@samuelzmom @angharad_musladin Hoping either of you or anyone can offer some advice. I read this thread before I ordered my weathered white zellige tile from cle but I ordered anyway in hopes of achieving my own swoon worthy zellige kitchen to match what I see all over social media. I’m in the middle of my install and now panicked. The color feels totally wrong - my lot seems most white/cool tones. I understood the tile had high color variations but I thought that meant high variation between my 19 boxes - that I would have a mix of white, cream, pink pink, and blues. I don’t know what to do now. Will grout improve this? I’m realizing there aren’t a lot of pre and post grout examples out there. Is this a trust the process type thing? My kitchen feels like a cartoon. Is this normal? LOL My samples are on the countertop for reference. They were much warmer (what I hoped for).

"...there are adjacent colors and I thought I would LOVE them MORE than the turquoise, but when I put them in the room, they are not as beautiful (to me). My struggle is when I see pictures of the more muted colors, I think they are beautiful, truly....BUT...when I am making my choices, my heart always goes for COLOR, lots of it. haha" I feel like you already have your answer, from your own keyboard. My personal philosophy is to try to avoid choosing things you love that are super on-trend (that is infatuation- not love), and try to avoid choosing things that feel 'meh' to you now, because you are worried about what you may or may not like 10 years from now. Be brave. In 5 years, you can look at that wall of turquoise and have a constant reminder that you had the courage to live boldly follow your heart. (disclaimer- this advice comes from a person who drove to a car dealer in another state because they were the only ones within 400 miles who had the car I wanted in mint green. And every day that mint green car makes me smile.)

So I have been debating between all these also for the last couple months. For references, I am using Silestone Charcoal Soapstone (Quartz) on the perimeter counters (which will be by the tile) and Caesarstone Statuario Nuvo on the island. I found the Riad Snow Whilte to have too much of a "cool" gray tone to it. Alternatively, I find the Cle Weathered White to have too much of a pink/warm gray undertone. I really liked Cle Sea Salt and Zia Pure White but after I read some bummer reviews on here about Cle, I decidd to go with Zia Pure White. It seems to look the least gray to me and if it does have gray undertones they seem warm ish (warmer than Riad) and subtle. It tough though, I relate, been obsessing. I ordered samples of them all and put them next to each other with the counter color which really helped. I also ordered multiple samples of each.

Cle tile IS very porous. That's true, however, if it is recommeded for showers by the manufacturer AND installed correctly, following all manufacturer instructions, discoloration should not be a problem. The shower must be properly prepped underneath the tile as well. That said, all handmade tile should be installed by a very experienced tile installer for the best result. It is imperfect, and that is part of the allure for some, but it can be more difficult to install. I would not insist on a tile that your contractor is not comfortable with. I should also mention that our industry has had problems with quality and service from Cle. There are other Zellige tile makers but just make sure you have a contractor with the experience and confidence to install it correctly.