Ask Maria: Choosing Timeless Bathroom Tile

Today I’m answering a reader’s request to give her a “grade” on her plans to update her bathroom to a Maria approved timeless look. She got it all right but this one critical thing! ⭐️

Hi Maria,

I need your design superpowers!

A few years ago, my designer installed 12×24 grey tile throughout our primary bathroom. Now, thanks to a broken heated floor (the only heat source in our Minnesota bathroom!), all the tile has to be ripped out. While this is a headache, it’s also a golden opportunity to finally create the timeless bathroom I’ve always wanted.

But why is choosing tile so hard?

I’ve asked ChatGPT and Perplexity, “What would Maria Killam do?”—but nothing beats the real deal. So, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping you might weigh in.

Our local “tile expert” keeps steering me toward more 12×24 grey tile, heavy patterns, and long linear subway tile. But I’ve been channeling my inner Maria, determined to choose timeless over trendy.

Here’s my “homework assignment”—I’d be thrilled if you could “grade” it (or even just a quick comment would make my day!):

• Floor tile: 18” x 18” marble-look square (blue-white undertone)
• Shower floor: 2” hex marble-look (blue-white undertone)
• Shower wall: 3” x 6” white subway (blue/true white undertone)
• Counter: Solid white

I’m such a fan of your work and your approach to color and timeless design. Thank you for all the inspiration you share! With Gratitude, Mackenzie

Thanks for your question Mackenzie! You are absolutely on the right track with replacing your 12 by 24 inch builder grade grey tile for a more timeless look. And, for not letting your “tile expert” boss you around 🙌

Bathroom starting point

Here is her bathroom as it is now below. The vanity is perfect. Even the tall sconces make the best use of tight space.

Here’s the shower (below). It will be a beautiful improvement to get rid of the boring tile on the wall.

When you have tile that is anything other than white or cream running up the wall, the only paint colour option in your bathroom forever is the colour of the tile. This is exactly how everyone ends up on rails with grey on grey and no exit in sight 💔

The bathroom design plan

Here’s her tentative plan. Marble-look large format floor tile, 18-inch square. True white subway tile. Marble-look hex for the shower (by the way, if you install a linear drain, you don’t need a mosaic tile in the shower, you can continue with your large format tile).

If this was my bathroom, I would install the small scale mosaic floor tile throughout. The texture is prettier and it offers excellent traction. You can use stain resistant grout, epoxy grout, or simply properly seal your tile and grout. Hands down worth it for me.

She’s got my neutral colour wheel, as you can see, so she can tell that the “ground colour” of the tile is blue white.

So do I approve? Gold stars all around?

Almost!

The plan mostly makes sense! Except we are not taking her perfectly good white quartz countertop into account here.

The detail she’s missing?

While it’s possible that it is true white, it’s unlikely. The majority of white quartz runs off white to pale greige. True white quartz is a premium product and pretty rare. This is the kind of detail that you don’t know that you don’t know!

But in my eDesign department, we do! And we help people just like you navigate design puzzles just like this daily!

Will the quartz countertop work with the design plan?

First, start by placing the tiles directly on the countertop to see if they relate. It doesn’t make sense to rip out perfectly perfect quartz on a well designed vanity. And, I certainly wouldn’t do it to shift into a different gradation of white.

On the assumption that the quartz is actually off white, I would start there. It’s important to embrace your constraints when approaching design puzzles. They dramatically narrow the field of option you need to consider, and that’s a good thing!

Next, I would test various marble look tiles by placing them directly on the countertop. You always want your floor tile to look perfectly married to your countertop (see #5 in this post) . Calacatta gold marble look tiles are often in the range of off white to warm greige. Like the large format floor tiles I put in our dining room. 

When I found the tile I liked with an off white “ground” and realistic looking veining that isn’t obnoxiously busy, I would test both true white and off white subway tile by placing them propped perpendicular to the countertop, as in the orientation they will be installed.

Don’t forget to place white paper behind to isolate them from the grey wall colour (just like in this image below).

How to choose the right tile?

The one that looks best with the countertop and floor tile is going to be the best option.

There is some wiggle room between off white and true white. You can see they are side-by-side on the neutral colour wheel (on the back side with four whites). But mixing blue white with off white is going to look off. For example, if that countertop is creamy off white, and the floor tile is a cool blue white, that quartz is going to look yellow and bad (not that it is, it’s all about context and comparison here). And now your forking out more money to replace perfectly good quartz.

Our primary bathroom has an off white quartz countertop and off white trim (below). It doesn’t look yellow because it’s not sitting next to something that’s blue white.

Using ChatGPT to visualize some bathroom options

Here’s what ChatGPT came up with for Mackenzie’s bathroom with marble look tile on the floor.

And as for the subway tile in the shower? It of course gave me a more elongated tile than I would choose (3 by 6 or 4 by 8), but it’s pretty close.

Now we certainly don’t need to stick with grey walls! Often, you can pull a grey from marble look tile, but why would you? Especially when you could paint your bathroom any pretty colour you love?

You could do anything here now that the bleak grey tile is gone. I found this lavender area rug and had ChatGPT make the walls lavender to match. Lavender is such a pretty and unexpected colour with red toned wood. Warmer, richer wood tones are trending again, so keeping this cherry isn’t a mistake.

Rug

But you could paint the vanity a pretty colour.

Or a trendy muted green.

Again, there is a world of possibility for colour and decorating in a timeless white bathroom. The important thing is that the whites in your hard finishes relate. I have the four gradations of useful whites on the back of my neutral colour wheel for easy reference. Get yours here!

Then, simply compare the white side of the wheel to any white finish you’re considering to see if it’s the right gradation. And don’t forget to test ALL your hard finishes by comparing them directly to each other.

Thanks for the great question!

For expert colour guidance for your renovation or new build, skip the guessing and overwhelm with my eDesign consultations!

Here’s what some of our recent eDesign clients shared with us:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Can’t wait to see and use it when its finished! As soon as I received my plan I felt relieved. I confidently knew my end result would be beautiful for years to come. Maria’s expertise took all of the overwhelming aspects of designing a fresh bathroom away. The plan was beautifully laid out and I love that there were multiple directions I could take with it. Instructions are clear and I love that you include the reasoning behind why you do things the way you do. Now with my plan in place, I have hit the ground running.  ~Alissa

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Receiving this incredible package was absolutely the bright spot. We are so thankful for the in-depth explanations, many details, as well as for various options. …  I just wanted to thank you- it’s so exciting to be one big step closer to seeing our dream home! And I’m so thankful for your expert advice and the many headaches you spared me trying to make all these decisions on my own! ~Jodi

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am thrilled with the edesign package, and feel it is proving very much worth it to me. I would have been totally stressed as I agonized over what to do and what to choose, and I would have made stupid mistakes in design decisions, as well as the order of project goals. I am very pleased with the beautiful recommendations and variety of options that seem well suited to my home. I can tell Maria “got” me, specifying materials that are within my price range and budget, as well as materials that are in line with my home’s decor style and my taste. ~Ann

If you have a question for my Ask Maria Column, clean up the room, take good photos in good natural light and email them here.

Related posts:

A Colourful Whole House Renovation eDesign; Before & After

How eDesign Saved this Exterior from Black Windows

8 Ideas for Adding Colour to Boring White Bathrooms