Natural Stone Tiles with Subway and Other Patterns

Before spending thousands on expensive natural stone tiles think about all the elements as a whole. Perhaps, you won’t need to spend as much if you plan ahead!

In this post, I am sharing my real-life project where bathroom tile patterns were as important as an overall design.

Subway Tile Pattern for Natural Stone Tiles

If you plan to use natural stone, such as Yosemite to create subway patterns, don’t forget that every tile has natural variations.

Pros:

Natural stone tiles are beautiful. No matter how hard you try to imitate it any substitute is not going to look the same.

Cons:

Here is an example of a well-balanced pattern. As you see, the subway tile pattern is installed so that the whole wall has a balanced and beautiful look. Unfortunately, you will need more materials if you like this bathroom tile idea because some of the tiles will be discarded.  In fact, good tile installers require about 25% more material to achieve a balanced look.

Note: a subway tile pattern will look good on an even and straight surface. If your wall is uneven, consider a different pattern.

Providing Adequate Lighting for Marble and Mosaic Tile

I always think about lighting with any project, especially marble and mosaic tiles. As soon as the planning and demolition work is done, show your design plan to an electrician for input and collaboration. For example, darker tile requires more lighting than a lighter-colored tile.

A featured wall of marble or mosaic tile will look best with a specialty lighting system.

For the above project, I asked my electrician to install wall washers, which is a specific directed lighting system.  Placement of the directed ceiling lights is critical to avoid shadows – I call them scallops. See how the image on the right shows even light distribution? If you have a smaller bathroom or a powder room, get overhead lighting with open shades rather than uplight lamps. This will help the overall brightness.

Above is another example of a well-lit bathroom where natural stone tile takes center stage. The back wall without dramatic lighting would be nothing special!

Placing sconces on either side of the mirror will ensure more flattering lighting. People will look better with fewer lines and wrinkles on their faces. Who doesn’t like that?

Which Tile to Choose for Bathroom Flooring

Obviously, tile flooring in your bathroom, especially in the shower, has to be slip-resistant. I would not recommend polished marble flooring in the shower, as it’s particularly slippery when wet and can cause falls. Your shower floor tile should not be larger than 4X4 inches or smaller.

For larger size shower flooring make sure that it is slip-resistant.

Maintenance of Marble Tile

If you are using marble tile, remember that it has to be sealed with a special sealer. You can clean it only after three or four days. Never use abrasive cleaners on marble tile. One of my top cleaning solution suggestions for marble tile is for NeutraSheen. It safely cleans, sanitizes, and restores the marble tiles with no rinsing required. This product is versatile, you can also use it to clean granite, limestone, ceramic, and porcelain tiles.

Please let me know in the comments if you have bathroom tile questions not covered in this blog. Let’s chat!