First, the bathroom floor...if you want hex tiles, the only reason you might not be able to use them is if you are planning on using a membrane like Ditra under the tile. Ditra, due to the nature of it's structure, limits tile to a minimum of 2". If you're going over cement board or another smooth-surface tile backer board on your floor, you can use small hex tiles. Simply ask him what his no kidding objections are to the hex tiles. There may be a real world reason why they are too small (like over Ditra) or he simply may not like working with mosaics. Find out why. For the shower floor, I usually stick to 4" or smaller, that way there are grout lines underfoot for traction. Plus smaller tile conform to the slopes of the pan without requiring cut lines at the intersections of the slopes in the pan. 2" squares are probably most common. Some people like the flat stone or pebble mosaic, but if you suffer from grout-phobia, the irregular spacing on those might scare you away. If there is a trend these days, it's toward large format tiles. They can lead you towards a contemporary design, but they can fit other styles as well. If I can steer you towards anything, look at "topical waterproofing membranes" for waterproofing your shower. Topical membranes put the waterproofing between the tile and the tile backer board, so the tile get adhered right to the membrane. It's a better way to control moisture within a shower. Two of the more common trowel or roll-on membranes are Hydroban and RedGard, for sheet membranes, Kerdi is probably the most common one. Probably the best, and easiest way to waterproof a shower these days is with a Laticrete flanged drain and Hydroban. You can wade through youtube videos or visit Laticrete's website to see what that is all about. Remember...unless you are planning on selling, I'll caution you to use tile sizes and patterns that you like, that meet the style of your house. Don't design for the latest fad, unless it's something that you really prefer. If you have trouble defining the tile size, pattern, or style that you do like, it can sometimes help to go to a site like houzz and look over bathroom photos there.

The installer came here late and when I told him about the grout width problem (he promised me 1/8th width.. I can live with some tiles off by 1/16 but not off by a range of 1/16 to 1/4) and that some tiles are filled with glue between the tiles are are 1/16th so how can he get the glue in the tiles. I was going to ask him what he would want to be paid to remove the tiles, start at the door to make that even (has various size gaps there) and do much less cuts with no border that I did not want in the first place. But first I told him to not get started until I talked to him about the widths being so off for the grout lines. He would not let me continued and he got up and left with all his tools upset with me and told me to find someone else to finish the job. My client/friend who came by a few minutes before the installer and agreed that the job was not acceptable (and he is not so picky like me) just removed the tiles since we found out the glue was not spread out well with some tiles having hardly any glue and others very lumpy and uneven. Amazingly the tiles all came up so easily with a small screw drive since many were not glued down too good. None of the tiles have damage except one has a chip on it that the installer did and remember there are only 4 whole tiles with many 3 X 12 pieces that may not be able to be used again My client/friend is cleaning the tiles for me and trying to get lumpy glue off of the bottom and then we will figure out how to get the haze off of the top. Any ideas? I wonder if I should buy 1 or 2 more boxes of more tiles in the same lot number (14 tiles to a box) and not open them in case they are needed so I will not have to have a different lot number in case no one has time to do the floors (that have lumpy glue all over them and no hardwood floors or tiles on both foyer areas now) for several weeks. I love the real stone look and color of the bone/beige tiles but now wish they were 13 X 13 instead of slightly more than 12 X 12 since I am seeing that the bigger the tile, the easier the job will be with no small pieces. But the color was perfect in my office and I think I would like to make the tiles work out. Sorry I only had 4 hours of sleep so I hope this makes sense. Doing tile work is a lot harder than I imagined and I feel now it take talent to get very close grout line widths.

Thanks for your response. We can’t match the wood and my husband won’t replace the wood. Our kitchen has the same wood and we just carpeted the whole house two days ago including the living room. Feeling helpless

Hi, the bathroom and powder room are down to the studs. The drywall is going up today. The shower will be here and the red indicates what the window height will be All the bedrooms have the gray-white herringbone tile. The master and spare room have black ceilings with white walls and both rooms have floor to ceiling closets. The living/kitchen are blue-gray. I am considering dark emerald to dark green with white for the Powder room (5'8" L x 3' W x 8'H)) and navy blue with white for the master (8'6" L x 5'3"W x 8"H). The fixtures for the powder room are satin black and the fixtures for the master are antique/satin brass. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!