I don't think it looks too busy at all. It looks nice! Wait till you have green and blue and red and pink bottles in there... LOL

Not quite certain what you are referring to when you say that flat lip? Are you talking about the curb or the return on the walls? Which tile would you use, the long mosaic laying on the floor?

What kind of tiles are those? Natural stone or porcelain? Looking really nice!

So glad you don't think it looks too busy! The tiles are porcelain.

What I mean by lip is the narrow piece (probably 2 inches or so) between the inside of the bathroom and full wall. Does that make sense?

LOVE the framing around the niches and agree with your husband that tiling the lip is a good idea.

I like the frame around the niches. And YES on the lip tile.

This post was edited by sasafras on Thu, Feb 13, 14 at 21:54

I like the frames. It looks like your tiler took a lot of time to make nice mitered corner cuts and it dresses up that detail. Otherwise the small tiles inside the niche might not stand out as much. The only change to make it less "busy" might be to make the frame edges line up with the wall tile grout lines (more narrow frames)
Yes on the narrow lip

Beautiful! Think it looks lovely!

Thanks everyoneâ¦I feel a huge sense of relief! I guess it just wasn't what I was expecting and it took me back a little.

I like it. Nice tile job!

-Babka

Love the niche.
That's what I want in my shower tub area instead of ceramic holders or even wire racks.

What surprises me your contractor took it upon himself to create the niche without discussing it with you.

I like the color tiles you used.
Can you give me more info on them.

Beautiful bath!

I understand that you were looking for something more subtle, not a feature. You are correct that he really should not have framed them without asking first, discussing the options or any issues with what you wanted beforehand.

You could mention that so the next customer might not get a surprise too.

Thanks. Yeah, I wish he would've asked me. I'm a less-is-more kinda person. I love simplicity so this took me back as I would have preferred subtly. But I'm just going to live with it and embrace it. We didn't do a border decorative tile so I'm ok with it.

cruzinpaths, the tile is ABK Fossil in Cream. I fell in love with them at the store but they are expensive! They have some hues of blue but still very warm. I second guessed myself a lot. I hope I love it all at the end.

This post was edited by prbetsi75 on Mon, Feb 17, 14 at 23:27

I think the picture framing is fine but the layout could have been better.

There's a sliver of tile under the bottom of the niche and the top of the niche is cut into the course of wall tile above it. With better planning or better layout, you could have had full uncut courses of tile both above and below the niche.

Could be skewing due to the camera lens, but the niches, especially the right one, don't even look like they are set square into the wall compared to the tile around them.

Same with the sliver of tile where the top right side of the wall meets the ceiling.

Nice looking tile though.

Thanks for the info on the tile...love it!

As I look over your picture again, I can now see your hesitation about the niches. The border tile pops at you compared to the rest of the tiles. I too like simplicity and wonder if the contractor can pop them out so there's no border showing?? Just a thought!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1400004}}

They could have been removed and not so bad before cured but are likely grouted at this point. New grouting can be difficult to come out seamlessly exactly the same shade though. It's easier to pull and correct ungrouted.

Tile details are the bane of my existence this week, so I can totally empathize. I don't want to micromanage my tile guy, but where there are clearly a couple of different ways to do things, I want to be asked for my preference!

That said, I did a lot of tile layout diagrams as part of deciding what size I wanted to use and it was highly educational! I have a whole new appreciation for what is involved in getting it to look "simple." You come up with your ideal layout and uh-oh-- there's a stud there, or some plumbing, or whatever. I am going to have to trust him to make adjustments to avoid slivers, but I was certainly surprised at how many conflicting constraints there can be.

In the long run, though, I find that as we are in the midst of X, Y, or Z, that is all I see everywhere I go. Then we move on to the next thing. I stop seeing tile layouts and start seeing only lighting fixtures... long way to say it will be fine in the end!