<p>Whatever you put on the floors it’s wonderful to install radiant heat. Love it. Absolutely brilliant concept. And fwiw, I really like a bathroom in our house that is all white - white floors, cabinests, walls, counters. It’s very clean feeling and easy to change with towels and rugs.</p>
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<p>I’ve always liked all white. I just did my bathroom in all creams (except the fixtures). Cream porcelain tile, cream marble, cream walls. It’s very classic…looks like a spa.</p>
<p>We did the floor heater…highly recommend it.</p>
<p>We are building a summer home and so are putting in new bathrooms. This thread is very interesting to me. I like the travertine idea. I love cream colored bathrooms. Isn’t the travertine porous (does it have to be sealed)? It is slippery when wet? We aren’t doing floor heaters since it is a summer house and we won’t spend much time there in cold weather.</p>
<p>“I’ve always liked all white. I just did my bathroom in all creams (except the fixtures). Cream porcelain tile, cream marble, cream walls. It’s very classic…looks like a spa.”</p>
<p>We have a light colored tile in our bathroom, and I love it. It is off-white with a hint of grey and purple and masks dust extremely well 
When the time comes to rip out the ugly brass fixtures, the tile will stay.</p>
<p>So funny…we just ripped out our whole all white bathroom! It was just too stark for me! We had white tile floors, white cabinets and white Corian counters. We really didn’t like it and it showed every hair, dribble of toothpaste and makeup powder. We are putting in travertine floors and travertine shower, soaking tub,dark cabinets and I am picking out my countertops today! Either granite or marble, not sure what I will decide. I am trying for the spa look, too.</p>
<p>The contractor who refused to give a budget unless everything was picked out had the right idea. The difference in prices between low end and high end is astronomical. I once did a bathroom in the 1980s where the client spent $40,000 on hand made tiles. What a waste of money!</p>
<p>SPA look! You are making my bathrooms look obsolete. When I redid my D’s bathroom, she wanted all white. I wasn’t sure about it. I gave her white cabitnets, whtite bath tub/toilet, very light colored maple floor, painted the wall and ceiling white. I broke whiteness with garyish mable tops/trims and light green glass tiles. Still looks beautiful.</p>
<p>NMinn, I hope you picked granite. Marble is a major PITA to maintain - it is extremely porous and acid-sensitive. I have light colored marble tiles in my powder room and they look miserable. As a chemist, I should have known better when I chose them, but I went for the gorgeous look (which is not so gorgeous anymore).</p>
<p>Agree with BB about marble. I have a friend who bought a house with a gorgeous Clive Christian kitchen with the largest island I’ve ever seen and it had a marble top. It’s beautiful to look at but a real PITA to maintain and it stains easily. She would not recommend it to anyone.</p>
<p>A marble slab is great for working with dough, etc. So I could see an inset of marble but the whole work-surface? Heck no.</p>
<p>My girls have a marble vanity top in their bathroom. We remodeled their space 8 years ago and so far no issues with the marble. Uh, oh…was I supposed to be resealing??? Still looks beautiful! My appt is at 1:30 with the designer. Will have to ask her about it. She wants me to consider soapstone in the basement remodel that we’re also doing at the moment. (Crazy, aren’t we!!!) Don’t really like the look from the pictures I’ve seen.</p>
<p>Same with my D’s marble vanity top. It’s been 5 years. I don’t notice any damage. We got it sealed before starting to use.</p>
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<p>True, but granite is just as good for that purpose, if not better, so why bother with marble? (A granite countertop makes a great surface for the tabling method of tempering chocolate, should the need arise…
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<p>NorthMinnesota, I love soapstone, but I believe it runs $135-165 per sq foot these days. You can get a wide range of really nice granites for a lot less than that. Soapstone has a great vintage look.</p>
<p>We went ahead and got the soapstone for the “man cave” bar area in the basement! H loved it and it goes well with the slate backsplash and stacked stone fireplace. The look is for an old fashioned men’s club/cigar bar. Also ordered Gold Antique granite for the master bath that matches the travertine floor and shower.This is my spa bathroom! I hate making decisions but this is now final! He gets his area and I get mine! ;)</p>
<p>We used the cream color Corian as the vanity top in our (tiny) master bathroom. It looks great after 15 years. We chose white 6" tiles for floor and bath (slightly “rougher” though still smooth, for floor-- and with gray grout!) and we had Felix the mudman lay the tiles in the shower turned one quarter – so they looked like diamonds—on the upper half of the wall. And the expensive touch was the little rope-trim molded tiles that separated the straight-laid from the “diamond” laid tiles. We only had to buy about 12 - 15 of those. I’m sorry I don’t remember the right term for turning square tiles on their sides like that!</p>
<p>We went with the white partly because it is a little room–we carved it from the bedroom—and also because I can easily change the towel colors, curtains, and other decorative things, for a new look. But it is expensive to change floors & counters!</p>
<p>We do like the idea of diamond pattern on tile. If we were doing the job ourselves, we probably would not tackle it. But if hiring installer, we’d consider it.</p>
<p>North - We just put in a stacked stone wall in our family room (the blues and grays) on the TV wall. Hung a 15 inch high entertainment center/bar topped with the blue/gray slate under it the full length with down lights to the floor. There is a small soffit over the whole area with dimmer lights. Rest of the family room has wood floors. Open to kitchen with slate floors. Granite ties in all colors. Drop dead gorgeous. The stacked stone was the inspiration!</p>
<p>Quarter turn called laying on the diagonal. Definitely not for amateurs. You need to lay out the whole area first on paper or for real to see where all your points hit. Usually start in the center and radiate outward.</p>
<p>Laying on the diagonal does give the illusion of making a room look larger. It is especially useful in small bathrooms, though a kitchen backsplash looks nicer done this way as well. The special decorative tiles (like the rope JRZMom mentioned) are called Listello tiles. Tiles comes in amazing varieties – a girl can get option-drunk in a tile store if she isn’t careful! Can run into real money, too, esp. if you start getting into the hand-decorated ones. </p>
<p>One trick if you do buy decorative tile…say a 4x4 with a design, the less expensive machine-made ones…is to have your tile guy give each one a quarter turn as he goes along to mix up the appearance. If they aren’t repeating the same orientation along the line, they look more hand-made as the eye sees each at a different angle. The hard part is getting the tile guy to do it!</p>
<p>Talked at length with the granite fabricator and the installer. Both said the new sealing is way different from the “old” days. If the sealing of the granite or marble was done correctly with a good quality sealant both said you should never have to reseal…ever! Both showed me how to check and see if the stone had been sealed by placing drops of water on stone and seeing if discolorarion occurred. It was very interesting. My granite in my kitchen and the marble in an upstairs bathroom still looks great after 8 years. Had the installer look at them and tested. He said they were great. However, the granite put in the powder room, which is the same as the kitchen and installed at the same time, is not sealed correctly and discolored when doing the water test!!! Looks like I will reseal that this weekend!</p>