Am I the only person who is sick of gray?

[Linguaphile]

We're working on tile choices for our house. My instinct is to use a 'safe gray' for all the main areas and bathrooms since, you know, the last 10-15 years of home decor trends have been all about gray. I do quite like the look, but honestly I'm also a little tired of it and am thinking of pushing the boat out and a warmer taupe tile. Would I be crazy to put down something brownish?? It would be for bathrooms, utility, entryway and stairs. I need a reality check, because if we end up selling or renting out our house in a few years, we'll need it to have broad appeal. What do you think?

Yes, I did wonder that about the herringbone!

I much prefer the last 2 options to the brown. I love the herringbone, I don't think it will date any more than any other choice.

Honestly I wouldn’t go with brown. Is there anything that would fit with your local area? Slate, coastal colours etc? Can you chime in the decor with the rest of the house?

Really just came in here to say yes, I HATE GREY!!!!! But didn’t want to be unhelpful.

We’ve got wood floors in the rest of the house, so is just for the really high traffic areas and the wet areas. I’m really not a fan of tile that is too light and definitely nothing shiny—we have 3 young kids and it rains all the time, so we need something that will hide the dirt! I’m now leaning toward one of the other two choices. Which do you reckon would be the biggest general crowd pleaser?

I generally don't like any type of neutral.

Do the stairs have to be tiled? Could you not have wooden stairs?

I'd probably go for a few different styles for the different rooms. The herringbone would look lovely in a bathroom with a white wall tile, the concrete could look good in the kitchen and entrance hall if it opens onto the kitchen.

Could you not have the wooden flooring for the stairs and hallway? The concrete effect in kitchen and utility and the herringbone in the bathrooms?

Unfortunately it’s a no-go with the wood on the stairs. That would have been my first choice, but because of the shape of the stairs (I think?) the quotes have come back insanely expensive, so it’ll have to be tile. The garage isn’t being tiled (would have been an extra 800 we don’t have), and with wood apparently the floor is too high and it would be too big of a step down, hence tile there as well. Not my first choice, but with budget constraints, needs must.

Kitchen is wood, same as the rest of the house (matt lacquer engineered oak) as it’s all one big open plan area.

I expect the herringbone may be too expensive to do in all the bathrooms, so may need to go with normal shape tile in there (we’ve got 30x60 cm size on the walls floor to ceiling and 60x60 cm squares on the floors). The house is a very modern new build, so it’ll fit with the style I think. Hopefully, anyway.