Seems like I started a thread about this awhile back. I like it, a fresh take on traditional. Try a search on vertical subways to see the thread, which had some good photos in it. Bill, on that first photo you posted, can you tell me how high the tiles go? Also, can you get a more zoomed out photo so I can see how the chair rail at the top ends (or doesn't)? If anyone can tell me how to receive replies to topics not initiated but posted to, I'd appreciate that, as well. Thanks!

lol, rebunky! I never thought about running the tile over the edge of the counter like that. Definitely worth considering, thanks! Did I say on this thread or the one in the bathroom forum that I figured out that the tile will only be about 8 1/2" high. My elevation made it look much fatter than it will be. In fact, it's likely closer to what you did above. I met with my GC yesterday and my KD today. They were both very productive meetings so I'm feeling a whole lot better about this project. GC said, "yep, we can do the angled bench, no problem" which put the Kohler shower pan in the running. Yay! He also had great cost-saving ideas. Yay, yay! When I met with my KD today, I reviewed everything with her, especially my concerns about a tiled shower floor. She said, "do the Kohler and the angled bench" without missing a beat and we headed off to a local showroom to look at color chips. Found a winner in no time: Sandbar is perfect! It's a wonderful color with my other choices but there's enough contrast that it's a great compliment, too. I'm a happy girl! DH and I liked A and B the best of the tile patterns for the shower. GC said his favorite was B and that it would be a cheaper install. KD voted for B as well. So B it is! On the bathroom forum thread, mayflowers voiced concern that the mosaic tile reads too brown in my photos. My sample doesn't look brown but I stopped at a local showroom and asked about it. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of variation and I could get a batch that has a lot more brown than blue. Not good. I want blues not browns and especially not a golden brown since that would look awful with our other choices. So I stopped at a tile distributor to see what else I could find. I brought home 4 choices, 2 of which were discarded when I got them home in my light. One was neon bright in my light. Oops, not what I was going for. The other was wishy washy. But I have 2 very good choices to replace the glass mosaic. I may need to swap out Aquarius glazed option for another in that line for the 1/4 round but that's not a big deal. Choice #1 is Lunada Bay, Tozen series, in Iodine, in 2 finishes. Here it is in silk (non-glossy). And in natural (glossy) Tile choice #2 is also Lunada Bay but in the Agate series in Pisa, silk finish. These will also have some variation between batches but they won't end up brown. Not sure which I like better.

Thanks, mayflowers! I met with my KD this morning. It was a very productive meeting. Chose the tile pattern for the shower (B), decided upon the Kohler shower pan in Sandbar (Dune is a close runner up) and the lay-out of the shower fixture and the bench (angled, ending 9" shy of the glass to make install easy and also easy to clean the glass), mirror sizes, light mounting heights.... Yep, we knocked my "but what about" list down to size. Yay! She said toe testers were done all the time in Canada when she lived there (was a KD there, too) but they aren't done as often here, for whatever reason. I don't think it will be necessary for us to have a toe tester because of the fixtures we chose and where we're installing them. I'll review our plan when I take showers this weekend to see how the new set-up will work and see if there are any hiccups with it. This afternoon, I went out to United Tile up to check out alternative accent tiles. Yep, your comment about the brown in the mosaic got me thinking. I asked a rep at Contractors Furnishing Mart this morning and she said, "yes, it can be variable and you might end up with more brown than blue tiles." Uh, oh, don't want that, especially since the brown is a golden brown, which doesn't work well with the shower pan color and other choices. I came home with 4 to consider but as soon as I got them in my light, I immediately kicked 2 out of the running. One was wishy washy and the other was holy guacamole bright! I forgot to ask pricing but unless it's out of this world outrageously expensive, it's likely going to be doable since we don't need a lot of it, our install pattern is uncomplicated and our other choices are easy on the budget. Choice #1 is Lunada Bay, Tozen series, in Iodine, in 2 finishes. Here it is in silk (non-glossy). Here it is in natural (shiny). I'm leaning towards silk. Tile choice #2 is also Lunada Bay but in the Agate series in Pisa, silk finish. The sample I brought home reads more green than what I saw in the store and than it is in the above pic but my sample is 1/2 x 4 brick so there's not nearly the color variation as there at the store and in the pic. Aquarius may or may not work but there were other yummy colors in the same series of glazed tile so I'm sure to find a color for the 1/4 round. There can be color variation in these, too, but they shouldn't go brown at all. They might be more green than blue or vise versa but that's not a problem. Thanks, mayflowers, for voicing your concern. If you hadn't, I would never have known that my original choice could end up with a lot more brown in it than I want. That could have been a big oops at install!

We recently had our front hall flooring installed with porcelain wood look tile and had it installed lengthwise. We felt it looked best that way.