Over-the-top tile

Back to the bathroom. When my mother and I went to the A&D Building on Wednesday, we were both overwhelmingly smitten by some marble tile we saw at Artistic Tile. The collection is called "Musee".

This one's called Eden - the first picture is a 12"x12" sample, the second is a 12" wide strip that I tiled together with a paint program on my computer:























This one's called Terme - the first picture is 3"x12", the second is a 12" wide strip I put together (rather crookedly, I'm afraid):






















They both come in other colorways too.

The problem with all these tiles is that they're really overwhelmingly insanely expensive. (Matthew was with me when we asked about the price of something I liked at Mosaic House, another impossible-dream-of-a-store; I'll just say that these are comparable.)

But another concept I picked up at the A&D Building is that you can use just a little bit of a knockout tile creatively, and complement it with much cheaper stuff, like plain matching cream and white marble tiles. One designer pointed out that you can even use large white glass tiles to complement marble - it's more practical in the shower.

The accent tile doesn't have to be the traditional border running around the room at chest level (I can't do that, I've got way too much perimeter for such a tiny bathroom). I might, for example, run a narrow scarf of stunning tile down a strategically chosen wall (even better if it happens to be opposite a mirror ... ) It's not so frightening if I only need eight square feet of it.