Difficult to tell in photos...esp. with the niche. Don't think I would worry until I saw it in person.

Agreed. Sometimes photos will tend to distort the grout lines, and as for the dark vs light joints (making some look wider than others), your installer may have taken the pics right after grouting, in which case there may be some uneven drying, and once it's all dry, it'll all look the same. Wait till you're up close and personal before you make a judgement. :-)

Give it some time. You're second guessing yourself and that's normal. I think it looks nice. The grout color highlights your niche area and floor tile. Everything looks great together.

Thanks everyone! I'll update when I can see it in person. Bill, I saw in other posts that's it's a grout color you recommended- Mapei warm gray!

Chispa, yes!! I knew something was bothering me about it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. You totally nailed it.

I'll have to see if my GC is willing to change it.

Is your niche shelf marble? Could you have your tile guy trim the niche in marble instead of tile? Your niche is too deep for the bull nose. I had the same problem and this was my tile guy's solution. I purchased a box of 12x12 stock marble from Dal Tile, my tile guy cut it to fit and polished the edges. It looks a lot cleaner and no grout lines. Alternatively, instead of having a sliver of tile next to the bull nose, you could have your tile guy cut the bull nose so that each piece is the same width. Other than that, to my untrained eye, your shower looks great! eta: and if you keep the tile trim, line up the grout lines as Chispa recommends.

He originally lined it with marble but I didn't like the look. I prefer the subway but done the way Chispa mentioned.

I went to look today and the niche is just sloppy. The rest of tiling is fine, I really can't tell if it's great or just ok. But the niche is definitely bad. Some grout lines are thick and dark and the shelf is not level.

The contractor said he's going to discuss with the tile guy and get back to me.

I love your tile choices.

I agree with chispa - the tiler should have used larger pieces behind the bullnose pieces. Your grout also appears to have dried different colors (?) I can see where you think the niche area is a little on the sloppy side.

Here's my sample with the larger pieces used behind the bullnose pieces- it's much cleaner looking.

Is it possible to redo the niche area without damaging the rest of the shower?

I tried photoshopping your niche just to see if larger tiles would look nicer but it still looks sloppy. My poor editing skills may be to blame though. Maybe the pros can recommend a better option.

Before & After

Featherbee, thank you for taking the time to do that!!! I think how you photoshopped still looks better than what I have right now!

The GC said he'll redo the niche. I don't know how much of the surrounding tile will get messed up though.

One thing I'm kind of curious about-- they DO make a bullnose on the 3" side for most subway tiles. That would have lined everything up nicely, and eliminated the need for the sliver pieces.