This week I focused on the shower tile.

I have spent weeks studying my favorite design books and searching Pinterest for the perfect tile design for our shower. Ultimately, a simple white subway tile felt like the right move - with a few special details. In studying subway tile walls in pictures of old houses, I noticed that the details and trim make such a difference in the finished look. I also noticed that the flatter the tile and the tighter the grout line, to more authentically vintage it looks. There are a few restoration tile companies that make exactly what I was looking for, but those option came with a HEAVY price tag. Like $10,000 for my small shower. So I searched high and low online, and with my Instagram followers advice - took a trip to a tile showroom seeking professional advice. A Garden State Tile design center is less than 5 minutes from my home, so I made an appointment with a design consultant (Thanks Danielle!). As you can imagine, there are thousands of white subway tile options, but with my criteria, we narrowed it down to ONE style. That was easy!

My tile needs were:

white glossy finish
flat surface without built-in spacers
came with coved base trim AND coved base corner pieces
affordable

The tile is the Neri style by Adex, and the cost of the tile for the entire shower was about $900. I purchased mine through Garden State Tile, and I couldn’t be happier with my experience with them (not sponsored).

The install process has been pretty good. The cove base took a long time for me to situate properly, but once I got that in the process went a lot faster. Today I will be working on the niche, and I am not looking forward to that at all. Wish me luck!

For the shower floor I wanted to do something fun. Even though I plan on painting the floors in a black and white harlequin pattern, I still felt like I had a little room to go funky with the shower floor. I chose a nero marquina marble mosaic with a white diamond design and I am in LOVE! It’s timeless and the perfect dose of pattern.

I used an epoxy grout to grout the bathroom floor and I ended up really liking it. My neighbors recommended it after using it for their recent shower project, and they said that it cleans up very well and it’s totally waterproof. I was sold! It is on the pricier side, but the waterproof quality is worth it for me! Grout affiliate link here. I do plan on using this grout for the wall too.

That’s all for me today. Time to get my tiling on!

Be sure to check out what the other ORC guest participants accomplished this week! http://www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog