Confession: I am secretly obsessed with tile and so is my adorable intern, Danielle. The two of us could spend hours (and have!) creating mood boards designing the components of bathrooms and tile layouts.
And then, we realized, we should totally share these mood boards (including shopping links) with you!
ps–It is very rare that we recommend a complete bathroom renovation for when you are staging your house to sell. So if you are getting ready to sell with an old bathroom, breathe a sigh of relief. But, if you are an investor or want to update a bathroom in your new home, then keep on reading.
Let's start with how to even begin in choosing your bathroom tile.
How to Choose Bathroom Tile
1. Get acquainted with your budget
Tile costs can quickly add up so you will want to go into your shopping adventures understanding what your budget is. The easiest way to do this is to get out your tape measure and calculate the square footage of your floor, shower floor, and shower walls. Once you know that, you can multiply that number by the price/sq ft that you see on tile that you like online. Tile prices can vary from $5/sq ft- 0ver $100. Start plugging in these numbers before you shop! Nothing worse than absolutely falling in love with a tile only to find out it will crush your budget.
2. Start with your vanity counter
Wait, what? I know, it sounds so strange but this is kind of like why we always say choose your paint color last. There are far more options in tile than there are in counters. Also, if you are going with a vanity “off the shelf” you are going to be very limited in your counter option so you want to make sure that your tile plays nicely with whatever that counter surface is going to be.
And definitely bring a sample or take a picture of your counter surface with you when you are tile shopping if you can so that you can compare your tile to it. Or vice versa, bring a sample of your tile to your counter. Either way, it is always best to get both tile and counter in the same place before you buy.
3. Know where to shop
There are so many choices in where to shop for tile these days from the standards, like Lowe's and Home Depot to places like Floor and Decor and the Tile Shop. Those places are great but you really should go there with some basic knowledge of tile and how it is installed.
However, there you may also have local tile showrooms in your area and this is where I would start if you are new to choosing tile. These places might seem intimidating, but I promise, the reps in those showrooms are incredibly knowledgeable and can give you information about things you never thought about like, how wide should the spacing be between the tiles, what type of grout to use, what color grout to use, is this tile appropriate for what you want to use it for. You typically will want to schedule an appointment so that you get the best service. And it's so worth it in the knowledge and peace of mind you will gain!!!!
4. Simple is most timeless
The one challenge when you choose bathroom tile is that there are so many gorgeous options out there and there is a huge temptation to go nutty with the most current trend. I urge you to think about what will be timeless and what will give you the most flexibility the next time Target comes out with their cutest new shower curtains and towels.
This bathroom below is a beautiful, timeless look that we installed almost 5 years ago and it will feel current and fresh 5 years from now.
And this powder room can be painted anything and it will still work with the “fixed elements” (that's fancy designer talk for tile and counters ;))
5. choose your favorite bathroom tile first
For this bathroom, our client fell in love with the bold porcelain tile that resembled encaustic tile (you can see encaustic tile all over Europe dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries so, yeah, they're pretty much timeless at this point)
Because this was such a bold statement, we chose simple subway tile as the accent with a gray grout to match the gray in the floor tile.
6. Choose no more than 3 styles and vary the scale
This is where the magic happens–in the mix. For shower floors, you want to go with your smallest sized tile because it needs to be able to contour for drainage. For shower walls, I usually like to go with a medium-sized tile like a 3 x 6″, 4 x 16″ or 6 x 12″. For a more modern look, you could go with 12 x 24″ on the walls too. For the actual bathroom floor, honestly, anything goes as long as the pattern isn't too busy in a large space.
Ok…so now for the mood boards! Enjoy! Oh and let me know which mood board you love the most in the comments below. (click the images to get the shopping links)
xo,
Lori
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