Bill thanks, I am going to try to put pictures after he tiles. If you think there is another company that you like better please let me know, as I am going to Philadelphia Saturday to my sons, there are many tile places there. It's funny the samples I have home that they thought matched the best are straw from the one tile place and mushroom from the other. They both seem to blend or a little drker than the tile. Do you know of these 2 which comes out lighter when up. I want to stay lighter if I can.. Those paper samples are so deceiving. Thanks so much for your help.

Wow! I was quoted! I'm so honored. It's true. Your stone is the beautiful frame, your water is the picture, and your tile is the mat. It shouldn't take away from the other two, unless it is a feature. At first I thought, definitely the gray, but as I looked at it, it could also be the color of one of the lighter gray rocks in your stone (I see two of the stones in the second set of pictures under the pvc pipe). That might be more of a gradual transition between the rock and the gray finish and blue water. I LOVE your stone. Our tile would probably be too dark for you, but we used Daltile Continental Slate in Asian Black. Lots of grays and brown it it too. http://www.daltileproducts.com/series.cfm?series=38#608 The tile is great. The only trouble that we had in the beginning (and now again, see below) is that the grout put out calcium. Our pool builder didn't know how to get rid of it, and poured chems. right on the grout and it ate it up. After a while, I tried spraying vinegar on it and scrubbing a little and it came right off. This was on our 360 degree spa that has water running on it everyday. The waterline has had no problems since. We had them come back to regrout the spa, and we do have a couple of areas that show calcium again. I guess it's time to get out the vinegar again. It should stop soon. Now others might want to chime in on this one, but you might want to seal the grout. We didn't, and I don't know if that would have helped. Here's some pictures of our spa and the tile. Good luck with your choices! I think it will look beautiful no matter what. That stone is great! I especially love the slide. I'd love to try it!

I'm guessing you have additional tile left over. You should anyway for future repairs if needed. My suggestion is to make up 3 "panels" of the tile on say a piece of plywood. Whatever thin set color was used to apply the tile to the spa should be the same. With the tiles being a bit transparent, the thin set color will show through. Grout each with the different colors, and allow them to fully dry. Place all 3 next to the spa in the daylight, and exam the color differences. This should help in your decision making. The coping will cast a slight shadow at the top of the tile so have someone hold the tile panels against the spa, under the coping, to duplicate the conditions. Consider your plaster finish coordinating when making this decision also.

Hi! I have no idea how to receive notifications here. Just happened to be looking for pool furniture and saw this. I have to tell the mason in a few hours, this morning, and I have not decided, either. My builder uses a Laticrete grout (I think? The samples are on the porch, but I don't want to go out there at this hour). I paid for 4 bags of grout and 2 dye packs to be mixed by the mason last week- dealing with them has been like watching paint dry- it's awful- they've cost us 2 weeks of not being finished- I did a bright white and then a slightly cream white, and then the 2 lightest grays, one was silver shadow (another dye pack) and then a shade darker. Mason wants me to use bright white, but I KNOW it is because he doesn't want to mess with the dye pack. My tile is soooo many colors (it's called peacock and literally has most colors in its), and I don't want it to look any busier than it is. Wish they made clear grout! I don't even like the look of grout, ha. I just want the tile to look the way it does without... clear and airy. I think the bright will be too much. My builder says the silver shadow will make it look the way I want it. I was going to post on trouble free pools but haven't figured out how to do photos. What did you do? Do you have any photos? Argh the grout agony, ha. Truly wish they had something clear to go with glass tile- I bet they will at some point- it only makes sense for glass.