you go with for the penny tile? The frost or warm gray?

Thanks!

Thank you Runnermom for that pic!!!!

@Runnermom OMGosh, that photo of the 4 grouts next to each other is AMAZING!!! It's so tough picking colors (I have to pick grout for 2 different floor tiles and a shower tile, ahhhhh) and this really helped!!!!

Anyone else have any REAL LIFE pics of any grey/white grouts from Mapei??

:-)

Runnermom what size grout spacer did you use?

@runnermom

I’m not sure of the grout spacing - it’s very minimal. I also did frost colored grout for my kitchen backsplash and love how it turned.

Love the tile and whole kitchen Runnermom! Can you share the tile size and name?

Also for Runnermom, love the penny tiles. Would you share the tile source? Thanks!

All of the tile I used for my bathrooms and kitchen came from RAI Design in Garden City, NY. Specifically I used their light blue penny round tile in the shared bathroom and for my backsplash in the kitchen I used their tile called “Soho”. The “Soho” tile dimensions are labeled as 2x10 but the actual measurements of the tile are about 2.25x9.75. Not too big or too small and the white color is not too bright so as to compete with my white cabinets. I looked at SO MANY white tiles and this one was the best dimensions and color, and rather inexpensive, too. I highly recommend RAI if you are not too far from NY.