As for ease of cleaning in a kids' bathroom, I personally would go with a midtoned floor with midtoned grout and larger format tiles to minimize grout lines. Actually I think the lightness of the floor tile isn't as important as the grout. One of my quite fastidious friends with no kids really regrets the white grout on her white tile bathroom floor. The tile is ok to clean up but the grout shows all. I would not hesitate to choose a different (lighter) tile for the shower walls. I wouldn't paint the walls in the rest of my house gold to match the hardwood. In my powder we went with a concrete look light grey floor tile that was available in both polished and matte. The polished looked VERY different from the matte, so different that I'd hesitate to use them both in the same room. If I'm honest, the polished was the more beautiful but we went with the matte for safety's sake with the large format.

I have Santa Rita Venata - I chose it because I needed an over size piece and it was so beautiful. I got it from M. Tex in NJ. I found a 150" slab and was able to do my huge center island in one piece with no seaming. It is stunning and I love it. Everyone who sees it touches it and comments on the gorgeous green/white veining. But a word of caution: mine dings and scratches very easily. The dings make an indent which turns white. Either sand the dings out (easy) but they make an very thin impression in the stone. Or just dot the dings with a black sharpie and they are not noticeable. I do wish now I had picked a harder variety, so do some ding tests on your sample to be sure. Regarding maintenance, at the beginning I was obsessive and oiled every day. The oil would lift quickly and there would be gray patches- I was getting stressed out about it. But, my experience and the wise words of Joshua from FL, were to give it time and the soapstone would "season/Patina". Sure enough, six months later I only oil monthly and I notice I am needed ot do less and less. I use grape seed oil from Trader Joes. No graying or lifting like earlier in the process. I think different parts of the stone take longer to patina to the oil but eventually it all evens out. Have patience it will work itself out. The oiling is a snap - wipe on wipe off. I keep my oil rag in a ziploc bag and now I hardly even add any oil to it - just swipe and go! Great stone! I would chose my slabs again because I wanted no seaming, but in another kitchen I would just try to find a harder variety.

Hello Friends, I went to two tile stores yesterday. The first one, which I had high hopes for was a failure. I came home with two tiles, both by Sonoma's Stellar series, Toast and Krazy Krackle. Krazy Krackle showed up almost a neon white/pale yellow and Toast was a tinge too orange. The other tile store was so sweet. They are where I have been getting most of my samples from. I came home with SIXTEEN sample tiles. Yes, 16! I brought home every cream tile that we thought might have the possibility of matching my granite as well as some greys and even two black tiles. Hey, I was desperate! I was depressed. I was teary eyed. None of the new colors worked. So I put them away for a while and did something else for a while. Then I remembered, one of the sample boards I brought home was from Adex in Sand was still in my car. I had brought it home just to see as the lady in the store said it did veer on the pink side (in real life she is correct - evvvvver so slightly there is hint of a pinky undertone in certain lighting but I had brought it home a month or so ago and it's what first got me on the thought of a crackle subway so I took the chance again) HOWEVER when I put this BIG board up against my granite vs. the just the smaller tiles flanked by existing icky backsplash, it showed me something! Having a light tile makes the light areas in my granite POP like they are popcorn! ADEX tile: Can a light cream ceramic subway work for me after all?!? So I dug out the samples of Rixi Crema and propped them against the Adex in Sand. Definite difference, the Rixi is creamier and warmer. Both in the daytime and at night. So I am just not 100% convinced that the tile guy was correct. Am I crazy? Probably...but I can't shake the feeling that this tile just might be a contender. I spent some time today retaking pictures of the Crema in various areas of my kitchen, different shading. lights, etc. I blocked out the backsplash with an extra cabinet door so it didn't interfere. I also took a picture of it with SW Kilim Beige which is supposed to be a warm beige. The Crema Rixi is similar in shade value (??) and to me, up against the paint, the tile looks even warmer. What do you guys think? Ignore the accent tile in the pic - I was just playing. More pics at the link, please, please check them out!! Here is a link that might be useful: Updated Grazia Rixi in Gardenwebnewbie's kitchen

Have you considered doing a mix of the two? Here's an example from Fireclay's website and a sample installation from their SF showroom. We're doing a mix of 8" Fireclay hex tile on our bathroom floor using 65% Gypsum (matte) and 35% French Linen (glossy). We ordered extras of both colors so if desired we can adjust the use of before we install (i.e., after our installer lays out our design on the floor floor before he installs).