I am looking at a bath tile that has a sort of rough ribbon-type of edging. I hope it makes sense how I'm describing it. The guy at the tile store told me this type of tile can be installed with a 1/8" grout line. When I showed the tile to my contractor, he warned me away from this type of tile. He says I will be sorry, that this type of tile edge is hard to keep clean, traps dirt, hair, etc. Should I be concerned? I don't want to buy a cleaning nightmare.

It's certainly harder to wipe down, with all the angles to hit. That can get old pretty quickly. I would be concerned with such an unusually inexpensive tile, and one with what would seem more complicated to manufacture than a flat one. It's a big labor and mess investment. I guess on a back splash you don't really have to worry about chipping. Not sure what other problems you might run into. Maybe unevenness or warpage, small size variances, that makes installing more difficult? I've heard tile men speak of that with what they call cheap tile from the big boxes or certain manufacturers. I remember it with flooring installs. Be careful and inspect or have your "very experienced and highly recommended" (lol) tile man approve first.

Thanks for the comments! Unfortunately I think I will have to live with it. I spoke to him about it yesterday, and he agreed it was his error. He offered to fix, but said it would require ripping out a fair bit of the tiles in that area. He thinks it will be hard to get the angle to pry off the tiles cleanly and is concerned about pulling away the niche substrate. I don't have many extra tiles, so more would need to be ordered and there's a high minimum order quantity. My grout is meant to match, so I'm hoping this isn't very noticeable once completed. I hope letting it go isn't a mistake that will bug me in the future! The niche's placement is not very visible by design.

I cannot address the install question but we have a similar tile in our shower, and we really like it. 3+ years of shopping tile and this is the only one hubs liked. I was apprehensive for the reasons mentioned above but it has not been a problem. It hasn't been difficult to keep clean and only one of us actually squeegees. No one in our house can be bothered to wipe with a towel, lol. Our mastiff gets bathed in it once a week (he has terrible allergies). The shower gets cleaned afterwards w/ a soft sponge and mild dish soap. It only takes a few minutes. No mildew, etc. I agree that you will not like a darker grout. We matched to the tile and it just disappears. You won't lose any of the handmade effect of the tile by matching the grout. Up close our grout varies in thickness due to the nature of the tile edge. Good luck with your project!