Classic Tile Style
One of the common themes within our design style is the constant desire to match the era of house we are renovating. When in doubt, the purist in us comes out and forces our hand at typically taking the slightly more complicated and expensive, albeit higher quality, route.
When it came to designing the bathrooms, our need to go classic and authentic luckily didn't come with the headaches and price tag that typically goes with it. We wanted the bathrooms to feel like they could have been original to the house. The biggest way we felt we could achieve that was through the tile selection.
“Classic white subway tile was the obvious choice for the walls. We wanted to maximize the surface area but still limit it from a budget standpoint.”
Selecting the Perfect Tiles
Now the wall tiles were the easy and likely somewhat predictable choice. Where it starts to get a bit more interesting is what we decided to do for the floors.
We started brainstorming ideas and settled on using a 1" hex porcelain tile for the floors. We knew we wanted to do a black and white mix but were also super interested in playing with border ideas. In addition to trying to decide on pattern, we started obsessing over the exact tile itself. Owen in particular refused to settle for anything but the flattest, most solid, through-body, completely non-pillowed, hexagon tile that could be found. We looked at plenty of options online, but they were never good enough.
“Too pillowed! Too glossy! Too matte!”
Everything clicked into place for our resident goldi-locks when I finally ordered some samples from the Daltile rep I've worked with in the past. The through-body tiles are American made and seem exactly like the tiles we've been fawning over in all of the early 20th c. vestibules throughout town.
Since the Daltile border patterns are considered custom and had a 9 week lead time (!!!), we had to get a bit creative. Luckily our contractor was willing to think outside of the box with us a bit. By using a combination of all white sheets and all black sheets, our contractor custom cut strips of tile to form the border for the third floor bathroom. We then infilled the field with the stock black and white mix hex tile. All of these tiles only had a 1 week lead time. So much better than 9!
Lastly, the final detail was the grout. With a dark, charcoal grout, we ended up with that completely classic and vintage look we were hoping for. And if everyone is going to be honest with themselves, we all know that light floor grout never stays light. Why not just beat it to the punch.
In the coming weeks, we plan to update this post with more images after the vanities, fixtures, and mirrors are all installed. Hopefully you all enjoy the new photos as much as we will enjoy finally having a properly finished bathroom!
