Tile & Countertops Initial Plan - Week 18, Tuesday

After my tile shopping yesterday, I came up with the following plan (price permitting!):

As far as tile materials, I would really like to use carrara in the master bath and porcelain in the upstairs bath & basement bath, possibly with some marble accents as well. I really like the traditional hex & penny tile, but I want a fresh twist on it and what I keep choosing doesn't seem to give the modern vibe as much as I would like. I also don't want it to feel too sterile and boring. I love this bathroom, just to give you an idea of what I like. It's classic,modern and slightly whimsical at the same time. It looks like a marble 4x4" hex which I would love to use somewhere, but I can't find it.

Master bath: Carrara field tile (12x24 staggered rectangles, possibly with a 2x2" hex tile inset at the center floor & shower floor) OR (6x18 herringbone rectangles all over with a small mosaic in the shower) for the floor & 3x6" staggered carrara subway tiles for the shower walls. The other more cost effective option is this really neat striped white/gray marble field tile (Fluid) that I found at CFM for the floors paired with it's matching rectangular mosaic for the shower. It's a much more modern look. Bianco Venatino is also a nice white stone that is a slightly less expensive.

Upstairs guest bath: I am thinking 2x2" hex in grey and white for the floors. I am having some trouble finding anything other than black & white though. I haven't looked at Daltile yet and I hear they have colored hex, so I am going there tomorrow. I had some ideas for hex tile patterns, but they might be labor intensive. For the surround, I think simple white subway tiles with gray grout would be nice and affordable.

Basement bath: Penny tile for the floors and subway tile for the walls. I might just go black and white for the penny, but I found a really nice pale blue that I'm going to run by Riley. This is a cool tonal combination of penny tile too.  I also found this really cool white marble rounded-triangle mosaic (oval pebbles) at CFM that I would like to incorporate as the backsplash. It could be awesome as a full wall behind the vanity. I need to check the cost to see if this is realistic though. 

Powder bath: No tile needed. Phew!

Riley sent me these four bathrooms as the inspiration he liked. Think he likes white?
Bathroom #1
http://www.houzz.com/photos/58187/floating-vanity-with-awning-door--vertical-grain-beech--farmhouse-sink-contemporary-bathroom-san-francisco
Bathroom #2
http://www.houzz.com/photos/34819/christian-rice-architects--inc--traditional-bathroom-san-diego
Bathroom #3
http://www.houzz.com/photos/71954/Master-Bathroom-traditional-bathroom-seattle
Bathroom #4
http://www.houzz.com/photos/19600/little-girls-bathroom-by-Valerie-Pedersen-Interior-Design-traditional-bathroom-san-francisco

I zipped these ideas over to Oliver for his design input. There are so many choices out there and only 3 bathrooms to put them in :)

For the counter tops in the kitchen and all bathrooms, I'm going to use the ChromaQuartz by Pental. It's a really cool resined quartz material that is super durable. It is heat and stain resistant and much more affordable than natural stone. What's not to like? I think that Thassos White is the best match for the Carrara marble in the kitchen. For at least one of the bathrooms, I really like the Lattice because it has the look of marble.