As a first-timer, I fretted over which approach to take. I went with white metal Schluter for the edges and for where I tiled into the windowsill. In all scenarios, when looking ”head on” I have the skinny part of the Schluter facing forward. I like it; it seems to mostly disappear.

Well, it occurred to me that I have samples of Makoto at home, so I tested them for cleaning! Here are the results. * Tested tiles: Makoto midori green & kumo gray, which are both matte. Also two glossy tiles for comparison - Cloe and Traditions (Bedrosians' basic subway tile). Test (1) Splashed them with water as they laid flat on my counter. I have hard water (my city is 240ppm if you want to compare). The green Makoto tile showed significant water stains when dried (yikes!), the gray Makoto looked a lot better. The glossy tiles looked fine overall but did have fingerprint smudges and water spots if you looked at from a certain angle. See first photo. Test (2) Soap scum and kid bath paint (the red spot you see on the tile). All the tiles showed those marks and all washed away equally well. The matte did not feel any harder to scrub than the glossy. Test (3) Put them in the shower in vertical position. This simulates the actual position they will dry in, which apparently made a big difference. The green Makoto now came out just fine! See second photo. Based on this, my conclusion is that matte tiles are harder to clean only if (1) you have hard water, (2) tiles are dark and (3) tiles lie horizontally on your floor. Knowing this now I will never use black tiles on floors!

We've chosen the rectangular Cloe tile in blue for our master bath redo, now in progress. The shower is 3' by 5', tiled up to the 9' ceiling. We chose an MTI one piece acrylic shower base for ease of cleaning. Our high-end contractor normally does tile shower bases, so this is new to them. Our floors will be smallish white hexagon tiles. Our prior white tiles were larger and a bit slippery. We did not consider large format tiles because, to me, they read modern, and I detest anything contemporary.

@Lynn Lou your post is so timely. You may remember I am renovating my entire house, and the next chunk is the upstairs, changing four bedrooms and two bathrooms to three ensuites. I wanted to plan ahead this time and choose flooring for the entire house. I want hard flooring with area rugs to keep allergies and grime down, and because changing an area rug can be such fun. And I expect to use a Roomba and Braava to clean on a schedule while I'm doing something else. And I have chosen chocolate/bark brown for the color that is all over the exterior and goes well with all my other favorite colors. At first I wanted wood floors upstairs and porcelain tile in the bathrooms and entry/kitchen level. Pretty standard stuff. Then I realized the family room should have tile because of the fireplace. And winter came and made me think of how cold the living room floor is and how wood isn't the greatest over radiant heating. And then Jan came along on your kitchen flooring post with her comments on keeping to one flooring through the house instead of a patchwork. I started thinking of tile all the way. I was thinking of how I could handle the stairs in tile. I started looking for a tile that had lots of finishing pieces and came in different sizes. And all that in chocolate/bark brown. So I posted my ideas. People alerted me to solid dark brown being hard to keep clean looking and a medium brown is better. Whether it was wood or tile, the color I loved best was going to have to lighten up to a medium brown and a pattern was better. Then people warned me about patterns and told me to look for a tile that had lots of variation so the pattern repeats wouldn't be noticable. The one that really threw me was the comment that grout has to be resealed and you can't leave the sealer on porcelain because it will discolor the tile. OMG that freaked me out. It's the same thing you are talking about in your post. Was it true? Until this post, I couldn't get anyone to confirm. I couldn't find anything on the web sites. But I was scared. And now I know from your experience it was true. Meanwhile, I had started looking at natural stone. It seemed to solve a lot of tile problems, the most important it seemed was that I have to seal the entire floor, so I don't have to be down on hands and knees wiping it off the tile without wiping it off the grout. I also didn't have to look for one that had enough pattern repeat or came with matching trim or came with bullnose for steps and edges I have so many of. I finally found a stone store where I could see and feel many types of stone, though not all. But I did find a chocolate brown travertine in a picture and got to see a small chunk in person. Titanium travertine from Iran. It looked like a chunk of zebra brownie. I took it home and hubby and I confessed it looks edible. I tried it against existing new stone and tile and favorite -colored paint chips. I talked with the guy about how to use it throughout the house. Finally! We found our stone! Our floor for the whole house but with shower floors we'd have the half-cut pebbles we put in our new shower downstairs and maybe even the same shower wall tile as downstairs. All our floors would be heated and we would be happy forever... Sigh. But Jan said it would be way too much trouble and all that mopping, and I'd have to bring a pro in regularly to seal it and buff it professionally. I mean seriously NO. Go back to wood and if I have to have a stone, make it slate. But not stone all through, and if in Florida, still make it porcelain. So depressed... Then I read a Houzz post about stone floors and their pros and cons. And as sometimes happens, the comments were treasures too. People kept mentioning how much they hated the rough texture of slate and how much they loved their travertine and how even if you never touched it after installation it hid dirt so well. And an on line video of how to fill in gaps under the travertine tiles reminded me that the stone guy said travertine is the one tile you can crack or drill holes in and fill with the same filler and it all looks beautiful again. And now YOU who I really trust with your pro experience... You say you have a travertine floor in your basement and have never resealed it even. OK, just wow... Please tell me more about your basement floor and any advice you can think of. I am leaning back to my chocolate travertine with it's infinite pattern that will hide dust and crumbs like powdered sugar and nuts... But of course Roomba will sweep up. I know it's a basement and you don't want to show pictures, but I could really see a closeup of the grout lines. I'd like rectified tiles and grout as small as possible, but it would be nice to see what is possible. Now here's hoping this posts...my third try.