More bath reno questions - accent tile or no? (PIPs)

[Susie]

We ended up starting from scratch picking colors/finishes out for our bath reno, because it just was not coming together with the countertop that we chose the first time.  Everything on its own was lovely, but the combination just wasn't working.

Anyway, we have settled on a new vanity top and cabinet wood/stain.  We're sticking with the white 3x6 subway tile for the shower and around the room, but looking at different tile for the floor.  (Not sure whether we prefer the basketweave or the hexes, or if those are even "it.")  

The question is whether to do any accent tile.  My original vision had been for all of the tile to be very neutral.  We're probably staying in our house, but not 100% sure.  (Is anyone truly ever?)  However, the vanity top has some aqua in it.  The folks I'm working with are encouraging me to do some accent tile to pick that up.  I found a lantern and a penny round (same color/company) that match the countertop perfectly, at least IRL.  They have taupe edges, and it looks great with the countertop sample.  In a vacuum, I really like them.  They're some of my favorite colors.

 
20mm penny round                              2.5" lantern

I'm thinking of tiling either the backs of the niches with the accent tile, or doing an accent stripe around the shower:


But as I think about it... that seems dumb, as it will be behind the white shower curtain, so ... should I pass on accent tile entirely?  Use the floor tile as the accent in the niche and keep it all neutral in color?  But then I look at my samples all together and they look... pretty, but boring.

So I come full circle:  accent tile in the shower, curtain be damned?  Accent tile in the shower and elsewhere in the room, like a thin row of penny tile?  

I am having trouble changing gears from my original vision, but it just was not working.  This is the layout, and where the subway tile is planned for reference:



What suggestions have you re: accent tile?

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[hbomdiggity]

I’d accent tile in the shower, esp in the niches. Sure you won’t always see it, but you will when you are in the shower. And it looks like it will tie in nicely with the counter.

I don’t think I’d carry it around the room. We did when we did a black pencil liner because that seemed to fit the historical look, but it was pencil liner and tile went up pretty high on the non shower walls.

[ellipses84]

While I love the color and think it is well liked by a lot of people, I think the accent band could look dated after a while. I do like the idea of breaking up the white subway tile though and I’ve seen the back of the niche look good with blue penny rounds. I personally would do a unique shaped tile in a neutral color like white/gray marble. The bathroom isn’t so huge, so I don’t think it will seem like too much subway tile. I also recommend getting nice trim pieces for the corner edges. I normally like clean, modern lines but some of the trim prices make it look so much more finished, kind of like crown molding does for a room.

[ellipses84]

You could also do a row of white square tile at the bottom and/or top to break it up. I’ve seen tile trim chair rail even on full height walls. If the niche is a square, you could do a large medallion tile background. I was trying to find good photos on Pinterest, but in most of them I see something wrong or something I don’t like. Make sure they lay out the niche so the top and bottom line up with tiles and you aren’t having a cut tile where it noticeably wouldn’t line up.

[mrsukyankee]

I have all white subway tile in my bathroom on the walls (plus blue paint) and it looks fine on its own and I've never thought of it as institutional... RockNVoll

 I think it's quite classic, tbh.  My floors are a different tile so that breaks it up.
I think accents seem to get dated very quickly. The only place I'd use it is in the nook.

[tres3]

I love the accent tiles you have in the first post. I would do an accent tile. It will give your bathroom some pizzaz.

[Susie]

RockNVoll , hbomdiggity , I agree that the shower would look better with something breaking it up.  Originally we were going to do it with the floor tile.  This accent tile is just throwing a wrench in the works!  The long wall of the shower is an exterior wall, and one designer we've worked with has recommended that we NOT put a niche there because it will decrease the amount of insulation we have room for, behind the niche.  So I think we're likely to put the niche on the short wall (next to the door), which faces the hallway.  Possibly also a second niche under the shower head on the drain end, which would be the wall between shower/toilet.  My big concern if we do the green tile there and nowhere else, that it'll look random/out of place, and not sufficiently tied to anything else in the room.

ellipses84 , it's really hard to find natural stones that are the right shade of greige for the countertop, both grays and tans don't work.  I spent insane amounts of time finding the ritz grey marble that's tentatively chosen for the floor.  Last night we tentatively decided on the ritz gray basket weave for the floor:

I don't think basket weaves work great as accents because it's hard to decide where to make the cuts.  But we could do the same marble in a different shape in the shower.  Options that I can find online include:
 

If we wanted a neutral ceramic accent tile and/or a more interesting shape, the green tile also comes in a taupe-y color, called dove gray, that I think might work.  

