Although I had a more specific layout question a couple months ago for the front door entry, and I got some good steermanship, this query is a little more general and has to do with design. I’m hiring the tiling to be done in the guest- and master-bedroom baths. I did the half-bath, no-brainer, just the floor and pretty small. I also did a pantry, entrance area, and service entrance from the garage; again, nothing too tough. The tile contractor looked at my “tricked” out front entry area and remarked something along the lines of, “Pretty good for a homeowner.”
I’ve now got to wrestle with picking out some tile for the above job. Tiles of course come in all types of sizes within the same style or color/pattern of tile. What I’m wondering is, are there areas in the bathroom where certain sizes are more appropriate than others? Or is it just kind of personal preference and taste? In other words, say I have a tile picked out for the shower walls (I know what I’m going to put on the shower floor), do I go with a 6 x 6 (or smaller), or a 12 x 12, or even say with a 12 x 18 size tile? Same with the floor? Does the size or area of the latter matter? Is more or less grout lines a certain style where this should be taken into consideration? I suppose larger tiles in the shower surround would mean less grout lines and chances for potential leaks down the road?
Anyway, if there are some basic design guidelines and common denominators when it comes to the sizing of tile for floors and walls, I should would like to read about them. Thanks in advance for any help.
Replies
I don't think one can give overall guidelines. I think the most important design consideration is that the style of the bathroom is consistent within itself, and marries well with the style of the rest of the house.
For example, I would not do Italian tile in an English Colonial house, or seashore motif in Kansas.
If you go too trendy it will soon look dated. I think a timeless look has more staying power.
Natural stone is not practical in a bathroom, it's just too hard to keep clean. But it does look nice on TV!
There is a size limit to the floor tiles in the shower because the floor slopes to the drain.
From there you can have larger tiles on the walls. It's best to line up the grout lines as you go from floor to wall, in other words the width of the wall tiles should be a multiple of the width of the floor tiles.
This is a discussion you should be having with your tile guy more than anyone else.
Be practical and take the installers advice as long as they are knowledgable.
Eric
Used to be that tile size was generally proportionate to room size. No longer the case....not currently anyhow. 12 x 12 floor tile in a 6 x 8 room was not even considered....its now the "in" design look. Someone else has already remarked on avoiding "trendy"....I agree....ten years from now, that tile job may not be what you care for. Traditional tiling not only looks good over the long haul, but also comes back "in" over time.
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
Hey gents/gals, just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the responses. It's still a work in progress; I've ordered some tile, am considering some other, and still wrestling some other design issues.
To me, tile stuff is so personal; yeah, you gotta look at what's "in," what has staying power, and what not, etc., but the bottom line is I gotta live with it. So even if it ain't "in" 15 years down the road, I'd like to think I made the right decision and can live with it.
Thanks again...