Bathroom help- tile dilemma

[Annamadrigal]

We are getting a new bathroom fitted, all very exciting as currently ours is vile!

It's a pretty small room. We want to get white metro tiles with dark grouting for 3 of the walls then I wanted the fourth wall a dusky pink. Bathroom fitter has said it'll look better having the 4th wall tiled halfway then painted on the top half and DH agrees. I'm a bit gutted as I don't want the bathroom to look too white and sterile, I'd like it a bit warmer IYSWIM. Am I wrong? We are also toying with some kind of mosaic/mother of pearl element to the tiles either on that 4th wall, or as a band throughout all walls but DH and I cannot make up our minds. We are so excited about the bathroom but it is going to be a lot of money and we don't want to f*ck it up and for it to look ridiculous.

I appreciate it is our bathroom and our opinion is what should matter but a) we can't agree and b) neither of us are fully confident in our tastes in this situation! I've looked at a zillion Pinterest pictures and they are all stunning but too much choice!

Can anyone help with style advice?! Thanks

Colours sound lovely! I can’t think that it would make much difference in terms of light/feeling too ‘sterile’ but if it is a small room I wonder if it would make it feel smaller to be fully tiled? Maybe that’s what he means? If you’re going to do mother of pearl I’d be inclined to run it round the whole room.

Small bathrooms do better with less fussy designs and less tiling. I would go with the least tiling possible and paint dusky pink elsewhere.

We've got 2 small bathrooms both have full height tiles in showers only
In one bathroom there is then half height (of same tile (off white textured tile) with a row of small travertine brick tiles to cap it - see pictures just behind the sink - everything else is painted white
We have oak shelves and an oak vanity under the sink
It doesn't look sterile - it's warm

The other one (kids) has half height behind the bath, with a small shelf capping it and half height panelling behind the sink & wc also capped with a small shelf. White tiles, white walls & bright blue floor - I've got a red and blue blind, red and blue pictures, rubber ducks on the shelf and towels and a huge mirror along one wall above the panelling - it's lovely and fresh and not at all sterile.

Could you have your towels dusky pink instead? I think just having metro tiles, without any border would be a better idea, as then you could change your mind about the border 10 years down the line.
I would also listen to your bathroom fitter, unless you strongly oppose, as they have a good feel for these things.

When we had ours done, I didn't want it to be too 'permanent'. So went with full height tiles around the bath/shower, and splash back for the sink. That way I can paint 3 walls whatever colour I want, currently they are off white, but have coloured accessories. If I want to change the wall colour I can without too much expense or work in the future, or I can change the flooring and accessories.

Bathroom fitters don't always have a good feel for these things, when fitting our shower, I asked ours to move the control to the left, his response was you're right handed, I always fit them to the right for right handed people. I pointed out that I would have to be standing under the shower to turn it on, if the control was were he wanted to put it. He moved to where I wanted it, and said he'd never thought about that before!

I disagree re: smaller bathroom being better with less tiling. Tiles are so easy to keep clean and keep things looking neat and tidy. When it comes to decorating, it is a total pain in the butt to do lots of fiddly cutting in in a small room when painting it. One whole wall left without any tiling will look as though you ran out of money imo. A border of the mother of pearl as a band around dado rail height will look really lovely.

Ime a lot of trades try to push you to do what they want as it suits them, often it is what is easier for them rather than what a customer wants!

Is your heart set on metro tiles? We have just done a small bathroom with huge tiles and I can honestly say it doubles the space to my eye!

Also, the more tiling the better AFAIC.

We got the huge tiles placed with a stone coloured grout. We went for a darker floor as we had a lighter tiled floor and I was forever cleaning grout. The floor isn’t on this picture as it hadn’t been done but it is a vinyl sheet and amazing for cleanliness and I don’t regret it. We went for two feature walls. This was half way through the bathroom refit

I think the design of those tiles Sammy means it isn't the size of the tiles creating an optical illusion of space - it's the depth of the dark colours. The patterned tiles have a mosaic-like effect. It looks like a hotel bathroom.

Thanks, lots to think about...

The colour, floor and wall tiles would hopefully be something like this picture, so not sure if it needs mosaic/mother of pearl but my magpie side wants something a bit sparkly

In a small bathroom, all tiled walls the same I would say. I love your photo. I am doing a bathroom the same as that!

You can paint above the tiles.

Mosaics are a fortune in labour.

We dècided against metro tiles in our very small bathroom. We chose very large grey tiles with dark grout for the shower cubicle and panelling for the remaining walls, floor is patterned tiles. The good thing is that the panelling is painted so colou can be changed when we get fed up.

Oh wow- I love that panelling Bezm!