Myrtle,

I had the same question about colour and ended up reading lots of posts here and on the John Bridge tiling site. After all that I decided that I agreed with those who said that the white grout looked too cold and modern for my heritage themed bathroom. Bill Vincent and Mongo, among others, have listed in lots of posts the most commonly used greys for white subway tiles. There are lots of pictures of both white and various greys in the threads too.

I ended up choosing Mapei's Platinum for the subways and their Warm Grey for the marble basketweave floors.

Sorry I can't address your questions about mold resistance because I haven't installed the tiles yet. Hopefully someone else will be able to let you know.

Good luck.

Mold resistance is due to the antimicrobial agents you mentioned. I know for sure both Mapei and Laticrete add them to their grouts. Not sure about the rest.

As for colors, Mary already named a couple of good ones from Mapei. As for Laticrete, look at the silver shadow.

Either way, you definitely want unsanded grout.

THanks Mary and Bill. Is the basketweave you are doing black and white? Mary, I am planning basketweave for the floor too, but maybe something softer than black and white. Did you go with marble vs tile for a reason? Well obviously you did, may I ask what the reason was?

Bill, ok, no sanded and antimicrobial, I can remember that.

I will check out the colors.

TEC XT grout (a portland cement-based grout) has "built-in resistnace to staining, cracking, mold, and mildew" according to their literature. According to TEC cust svce, it has antibacteriacide (sp?) in the grout (in a dry form). We had our tile guy use it in our recently tiled MB, and will be using it in the hall bathroom as well.

HTH!

We chose white marble with small black marble squares because it was cheap at HD ( LOL -sad but true!). About 15.00/sf. And we liked the way it looked with the white Daltile Rittenhouse Square subway tiles.

I must admit we didn't even consider ceramic basketweave for the floor - I wish I knew why but I don't; we just both knew that wasn't the look we wanted. Maybe because the marble somehow seemed more warm? In some way, I think it was the texture. I think we needed another texture in the room and marble was just enough of a variation from the ceramic subway tiles, chair rail, window molding, etc.

I am a little worried about the black and white contrast being a bit harsh or stark but the basketweave has a lot of grey in it, along with some sandy streaks. We are using some of it as a 4" border on the wall just below the chair rail in hopes that the very small amount of black will be toned down by the grey. And that was why we tried to choose a kind of warm grey for the grout.

There are some gorgeous pictures of ming green basketweaves here on GW. They are stunning and much softer looking than the black, IMHO. I wish I could have had both. Maybe we'll add on a bathroom next and I will get to choose green for the next bathroom.

I think I remember seeing some lovely blue basketweave. It might have been on the Ann Sacks tile site. It was absolutely fabulous. Had some kind of Hollywood, or Bollywood, glamour to it. The blue was almost a gentian or lapis.

Have fun choosing. We are at the port-a-potty in the driveway stage of this and its not so much fun tight now but in a few weeks I think it will all be worth it.