I Crema de marfil (sp) 12x12 tiles in my master bath. Love the looks of the floor when it was new and still do in some places. IMHO, with vanity chair, kids, dogs, cats, Make up, after shave, etc, it just did not hold up well at all in the heavy traffic areas. My daughter spilled nail polish remover and it ruined an area of the tile. The least expensive quote to repolish 80sf was $650. I'll retile with something more duable for that price than spend it on repolishing every so many years. It may work for some. It did not work for us. But it is pretty. Here are pics when it looked good

I have done it several times. Usually because there was no money in the budget for new floors and I felt like I would go seriouly nuts if I had to "Look at that floor one more time". That being said, the floor was always redone within about 5 years, so I can't give you durability beyond that point. I always cleaned it well, painted with any paint that I had at hand, and then put 3 good coats of oil based poly over top of that. Oil based is basically impervious to water. And in a bathroom, each coat took only minutes, I usually would put a coat on and go to bed letting it dry overnight. The other thing is most oil based polys have a slight yellow tint, so you need to take that into consideration with the color choice.

Well I do plan a more extensive makeover next year or the year after with vanity and countertop replacement and probably floor, and tile backsplash...but I just can't stand looking at this "1980 rental apartment" bathroom every morning for an indefinite period! Thanks for the tile frame idea that's great! It would not take a lot if tile and could really dress things up! Yes I think the light fixture has got to go- but with what? I have never picked light fixtures before and don't know where to start- it is the only source of light and the shower is on the other side of the room so it needs to throw some light up to the ceiling as well as down. I thought of building some kind of soffit like shade in front of it and then using brighter bulbs... Does that sound crazy? So what about several shades lighter of revere pewter for ceiling or should I just go white? Maybe a darker color in the same taupey grey family for the ugly vanity... And I'll add hardware to dress it up. This post was edited by tinan on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 12:26

As a real estate appraiser I would advise to try to keep it. It will reduce the valuation by a few percent. If I were to appraise your home, I would now have to compare and adjust it from a 3 bathroom home to a 2.5. That's anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 adjustment downwards. Understand that I don't know where you live or your real estate market. Even though there is no bedroom on the floor, it's a very usable space. At the very least, I'd put in a shower. You just never know when someone will lose their mobility. It looks like an older home. If your laundry room is in the basement, you may want to reconfigure it to bring the laundry up to the main living area. That would be an improvement in utility and the only reason why I would consider eliminating it. Hard to see everything, but you could reconfigure the doorway/entry and take over that vestibule area.