Grout color with white subway tile? (PsIP)

[kaylie]

Help! I have to choose soon. The tile is basic white and I can't decide if I want white grout or gray. I've seen some great pictures with white grout, but I think gray might be more practical. I really like this one and the granite is very similar to ours:


The grays I'm considering are light or medium. I specifically like "Misty Gray" which I believe @juno has in her bathroom.


I could also go with a medium gray like "Delorean Gray":


Here's an in-progress picture of the cabinets and granite together:

[Deleted]

On a wall I don't think it's quite as critical a difference as on a horizontal surface. I guess there might be a few splatters, especially depending on what sort of cook you are. How dirty is your backsplash normally? I make a lot of splattery tomato sauces on my stove, and I would go crazy if I had a white grout backspash behind it. The first pic is nice and I see the appeal. Especially with the busy granite, it might be nice to have a monocromatic background. You don't really get the definition between the tiles, which is part of what I like about using a darker grout, but that's jut personal preference. FWIW, I would have gone with Delorean, but DH insisted on the lighter gray. I think I'd still prefer the darker myself, especially with teeny grout lines, but that's just personal preference too.

If you like the white a lot, FoxInFiji has mentioned that special grout several times.  I'd never heard of it.  Would that be more stain resistant?

Lovely kitchen!

[munkii]

epoxy grout

[Deleted]

May 20, 2013 20:15:02 GMT -5 munkii said:

epoxy grout

That's it! I'd want to find a sample and rub a few things (red wine, tomato sauce, mustard) on it to see how it reacted. 

[kaylie]

Thanks Juno. Our old backsplash stayed pretty clean, but I wonder if it would get dirtier when we have kids?

I think Fox likes epoxy grout and it's supposed to be wonderful but harder to work with which is daunting to me as a tile virgin. I was thinking about going with a urethane grout which I think might be similar. It's another type that doesn't have to be re-sealed.

I'm wondering if I can go ahead and put up the tile, and then see how it looks with no grout? Do you think that would give me an accurate representation of what it would look like with a gray grout?

[spunkarella]

I prefer the gray. Of the ones you posted, misty gray is my favorite. I love the glass uppers on your cabinets!

[Deleted]

I'm trying to remember what mine looked like before grout, and whether it looked sort of similar, but I can't. It can't hurt to get the tile up on a section then decide can it? There's no time limit on the grout is there? Maybe once it's up you could do some Photoshopping on the lines to see? If you don't have Photoshop, I might be able to do a couple of mockups for you (I say might because my Photoshop skills are bad to terrible).

[bunnymendelbaum]

I like the little bit of contrast gray gives, I'd go light gray though.

[kaylie]

May 20, 2013 22:08:03 GMT -5 @juno said:

I'm trying to remember what mine looked like before grout, and whether it looked sort of similar, but I can't. It can't hurt to get the tile up on a section then decide can it? There's no time limit on the grout is there? Maybe once it's up you could do some Photoshopping on the lines to see? If you don't have Photoshop, I might be able to do a couple of mockups for you (I say might because my Photoshop skills are bad to terrible).

That's a great idea on the photo shopping. I do have the program on my work laptop and I think I should be able to mock it up fairly easily (though my skills aren't that stellar either).

The time limit is going to depend on how I attach it to the wall. If I go with the Bondera mat, I have to grout within 8 hours. If I go with mastic, I have to wait 3-5 days. After looking at my walls, they're pretty darn flat and level (yay for new drywall) so I think I can do the Bondera if I want to. I'm going to check HD and Lowes today and see if I can get the urethane grout before Thursday and decide from there. If I do the Bondera, I might just buy both colors and return whichever one I don't use.

[pamela]

I like the look of the gray. Our backsplash really doesn't get dirty except for right around the sink, but our main prep surfaces faces out into the dining area and so doesn't have a backsplash.

[niknik]

Google Oyster Gray with subway tile, that is what we used after seeing it on a few blogs and it turned out quite pretty. Of course our tile guy sucked so it all has to be ripped out......but that's not the color's fault

[katecoop]

We have basic white. I was really uncertain because of the stains, but I splatter tomato sauce frequently and don't have any problems. Our grout lines are very small though. Both choices are good!

[FoxInFiji]

May 20, 2013 20:22:53 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Thanks Juno. Our old backsplash stayed pretty clean, but I wonder if it would get dirtier when we have kids?

I think Fox likes epoxy grout and it's supposed to be wonderful but harder to work with which is daunting to me as a tile virgin. I was thinking about going with a urethane grout which I think might be similar. It's another type that doesn't have to be re-sealed.

I'm wondering if I can go ahead and put up the tile, and then see how it looks with no grout? Do you think that would give me an accurate representation of what it would look like with a gray grout?

We were tile virgins as well kaylie!  It's really not that hard to use at all I just caution that it's not the same as cementious so you don't get burned leaving a haze on the tile or trying to mix too big of a batch and not being able to work it into small grout lines.  With us never having used cementious grout we didn't know any different but were cautious just the same and had all of our stuff at hand to clean off the grout before mixing it or applying it.  Urethane grout will be the same as epoxy grout they are very similar materials. 

