Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Decisions Decisions

So we've decided to make the remodel our upstairs bathroom our 2012 project.  I decided that it would be a good idea to start small.  Our bathroom is only about 30 or so square feet, and with the bathtub, there are only about 25 square feet of floor space. 

The original plaster walls are kind of beat up and the tile combination is a little odd...or at least very outdated.  Mr. CP and I visited a few stores to check out what is available in the world of tile.  We had an idea of what we wanted, but after visiting about 3 stores in SF and two in Berkeley we were a little frustrated.  Since we live in San Francisco, we had also been sucked into the Heath Ceramics hype, but after a little research on their website, I discovered that their least expensive tiles start at $16.50 per sq ft and only come in 6 shades and 2 shapes.  Their patterns line, which would look great on small bathroom floor like ours starts at $41 per sq ft. That comes out to over $1000 just for our floor! 
One example from the Heath Ceramics Pattern Tile line

Finally, I stumbled upon the Ann Sacks website and thought they might have tiles that we would like.  Lucky for us, they had tiles that we liked for both wall and floor and they are all in stock, so we don't have to wait for a special order.
I'm not sure where the tiles from this photo are from, but the Ann Sacks Context tile that we chose looks like the elongated subway tile that they use on the walls here.  We plan to tile all the way up the wall.  I like that mirror idea...maybe we should try something like that.

For the floors, we saw a porcelain tile in a tile store, but the colors were all just a little bit off for me.  One gray was too warm and the other too dark.   The Ann Sacks Evolution tile in Tatanio looks the same in terms of texture, but comes in a middle gray which is what I had been seeking.  It has a slightly ribbed texture, which will be great for preventing slip and falls in the bathroom after stepping out of the bathtub.
The ribbing is very subtle and you can barely see it when the tile is on the floor.
One thing we have found is that a lot of floor tile options are only available in a very large size of 12x24.  Apparently, the trend is to get large tiles to reduce the amount of grout that needs to be used, and later on, cleaned.

On our way to Ann Sacks, we happened to park in front of Waterworks.  I had never been inside of one, but I knew that by reputation they carry very expensive bathroom fixtures.  They had a beautiful selection of ceramic, glass and stone tiles, but most of the options were not within our budget.

Next, we need to think about lighting options.  Recesssed lighting would be the cleanest, but the tiles might look nicer he we have something brighter that drops down from the ceiling.