The tile for the floor of our bathroom ended up being a point for us to save some money. With so many beautiful yet inexpensive tile options (especially for flooring!), it became the easy choice to scale back. I thought it would be fun to explore with you today what my wish list was, alternatives I found to coveted tiles and which tiles I eventually came down to deciding between. Choosing tile doesn’t have to be hard. Know what you want, check out what’s available and narrow it down until you’ve decided.
I had my heart set out on cement tiles. I still want encaustic tiles because they’re beautiful, interesting and reminiscent of tiles you’d find in places like India, Mexico, Morocco and more. I just didn’t feel like that element was essential to developing the global aspect for the theme of the space.
I toyed around a lot with the idea of going with a cement tile look alike. I found several from Home Depot that I really loved. The first one I found (shown below middle) was the closest thing available months ago when I first started looking. It seemed so dark and I didn’t feel like I’d get the vibe from it that I truly wanted. But recently I’ve found the Archivo Ornate tile (below right) and it’s very close to what I wanted. But the price tag kept tugging, I just knew there was something better suited to our budget.
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And then there’s the aspect of resale value. If I sell my house in 5 years, will the majority of people viewing the house like the choice? Most likely not. So for the sake of practicality, I chose to wipe these options from the playing field.
Early on in this process, I looked at slate tile floors. They’re incredibly beautiful. I have no reason not to like slate tile. It’s an option that I think would appeal to many buyers and the price isn’t outrageous. But I’m not a big fan of using grey in my decor. It wouldn’t follow the color story of the rest of the home so I scraped it.
I finally hunkered down and chose to go with a wood look floor tile. This actually made things even more difficult, would you believe it!? With so many different finishes and “stains” available, it actually made this the most difficult of all the decisions I’ve had to make. My husband agreed that the wood look tile would look good. We actually made the decision and purchased this past weekend. Can you guess which one we went with?
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They’re all 6 inch x 24 inch planks. While the one of the far left is oh so dreamy, it came down to whether or not I’d be able to match a stain to our existing wood floors if we were to never have new floors put in. So I’ve got it saved on a Pinterest board for later, but for right now it was between the middle and right one.
I went with the one on the right. 🙂
At 1.78 a piece, that put my total to cover the bathroom floor (with extra for special cuts and mistakes) at $75ish dollars (I have the Lowe’s credit card so there was also a 5% discount).
And I like that it’s a very neutral color. The middle plank is beautiful but very warm. Against all the blue in the space I worried it would look flat out red.
More than anything, I did not want the boring ceramic tile look that you see in every single builder bathroom right now. I literally loathe those things, so any of these would have been such a massive improvement. But the wood tile is especially rustic and inviting and I’m really excited to have chosen it,.
And we bought it, so it’s happening! Can’t wait to pop in again tomorrow with an update on everything in the space. Yesterday I actually shared a small tutorial for leather tassels on a basket. You should check that out next!
I hope you’re having a wonderful day and that you’ve found this insight to my decision making interesting and helpful!
Please remember that this is how I’ve made my decision. Because it doesn’t make sense for me for that reason, it definitely doesn’t mean that you should base your decision on resale value. While I do think that resale value should be considered, it’s up to you what kind of play you want it to have.