If you get mini batches from Lowe's Laticrete Silver Shadow would be my vote.  It's a very pale gray that looks great with white tile.  Do a search for it on the GardenWeb and you'll see lots of examples.  A really pretty light gray. 

[bunch]

I have delorean gray on my bathroom floors and think it'd be too dark with white subway tile. Ditto the rec for either epoxy or poly grout. They don't stain and as small as your project is, they wouldn't be much more. I think we used Trucolor Polyblend.

[boiler717]

We have white. No issues with staining.

I felt that grey was too busy and had the potential to look dirty.

[kaylie]

May 21, 2013 13:02:45 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

May 20, 2013 20:22:53 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Thanks Juno. Our old backsplash stayed pretty clean, but I wonder if it would get dirtier when we have kids?

I think Fox likes epoxy grout and it's supposed to be wonderful but harder to work with which is daunting to me as a tile virgin. I was thinking about going with a urethane grout which I think might be similar. It's another type that doesn't have to be re-sealed.

I'm wondering if I can go ahead and put up the tile, and then see how it looks with no grout? Do you think that would give me an accurate representation of what it would look like with a gray grout?

We were tile virgins as well kaylie!  It's really not that hard to use at all I just caution that it's not the same as cementious so you don't get burned leaving a haze on the tile or trying to mix too big of a batch and not being able to work it into small grout lines.  With us never having used cementious grout we didn't know any different but were cautious just the same and had all of our stuff at hand to clean off the grout before mixing it or applying it.  Urethane grout will be the same as epoxy grout they are very similar materials. 

If you get mini batches from Lowe's Laticrete Silver Shadow would be my vote.  It's a very pale gray that looks great with white tile.  Do a search for it on the GardenWeb and you'll see lots of examples.  A really pretty light gray. 

I was looking at the Laticrete. What do you think of using it in 1/16'' grout lines? I'm a little worried about having to be speedy with it since some people said it was harder to use in tight joints. Also, do you think the sand in it would scratch the surface of the tile?

[FoxInFiji]

May 21, 2013 15:18:20 GMT -5 kaylie said:

I was looking at the Laticrete. What do you think of using it in 1/16'' grout lines? I'm a little worried about having to be speedy with it since some people said it was harder to use in tight joints. Also, do you think the sand in it would scratch the surface of the tile?

It's a great price from Lowe's and in the mini size which is easy to use.  We had 1/16" and less grout lines in our master bath accent tile (it came on a sheet and is meant to look handmade so the pieces are nonuniform lengths or spaces) and it was fine. 

Sorry these are going to be big to show detail...


You just want to spread it right away after it's mixed.  We also kept out 20% of the sand mixture as noted that you can do in the instructions so it fit in the tight joints easier and has a smoother appearance.  In bigger joints the texture of the full sand mixture looks more appropriate.  That accent tile is glass and so is the accent tile we used in the main bath.  Neither scratched.  The sand from Laticrete is super fine...moreso than a sanded cementious grout which comes in unsanded for that vary reason.  I will note that by keeping some of the sand mixture out you get an ever so slightly warmer color because the epoxy is an amber color and the color for the grout is mixed in with the sand.  With the silver shadow in the main bath you don't notice it until you hold the color sample up to it or compare the matching caulk color.  In the master bath we intentionally went with bright white so it ended up looking like the color one shade down from it.  So just be aware of that.  I would probably stick with the gray just for that reason. 

Note the pure white caulk at the ceiling and the grout color where the bullnose meets the wall.  It's just barely an off white color. 


Not a pretty picture at all (LOL!) but this gives you a good idea of the Silver Shadow grout color because it's all grout around the pipes and that's a pure white PVC pipe for comparison. 



If you do want to go with urethane here's a blog I read that used it:
www.picardyproject.com/2013/01/grouting-basketweave-much-less-of.html

HTH

[kaylie]

Thanks for all the detail FoxInFiji! It's seriously helpful, especially the part about the color difference. I might pick up the silver shadow and the smoke grey and see which one speaks to me when the time comes.

I love that accent tile by the way! I'm glad you posted the close up - it's so beautiful.

[hbomdiggity]

We used laticrete in sterling silver in our bath. Hope the pics are somewhat true to color - not sunny this morning.

I believe the walls are 1/16 grout line (we didn't use spacers, just the nubs on the tiles).

[kaylie]

May 22, 2013 10:33:09 GMT -5 hbomdiggity said:

We used laticrete in sterling silver in our bath. Hope the pics are somewhat true to color - not sunny this morning.

I believe the walls are 1/16 grout line (we didn't use spacers, just the nubs on the tiles).

This is awesome - thanks! I was wondering what the size would look like since I'm planning to just use the nubs as well. I was considering going to 1/8'' but this looks great.