I did the 12 x 12 throughout the bathroom and in the shower with mosaics on the floor and in a band at about 5 feet high. I needed to keep things quiet because it is a long narrow bath. I like a less busy look. I posted some pictures last June under "Pics of my new bathrooms."

Chris I have posted this many times on other GW forums - DalTile Brazilian slate - Porcelain tile - in Hopscotch pattern - This stuff is bullet proof & always looks nice reasonably priced and without the inherent issues slate typically has

Thank you everyone for your comments! We did a couple sample layouts tonight based on your advice, and we’re going to do the charcoal in the shower floor. If I can’t find a good quartz/etc remnant for the curb, we’ll do the large hex cut in half - with the darker gray grout we’re considering for the floor, I think it will look better than the white grout example I posted. I just can’t believe they are finally starting to do real work in the master bath - so much is changing in the house as a whole, but this is our biggest single room project with all new materials and design elements. Exciting and terrifying all at once!

Inverting a normal look (wood on the walls and stone on the floor) in a WET environment is a very tricky thing to get RIGHT. The 'norm' is wood on the floor (outside the bathroom btw) and stone or tiles on the walls. This is what Joe Schmoe will expect. To flip this look is a great twist on a traditional look....but it can go horribly wrong without the talents of an avant garde designer with a nose for twisting the norm. What I do know is this: the vast majority of men LOVE the look of wood (not all...but most). So they try to put it EVERYWHERE. And that gets weird. And heavy. And extremely difficult to deal with/live with. Be VERY aware of what you are trying to do. A farmhouse look is sheet vinyl (peeling and faded please) with 50's tiles (pink or orange) on the wall right to the ceiling. Germany loved these green porcelain tiled glazed ceramic tiles. Farm houses throughout Germany have these olive green tiles throughout the space dating from the 1820's or so. Or you have slabs of chipped slate (stuff you found in the fields...aka field stone) on the floors with huge grout lines + some sort of tile on the walls...or just white washed wattle and daub.