Any thoughts on any of those?

mrsukyankee , I agree that accents are the first thing to get dated.  But I liiiiiiiike it, lol!  And that is exactly how so many bathrooms wind up having it, and wind up looking dated.  Actually, looking dated is only my #2 concern.  My #1 concern is looking like... just "too much."  I see that in a lot of real estate listings around my house's (modest suburban family) price point.  Lots of bath renos that you can tell are homeowner designed rather than professionally, and there's just too much everything, the countertop fights with the floor, fights with the accent tile, and everything is competing for your attention all at once.  THAT is my #1 fear.  

tres3 , do you prefer lantern or penny round?  Initially I only brought home a sample of the lantern because I thought it was prettier, but as I flip through pinterest I see more pics of penny round that I like.

So many choices!  I thought this would be fun, but I have to say, I can't wait until it's all ordered.

[tres3]

Mar 20, 2018 8:37:52 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Mar 20, 2018 5:56:41 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I have all white subway tile in my bathroom on the walls (plus blue paint) and it looks fine on its own and I've never thought of it as institutional... RockNVoll "

I know I'm in the minority on disliking white subway tile. I embrace my weirdness Lately I've been seeing some glass, either pale gray or seafoam-colored subway tile that I think is pretty so maybe there's hope for me, LOL.

I did a larger set navy blue subway tile that I did in my master shower that I love. We did a larger  gray subway tile in one of my son's bathrooms and I like that too. All white is too stark for me too. 

[juliachild]

What about a black accent in the shower? I'm thinking that would tie into the black in your floor tiles.

I prefer a more classic bathroom though. I would tie in the aqua with the bath math, towels, etc.

ETA: I also think your wall color will bring out the aqua in the countertop.

[simpsongal]

Hmm....I don't love the horizontal band, what about a vertical stripe of the round accent tiles? And do the back of the shampoo indentation? I think the Moroccan ones will look dated.

I think I prefer the black accents juliachild, posted.

[Susie]

Hmm.  I have to say the black tile doesn't do anything for me, especially since we are planning to do taupe grout.  I think taupe grout with black accent tile would look weird.  I am vehemently against white grout from the maintenance standpoint (have it now, don't want it again), and gray wouldn't look good with everything else in the bathroom.

I could see doing black grout with the white subway tile, and a white tile of a different shape in the niches.  Could be anything:  herringbone, hex, lantern, penny round.  

That would be completely neutral in color palette, without being completely visually boring.

[InBetweenDays]

We have white subway tile in our shower and bathroom and did a greenish glass accent tile. We did it in the shower, on the tub siding, and as a band around the room. Maybe it will look dated, but we've lived with it for 9 years and haven't gotten sick of it yet These photos look really bland because they were taken by our contractor before any of our stuff was moved in. 

[hbomdiggity]

I don't think the accent tile will look anymore dated than your other choices. That said, I do think the Moroccan tile is less timeless than the penny though.

But I totally get when you say sometimes it doesn't work. I feel like half the time I see a picture it screams "we bought too much accent tile and had to put it somewhere."

[soso]

The stripe/strip looks like "I didn't know where to put this fun tile" but it is really personal preference... the other responses support that for sure!

When we redid our bath we did all white subway tile in 5 he tub/shower and to me, it looks very clean and classic which to some is sterile or institutional.

Meh do what makes you happy. None of your choices would give me pause as a buyer.

[aspentosh]

I am all about an accent tile. I think it adds a lot to our shower. Here is what we did because I didn't care for the horizontal stripe near the top. 



