I always appreciate that people provide comments, even if well after the original posting date, as I am one who researches things and may be awhile going forth with a project. However, this bathroom update was completed months ago. I chose the larger tiles and am glad I did. BTW, the tile manufacturer will provide details on tile layout. This happened to be an Italian porcelain tile and, as far as offset, it needed to be in thirds, not half. Additionally, this tile was thicker than most porcelain tiles, so something to consider when you purchase tile. Cleaning was never an issue, only room size and perspective. My tile guy always does great work.

I can tell you what im doing with the same size and type tile, maybe it will help. We are installing a callacutta oro tile. We layed it in a straight set ( grid) and it looks modern and beautiful. Ill add that we stacked the sides of the shower with the back wall in a herringbone to add just a bit of detail. To me, its beautiful. A marble like tile naturally can have a lot going on and i feel like the simpler laying pattern makes it seem like just a bit less going on (if that makes sense). Your bathroom will be beautiful and dont second guess your choice of wanting that tub. Its YOUR bathroom. Design it to suit your wants. Good luck.

I've had marble the master shower on the shower floor for about 10 years and no discoloration and we use all kinds of shampoos, soaps, conditioners etc and do not wipe down the shower when we are done showering. It may depend on what kinds of minerals your water has - we are in So Cal and have been told we have hard water. We just redid a second bath and used marble for the entire shower, floors and wall, and the vanity top, it's been about 4 months and no discoloration - hubby showers in that bathroom daily and is definitely not meticulous 😂 My third bathroom has a marble vanity top that's over 15 years old and there is a very faint yellow tinge running along one vein but it does not look dramatic or out of place. For many years I was pretty sloppy with beauty products and cleaning products in that bathroom and that's probably what caused it. If you do opt for marble you should expect it to darken immediately after installation, when our new shower was done the tiles were a much darker gray than the tiles left in the box, I freaked out and googled and learned that newly installed marble is full of water and needs a couple weeks to dry out. Sure enough after a couple weeks it was back to its original color and I love it so much.

I really would not do the wood accent feature in your house. I think it can limit furniture placement and is not easily reversible without a lot of scraping spackling and sanding. At least with wallpaper, if the wall is properly primed and sized you can remove it down to the wall surface without damaging the wall fairly easily. I also think based upon your other projects that your house is maybe too sophisticated for it. The big place I see it is on flipping TV shows were they are trying to get big impact for very little money and trying to avoid having something "too taste specific" like art or a wallcovering. It's a little low-end in your case, and in general the idea is at it's sell by __ date in my opinion. Still cute in certain place, but not here. If budget is not really a major concern, Phillip Jeffries, Thibaut and Schumacher all make nice wallcoverings including some murals. Phillip Jeffries has a lot of great grasscloths and other natural papers. If you like things a little offbeat, look at Cole and Sons