Just my 1/2 cent. I would tile the entire wall, shower and behind toilet. It is the visual entry wall from your door entrance. I realize a curtain needs to be closed for the most part to dry, but i open mine for the rest of the day because it opens up the room, and i like my tile. It goes all the way up to a post and beam ceiling. I'm not sure why it bugs me to see so many breaks and jags in tile these days, up down and across, even stair stepping...shower steam and moisture does effect the wall above eventually and the wall towards the toilet just by the direction of your shower head. But more to the point is when this trend started. Having been in hundreds of NYC bathrooms original build from the turn of the century thru the 60's, they do not jog tile up down and around in some decorative way. Stopping at the division before your sink area is fine as that division makes sense. A friend of mine stopped the tile like your last post, but it was a budget concern, so maybe that is the reasoning? The recent 'modernists' in bath design seem to do a great job with many of these issues by taking tile all the way around at the shower curtain/glass door line...the entire room, or tiling one entire wall. In the first pic above, the nice traditional bath with vintage fixtures, i would have stopped the tile just above, by one or two tiles, the window hardware, all the way around clean. That would fall just below the sconces. Just a thought, probably just me...

I recommend instead a Blanco Silgranit sink over the Americast. You can do a search on this forum and find all the enthusiastic lovers of their Silgranit sinks. Especially those with hard water who dislike the water marks on stainless, have converted to Blanco Silgranit sinks. Americast can chip if you bang a heavy pot on it. Silgranit is granite composite, made up of 80% granite, with the durability of granite. It won't chip or scratch. Silgranit comes in several colors from very light to very dark. Since you are thinking of an enameled cast iron sink also, I am assuming you want a sink in the white family. Check out the Silgranit in biscuit, which is a creamy white. I'll link a thread below with pics. If you want a white-white, there was also a thread just posted of a white silgranit sink which I will link. Silgranit sinks come in many sizes. Also think long and hard about whether you want a single-bowl or double-bowl sink. How wide will your sink be? Last comment - be careful about buying a sink from your contractor, only because contractors usually charge a middle-man markup, which they should, since they are doing the work of ordering, etc. But that may make your sink significantly more expensive than if you bought it yourself, especially if you buy online. I'm not saying your contractor is definitely going to do that, but I would ask him how much he will charge you for the sink, and check his price against what it would cost to buy it yourself at a place like Home Depot, or online. Thread with Pics of Silgranit sink in biscuit Thread about White Silgranit Sink All about Silgranit This post was edited by shannonplus2 on Sun, Feb 10, 13 at 13:24

WOW -- you guys have given me so much good stuff to think about. All who pointed out that my inspiration shots don't include any colored tile or other permanent elements other than the wall paint -- that was really eye-opening. So thanks, rob p, buehl, sailormann, lascatx, and debsan. I am now thinking about going a different direction with that element. The white cabinets, white subway tile, and marble counters with a warm green or yellow on the walls, and bringing in color with things like displayed items, and possibly also kitchen table and chairs. @kateskouros: What you describe sounds just lovely. I'm sure your kitchen is going to be beautiful! @elizpiz: I wish I had room for an island, but it was either an island OR a kitchen table. I really wanted the old-fashioned kitchen table, so that's what I'm getting! However, I've yet to buy it, so I will definitely think about a colorful one. And thanks for the attic link. Great pictures there to get ideas from. @chachashea: I can't wait to see pictures when your kitchen is done! Another thought I've had is that I am getting one custom-built cabinet piece, which will sit next to the table and house things like laptop and TV, with cubbies for mail and bills and magazines and such. I was going to ask the GC to paint it white to match the cabinets, but now I wonder if I should have it painted yellow or green (whichever I don't paint the walls). That might be really nice. As much as I love white cabinets, my eye is always drawn in pictures to the painted pieces in old kitchens too. Now for the backsplash -- I wonder if it would be too boring just to continue the white subway tile and paint, and then mix it up a little bit higher up on the wall with a picture, or a starburst clock, or something like that. One thing I'm still mulling too is whether the white subway tile should go all the way up between counter and cabinet, or stop short to expose paint color. What do you all think? Too "unfinished" without pencil or cap tile in black or another color, or could this work where the tile is all white? Thanks so much again! Liz

robin, Thanks for letting me know the floors are oak laminate. It amazes me that I keep liking oak floors when I too had been dead set against oak floors due to not liking my veneer oak cabinets that came with my townhouse and this cheap oak engineered wood floors in the foyers that have very thick coarse grain in them that is very busy. Maybe I would even be open to an engineered oak floor that is not too grainy that is stained cherry. I also am still open to laminate but due to my cherry furniture in my office, I had my heart set on a cherry wood floor with tiled foyers. I just wish my foyers were bigger but I live in North Jersey and as single person needing a lot of square footage to have a big home office as well as lots of personal space, the stylish townhouse fit me better. If I sold my townhouse and moved south, I could get a really nice house with a big beautiful foyer but I am realizing being alone, I am not yet ready to move with my clients here an my clients are so nice. The location I live in is expensive and I chose this townhouse over the house with more land and more bedrooms that was the same price due to the location not appealing to me. Thanks also Robin for letting me know the paint color. It truly is very neutral and may be nice in my home office to warm up the walls. I will try a sample out when I am ready to repaint. I love all my window treatments in my home I chose except for my first choice that is in the home office. I dislike the long strings of my Alta (a division of Hunter Douglas) double honeycomb blinds since they are always messy and tangling. I dislike the neutral color I chose (an off-white with a taupe faint design in it that looks great in the day time) at night since the blinds then appear gray. I wish I went with the 3/4" size pleat rather than the 1/2" size pleat. But I did not make these mistakes again and I learned that it is worth paying a little more for retractable cords or continuous loop cords or going cordless if you are tall (I am not). When you are ready for blinds, let me know and I will take pics of my other window treatments that I love especially my Champaign colored Shangri-La sheer horizontal blinds in my family room that has a cathedral ceiling and a wall of windows. The blinds really make the room so bright and happy and goes so well with the Bone White walls and bright white trim. Everyone who sees them loves them. I also love my retractable corded top-down bottom up Architella black-out Duet blinds in the linen color in my bedroom softened up with crinkled soft white sheers around them.