Between your two tiles, I'd do the penny tile. It's classic and would weather trends better than the Moroccan tile. 

[ellipses84]

I really like the hex tile for an accent background in a niche. The last 2 porcelain tiles are nice too!

[ellipses84]

[ellipses84]

[ellipses84]

Having colored grout is going to give more interest to the subway tile (I’d lean more on the dark gray side of greige, pulling from color/shade from your other surfaces). I think the colored penny rounds will look nice. Think about how what you will do on the inside edges of the niche too - subway tile, accent tile, special edge trim pieces, pieces of marble slab, larger tiles that look like metal trim, etc.

[Susie]

I'm starting to lean away from the lantern and toward penny round if we do the green, because you're all right that the penny round will fare better over time than the lanterns.  Also, since the pennies are smaller, you can see the variation from tile to tile without a huge amount of it.  

As far as the long wall, if we were doing a glass shower enclosure I would completely agree.  But we are going to have a shower curtain that's covering the shower most of the time (so it can dry).  I guess I'm just not that worried about that wall "needing" to be broken up.  When I'm in the shower I would see the niches with some kind of different tile, and when I'm not, I wouldn't see the shower tile at all.

One thing is for sure:  my current shower is tiled with white 4x4 squares with white grout that I can't get completely clean, so any of the ideas I'm batting around will be a big improvement!  (The existing all white tile is why I am not worried about plain white subway tile being too stark/institutional -- it's not really different from what I've had for the last 9.5 years.) 

[dr.girlfriend]

Any time I see a stripe like that I usually end up thinking, "This bathroom would look better without that." I like the floor/niche being a small accent tile.

[wawa]

I suspect at least two of my bathrooms fell prey to the "well what if we just INCLUDE EVERYTHING" homeowner design trap....luckily we're staying in this house foredamnever anyway.

[munkii]

I'm not crazy about stripes/bands as an accent in the shower, unless it's pencil tile. IMO, the penny tile would be a fun accent in the niche, even if it's not on the big wall. Another option I'll throw out there (that I'm meh about, but it's an option), Cambria can make 1/4" thick panels. So, you could use the same pattern from the countertop in the back of the niche.

[nomad100]

Just going to throw out that I will be tearing out tiles almost exactly like those lantern shaped tiles in your first post. They are from 1974. So if you plan on staying for a long time, they just may come back in...

[dr.girlfriend]

Mar 23, 2018 15:15:06 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

Just going to throw out that I will be tearing out tiles almost exactly like those lantern shaped tiles in your first post. They are from 1974. So if you plan on staying for a long time, they just may come back in...

Moroccan tiles are super trendy!  Or at least they were when I redid my kitchen a few years ago...

[nomad100]

Mar 29, 2018 22:19:29 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Mar 23, 2018 15:15:06 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

Just going to throw out that I will be tearing out tiles almost exactly like those lantern shaped tiles in your first post. They are from 1974. So if you plan on staying for a long time, they just may come back in...

Moroccan tiles are super trendy!  Or at least they were when I redid my kitchen a few years ago...

Yup, still trendy. I am actually thinking of using them as an accent in the shower I am having redone.  As a throwback to the original turquoise and brown mottled version I am tearing out.  

[Susie]

Just to come full circle on this... we made our final decisions!

We're going to use the penny tile as the accent, in the backs of the niches and in a 4-penny tall strip on the backsplash.  4 pennies tall is 3", so if we ever got super tired of it, we could pull it out, replace it with a 3x6 subway tile, and not rip the rest of everything up.  I am not going to do any accent tile on the side splashes because of the asymmetry, with the linen cabinet on one end.

We are talking about having Cambria make shelves for the niches to match the counter top, or we might do glass.  Not 100% about that detail.  Other than that we are pretty good to go.

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[pooh8402]

Okay so my last house had the accent tile stripe in the midst of all the white subway tile. I HATED IT! It was the only thing of color in the room aside from the wallpaper, and that came down. I HAD to keep the shower curtain closed to cover the tile.


So I vote for no colored accent tile in the shower