White metro tiles in a bathroom, what floor?

[PinkCamelias]

Hi! I am stuck and I would appreciate some advice :)

I chose white metro tiles (glossy, not bevelled) with a bullnose or flat trim and a black pencil line for the walls. Chair rail height, except for the part with a walk in shower (with a white tray), and above the bathtub. The bathroom is in a former room, so it has a very big window and a high ceiling. House is from early 1900 with period features. It will be the kids' bathroom, with a grey vanity and a mirror cabinet above it (no other furniture planned so far).

What floor would go with that? It has to be larger format, so I cannot use the moisaic, hexagons etc., which would be easy; and has to be porcelain (as in, not real stone). I am hesitating between grey stone or concrete look tiles, or grey terrazzo. I've never used big format grey tiles, would they look fine? Or porcelain terrazzo, not too fake/flat looking? Terrazzo would be period appropriate, plenty of it in houses from that period, even if it would not have been used in a bathroom I suppose. In either case, would light or dark grey floor be better?

@minipie Thank you, I am glad you like it :)

I think you have very well summarized why I struggle with the white bathroom; it's the mix of styles that is not convincing. My main bathroom, which was already in the house when we bought it, is black and white, with basket weave tiles pattern on the floor, and white and black squares on the walls, plus pedestal sinks. It is a little bit too checkered for my taste, but objectively very nice, and matching the house well. So in this one I wanted to continue the black and white theme, but much lighter, with just the pencil line (also the bullnose trim will be from a different producer than the tiles, so I thought that adding black would help since the shades of white are inevitably slightly different). I like white metro tiles with light grout, so this was my very first idea about this bathroom.

If I stick to the plan for the walls, I need to ditch a terrazzo floor. But I cannot have small format tiles, so no hexagons or white and black check. Hmmm

A couple of possibilities that would, I think work with your white metro tiles/black stripe:

A wood effect porcelain tile like this. So it looks like you have a wood floor (very Victorian). Also brings warmth.

Green slate effect like this Again, I feel like this is something that goes era-wise.

Appreciate you are running out of time though… sorry if this is not helpful

PS please check with your builder that he is planning to use Ditra matting (or equivalent) under the tiles… this will help against cracking…

these would look gorgeous with white metro, if rather a bold look! Very Parisian hallway.

He is using something like this for sure, but with a different name. We've discussed the construction details at length, when I asked him again and again whether I can have the small tiles :)

I like your slate tiles idea very much! It is something I had in mind, but I didn't know what to look for. I'll do some search now.

I do have little or no time, but I have just thought that I can ask him to order the wall tiles, and all the tiles for the small bathroom now, and the ones for this floor will just be added later, if necessary. They start tiling with the walls anyway.

Glad you like the slate idea. There’s lots of black slate effect tiles around but I’d probably pick green just to be less stark and more different from your other black and white bathroom.

this one looks good if you like a green slate

this one looks good too but suspect a long lead time, plus cost

Or totally different idea… terrazzo floor plus white brick tiles but perhaps not so Victorian in style. This is one of our bathrooms which has this look (dark blue paint above the wall tiles). The whites do match better than it looks in the photo, it’s the lighting!

It’s still a bit of an era clash, I probably should have laid the tiles vertically and in straight rows rather than offset, for full mid century. I just don’t love that look and find horizontal brick bond easier to live with…

Your bathroom looks great, @minipie . I am also not fond of the vertical stack look. I did consider white square tiles stacked, which is a very Scandinavian look, and which i like to, but my other bathroom has the stacked squares, although a mix of black and white, so it would be too samey.

I cannot find any interesting slate tiles in my market, nothing like what you linked to. Most are very plain, cheap grey or black slates sold in building supermarkets

However, I found some very nice, higher end, light grey or blue-black stone/slate look tiles, and I have emailed about the price and availability. I will post photos if it seems to be an option. Blue-black is interesting, because it's matt, so it would not make the bathrooms too look-a-like (i've started to wonder if it is a good idea to have this black and white theme in both, but I like it...).

Here they is the black tile (grey is too warm, beige really, so I am not considering it). Or, I will go back to the grey one I linked before, and not worry about it matching the vanity (which could be white, not grey, if necessary, I just like it in grey).

Those black tiles are very nice, but the little pits in them will quickly fill up with crud and be a devil to get clean. I have this problem with my kitchen floor “wooden” tiles, the little ridges look realistic but collect dirt badly. You want something that is mimicking honed stone rather than tumbled or riven.

Those grey ones look really nice and will show dirt less! Don’t suppose you have a way to see if they match the grey vanity in reality? It looks a similar grey but online colour isn’t reliable of course.

Of course, you are right about the dirt, I didn’t think about it, and with two boys it would be a nightmare to clean!

The grey tiles are produced locally, I think, and I asked the producer where I could see them, but they haven’t replied yet. In any case, I don’t have this vanity yet, so it would be difficult to compare them.

Here is another photo of the tiles. They’re called Istrian White, and this stone seems to have a cool tone. Apparently that’s what Venice is built of, perhaps I need a trip there to check it out :)