Tile and counter top selections

   Here's the tile and counter top post I promised.  Last week we had a 5 hour meeting with our interior designer, Margaret of Margeaux Interiors, to finalize all the tile and counter top selections.  She brought samples of the cabinets so we could coordinate and visualize what all the surfaces would look like together.  The meeting was at Virginia Tile, which was nice because when we needed to find some alternatives, we could just walk around the showroom and find something else that worked, something that we needed to do a few times.

   Since most of the house is going to be wood floor, we revisited the tile selections room by room to refresh and revise our selections.  Besides tiles and counter tops, we needed to make some design decision about how the surfaces would meet, what kind of profile finishes we wanted on the baseboard tiles, and what color grout we would use.  I think the mudroom had three colors of grout alone.  The rooms we reviewed were mudroom and mudroom bathroom, kitchen, butlers pantry, guest bathroom, the two upstairs bathrooms, master bath, fireplace, foyer, and laundry room.  The powder room is using wood floor and the counter is already decided upon.  We also reviewed some lights, but I'll have to make yet another post to detail those selections.

   This is the stone we'll be using for the fireplace in the great room.  The fireplace column is double sided and reaches all the way up to the second floor rotunda landing and second floor ceiling so this will be a good amount of stone.  The stone itself is kind of arch shaped and offset, giving it a three dimensional look, casting interesting shadows.  The layers also vary in height, lending it a stacked stone look, but not as random as an exterior stacked stone.  They come in sheets and seamlessly interlock.  On the sides of the fireplace column, we'll have a vertical break running from floor to ceiling, filled with a patinaed steel.  The steel will be thinner than the stone so it will look like an inset channel.  It's just something to break up the visual monotony of the stone and add a different texture to the space.

   We went back and forth for months about how we wanted the entry foyer to look.  We envisioned a tile "rug" bordered in wood floor.  Now we're thinking about implementing a tiled area that extends the width of the foyer (between the study and dining room) bordered by a different tile in a running pattern.  The side opposite the front door will follow the curve of the rotunda, again bordered with the running pattern tile.  Margaret suggested a woven wood look tile with marble inlays.  We were looking at tighter basket weave patterns.  At the most recent tile meeting, we wandered around the store a bit and stumbled upon this new pattern, immediately falling for it.  It offers a woven look without the busyness of a tight basket weave.

   These are the surface selections for bedroom number 4, or the turret room.  We're going with something a little different in this room with a gray vanity and an over all grayer theme.  The small sample is the counter top.  If I recall correctly, the darker gray tile is for the floor and the lighter gray is for the bathtub wall.

   Here are all the tile selections for the mudroom and mudroom bathroom. Actually, not pictured is the darker gray tiles that look like slate that we'll use for the floors in both rooms.  The small square mosaics will be used for the shower floor with the striated tile used for the walls.  The shower floor tiles were changed at this meeting because the previous selection had small metal tiles that weren't recommended for horizontal wet locations.  The white samples on the left are for the vanity and the gray sample on the right is for the solid surface counter top.

   We have one more cabinet design meeting coming up to finalize details and order the cabinets for the small bathrooms and laundry room.  Those rooms will have Homecrest cabinets, which are less expensive than the Omega cabinets in the master bath and kitchen, and they also have a shorter production lead time so we had the option of ordering them later.  Since we already know the colors of the cabinets we want, we can go ahead and coordinate the tile colors.  Here are the materials for the laundry/craft room.  It will be simple, clean, and utilitarian with a slight woven textured tile on the floor and solid surface counter tops.  We have yet to nail down a design for the craft area and might wait until after we move in to utilize the space.

   There's not much selection for the butlers pantry, except for the counter top.  It's going to be this awesome quartzite, with a rough hewn edge.  The material will also serve as the back splash.  Since it's a semi translucent material, I think it will look awesome illuminated by the under cabinet lighting.

   Here's the update to the materials in the master bathroom.  We had to make some changes to the tile selection due to availability, but I like the changes we made.  The large tile in the back will be the general floor tile.  It's a ceramic tile made to look like carrera marble so we're getting a very close proximity to look with none of the staining and maintenance.  The piece of wood is just used as a color sample for the walnut slab floating vanity we'll use in there.  The small tile is actually carrera marble that we'll be using in the master shower floor.  We'll need to seal this a couple of times a year to maintain the look, but it's a relatively small area and completely contained, so the task might not be too bad.  We switched out the back splash tile with the marble penny rounds for a little bit of a cleaner look.  The small sample is the counter top.

   The dividing wall in the master bathroom is still going to be clad in a feature tile, and this is our first choice.  It's a curved surface, so we're obtaining a sample to see if it can be installed on a curve.  This is also only going to be on the bath tub side of the shower dividing wall since it's not the best wet rated tile.  The shower side will use the same penny round marble tiles that the vanity back splash uses.

   If the above tile doesn't work on the curve, we have this as an alternative.  There are more and larger grout lines so the pattern lends itself to being applied on a concave surface.  Those grout lines will tighten up when applied, so larger gaps are friendlier.  Either way we have to go, I think it will look pretty nice.  The overall color of the master bath is a little white washed, but it will just make the walnut vanity stand out more.  We got a sample of this and fit it to the interior curve of the wall without any trouble, so this will definitely look.  It's significantly less expensive than the other material, so either way we go, we'll be happy.

   The tile selections in the guest bathroom haven't changed but we finalized some install design decisions during the meeting.  We needed to figure out the baseboard tile material and profile and after some exploration, landed on something that will work.  Also, this bathroom will have a tile "wainscoting" applied to the exterior wall behind the toilet that will tie in the tile between the shower and vanity.  The black and white tile will be applied to the floor and while it may look funky, is more reminiscent of traditional Victorian bathroom tiles.

   The kitchen materials haven't changed since our original meeting.  The floors will be the same wood as the rest of the house (with some apprehension).  The counter tops on the exterior walls will be soapstone and the funky looking tile will be used for the back splash.  The kitchen island will have a walnut base cabinet color and Caesar stone Alpine mist for the counter top.

   The selections are pretty much decided baring any huge budget issues, so I think we're ready for the installation in that area.  We've started the lighting list and have almost all the selections down on paper.  The only outstanding major area of decision will be hardware for all the doors and cabinets though out the house.  It seems like as the details get finer, the harder it is for me to come to a decision.  I'm glad I have a good wife and designer to make those decisions together.