I did just explain this about 2 weeks ago, but that's okay. Most tiles (both conventional ceramic and porcelain) are pressed out and then baked in the kiln. The baking causes shrinkage, which in clay is never uniform, which is why you get some sizing. The problem is that sizing makes it impossible to set the tiles tight together. With rectified porcelain, it gets baked in sheets, and then cut to size afterward. it's usually made to imitate honed or polished natural stone, including the way the edges look, complete with the small chamfers that you always see on stone tiles. Its niche in the market is replacing natural stone with something that looks very similar, without ANY of the upkeep and maintenence problems associated wtih natural stone installations. You get the beauty with none of the headaches. :-)

I can't believe it - I have the exact same bathroom you do, and was just getting ready to post my ideas this morning to get some feedback! Please, any and everyone, I would love your ideas and comments, you would be helping two posters for the price of one! So...here are my ideas for dealing with my miniscule master bath: - Remove tub and replace with a walk-in shower with sliding glass doors. - Replace almond square tiles with white subway tiles. The tiles would go up 6 or 7 feet in the shower area, and then 42" up the wall in the remaining bathroom, with a chair rail on top. (You might be able to see the 42" line I drew on the wall to show where the tile would go up to) - Replace vanity with Kohler Memoirs 24" pedestal sink and install matching Memoirs toilet (round, not elongated as the bathroom is too small) - Remove medicine cabinet on the side wall and remove large mirror and replace large mirror with 31'x21' recessed medicine cabinet with sliding mirror doors (that is the piece of paper taped to the wall) - Install either sconce lighting or lighting over the mirror. - Install custom built-in open shelving behind the door for storage, from floor-to-ceiling (where my necklaces are hanging now). You might be able to see the line I drew on the wall that shows where the shelving would be. - Install hex tile or perhaps basketweave on the floor of the bathroom and shower. They would be ceramic as that seems to be the lowest maintenance option. Here are my questions: - Any opinions on whether to tile up 6-7" or all the way to the ceiling in the shower area? - Opinions on the medicine cabinet? I was also thinking of a large mirror on that wall with a shelf running the length under the mirror at the 42" tile mark on the walls. Ideas on shelving material? - Opinions overall? Should I keep the tub, for example? Finally, I got my inspiration from a mrslimestone on this board, I love her bathroom (see link below). Here is my existing bathroom: Here is a link that might be useful: My finished 'glamour vintage' bathroom by mrslimestone

Many thanks to everybody who answered, you have all been very helpful in clarifying my very muddled thoughts. Here is a hopefully clearer description of the situation: The house is a 50's ranch style, with 3 bedrooms and a hall bath (4.5x8.5 ft) clustered on one side of the house, and the kitchen, office/den and another hall bath (4x9 ft) on the other side of the house, with a great room in the middle. We plan to stay in this house as long as we can, but we are in this city for my husband's work, and if something happens (although unlikely with his kind of job), we know we'll have to move somewhere else; therefore, we'd like to make updates to the house while keeping resale in mind. Our (excellent) realtor said that for resale we should have an ensuite. After reading the comments, I have to clarify with him if he thinks a lack of ensuite will narrow down the market significantly, or if we 'simply' would not get the best price for the house. Most houses in the area are old (in the whole city actually), and we saw plenty without ensuites. We saw two of the neighbors' houses, and they did not have ensuites. This is what we considered: 1. Redo the bathrooms with the existing footprint (not that we have room to change anything inside), but we can go far into making them pretty, 2. Add a door from the master bedroom to the hall bath next to it, and close access from the hall. This I think would be a bad idea, not only because the people in the other two bedrooms will have to go across the house to the other bathroom, but also because the master bedroom will end up with windows on two walls, three closets on another, and two doors on the fourth side. Not restful. 3. Add another bathroom next to the master bedroom where the closets are, with one closet door transformed into a bathroom door. This bathroom would be 4.5x12 ft, although it could go to 5x12 if need be (but no more, because we'll hit a big window), which will have a shower but no bathtub. We talked to a professional who said it will fit fine with the caveat that the toilet will likely be the first thing you see in front of the door because of the current clearance requirements. 4. Build an addition. This again I think would be a very bad idea, since it would be blindingly expensive and the house is already on the higher side of square footage for the surrounding area. We will of course fix everything that is broken. The interior doors are the original 50s doors, hollow core dark wood look with lots of scuffs and holes, and they were cut short to fit the now non-existent carpet, so I would qualify changing them as fixing what is broken (and they bug me every time I look at them... ). The windows are a perk; we are still divided on those. I tend toward option 1, while my husband is going for option 3, although he agrees we do not need another bathroom. The reason I feel ill equipped to make this decision is that I'm originally from Europe, and even after so many years here I feel mildly perplexed about the North American love affair with bathrooms. Our previous rental was built in the last ten years and had a huge ensuite which I didn't like. I found it hard to keep as clean as I thought it should be, and it was so large I felt as if I was doing my business in public. Given the bathroom pictures on Houzz, I'm clearly in a minority. Your comments help ensure that I don't miss anything that might otherwise be obvious, so thanks again. And extra thanks to whoever makes it to the end of this post...

If you plan on redoing the shower and tub, then why not the floor?? No way it's going to work w/any farmhouse/rustic design you want. Plus, you don't have that much. Last thing you want to do is piece meal this bathroom because it's not going to look good. if you can demo the tile floor yourself and ready it for tile, you'll save about 1K. what's behind the wood door in there? Painting the vanity is fine, but you'll need a new countertop. Look for remnants, or pre-fab vanity countertops which aren't that expensive. (the one you have w/the sink is dated. you can find a vanity top and sink for under 500). removing all of the handicap elements will mean drywall repair (unless you can remove them and find simple screw holes) remove all of the molding when you redo the flooring and get more modern style (higher, simple). again, it's not that expensive (maybe .35 a foot) if you learn how to install and paint it yourselves. It's fine to have diff trim inside the bathroom. I'm sure at some point you'll tackle the adjoining room there are tons of tutorials online for DIY on budget. for example, this one was done for under 1K. They obviously kept the same countertop. (but you see what I mean about keeping some things and redoing others? A nice stone top or a white quartz would look 10X better. Save up for another 500 or so and redo the top and sink. You could do this. get a butcher block and cut it to fit (about $150 or so. home depot has cheap ones) Seal it. New sink. $50. Paint your floor tiles (less than 100 including the stencil) , make the shelves/art. Do some wood on the ceiling (find leftovers) find a new light and paint vanity. $300-400. This would actually be really cute. (Royal Design Studio for the stencils) You said you like rustic. so, over the toilet you could make your own shelves. (grab some fir beams at HD, cut it, stain it, get these plumbing brackets and spray those two. If you like this style, you can make these for less than $50) If you like this color for the vanity, great! look up how to paint oak vanities. (you'll need to sand it well, wipe it, prime it, fine sand again, wipe and then paint) Add some nice hardware. Look on craigslist or offer up for leftover countertop/stone pieces. or go to a fabricators shop and see what they have. you can also buy them off HD,LOwes, Wayfair w/a sink, but you'll pay a bit more. Floor tile. If you seriously cannot afford it (I'd wait until you can), then you could paint your current tiles and do some type of stencil. lots of DIY tutorials on "how to paint ceramic tile". most of these makeovers have the shiplap walls, but you don't have to do that. maybe you like a beadboard wainscot? again, do it yourself. it's not difficult. (You could even get leftover wood and do your ceiling)