Bathroom, tongue and groove or tiles

[WhyBirdStop]

We have an Edwardian house with high ceilings. The bathroom isn't huge but not tiny. Currently has a bath, stand alone shower, toilet and basin but only room for a small storage unit. I want to get rid of the separate shower for an over bath shower (we have an ensuite shower room anyway) , so I can have a nice storage unit to keep towels, toiletries and cleaning products etc in away from DS. We want a more traditional look, flatback roll top bath like the picture attached patterned tiles on the floor. The room is too tall to tile all the way up it would cost a fortune and would be so echoey, so should we go for a neutral tile (dare I suggest white metro) or a tongue and groove look, to around a third of the way up. For anyone who has done the tongue and groove look what do you do around the shower?

[WhyBirdStop]

Additional images. We'd likely go with antique brass fittings rather than crome as the internal door handles are all antique brass beehive and we managed to salvage the original internal doors (covered in seventies faux wood laminate)

[WhyBirdStop]

Oh and just plain walls above the tiles/wood

[wowfudge]

We have inherited wood panelling to dado height and tiles above around bath and above the sink in our Edwardian house's bathroom. The wood panelling is a pain to keep clean and doesn't work around the bath, even with shower curtains to protect it. It's all coming out when we redo the bathroom. Were going to tile to dado height and fully tile a new walk in shower.

[theorchidwhisperer]

I love tongue and groove panelling. We had it in our Edwardian house with a deep ochre wall paper to set of the white bath. It looked very elegant and wiping it down was easy without having to worry about grout discolouring.

I think my only comment would be to make sure you spend extra and get kiln dried wood. Any shrinkage at all spoils the effect and cracks the paint.

[TrumpInflatableChased]

We've had tongue and groove protected by shower curtain for about 15 years and it still looks good. I prefer the look to tiles.

[Tabitha005]

I love the look of tongue and groove, but (as a buyer) would be wary of it around a bath with an overhead shower. I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE tile grout with a passion bordering on the pathological, so whenever I re-tile, it's with tiles as large as I can find.

Could you use the tongue and groove for the rest of the bathroom, but tile around the bath and shower?

[WhyBirdStop]

@Tabitha005 This is a very long term house for us so definitely not thinking about buyers. Having said that we might have to Tyler around the bath, the idea of wood around a shower makes me a bit worried. We've got an excellent tiler/bathroom fitter doing the work but not until December so I don't want to start hassling him for his opinion yet!

[WhyBirdStop]

*tile around the bath

My concern with that is it looking bitty, one type of tile in the floor, another on the bath wall and then the tongue and groove. So do I just use times on the wall? But I do love the look of tongue and groove in an older house especially

[Soontobe60]

We just have a shower which is fully tiled in large tiles, then mdf panelling that's for wet areas, which can be painted. It comes about 1/2 way up the walls. Smaller tiles make a space look smaller, and more grout means more cleaning!

[Soontobe60]

Pictures showing unpainted panelling.

[WhyBirdStop]

That panelling looks really good, love those tiles too!

[Soontobe60]

The panelling is painted grey now and the shower tiles are the same grey. I love it!

[Soontobe60]

Photos

[OneRingToRuleThemAll]

We had tongue and groove fitted just this week in contrasting colours in the shower. They also used the material to make a hidden storage wall and replace the old wooden window sills. So far it is wonderful.

[Bottledate]

We've recently had the shower area tiled with metro (always wanted these for period house before the popularity), the rest of the walls simply painted and the bath surround tongue and groove (hate plastic bath panels). The floor is tile-effect Lino. Short of the plumber doing a somewhat shitty carpentry job, we are very pleased.

It's a bit of mismatch period/modern ensemble (furniture and fittings makes all the difference), but we are happy!

[wowfudge]

OneRing that is not tongue and groove!

[OneRingToRuleThemAll]

Oops. I thought it was because the panels lock in a tongue and groove kind of way. I clearly know nothing.

[wowfudge]

They're aquaboard/mermaid board, etc.

[Longqueue]

I stayed in a holiday cottage recently with beautiful tongue and groove labelling painted in a kind of dull teal. It looked gorgeous but I was a bit concerned about it around the bath with my 3 year old. I’m not sure it would stand up to daily wear, possibly for a more grown up house. They had a separate shower, so that wasn’t an issue but it still felt kind of vulnerable around the bath area. They had mixed in with metro tiles for the shower though and the overall look was great

[Lou573]

Had it in our last house and it got mouldy frequently, the bathroom was prone to damp though.

[BubblesBuddy]

I have tongue and groove in my bathroom with a free standing bath. I wouldn’t have it near a shower! Just not practical.