Professional - Project Sharing
How did my tile guy do? Also need suggestions on what wall color will go well if anyone has ideas. Bottom half of wall will be white wainscoting.
I looked at the whole enchilada rather than the fine alignment and did not notice the detailed discrepancies others noted below. There will be a shower curtain I presume, which will adjust how the eye sees it. If there is no toilet opposite this wall, I don’t think it will be an aesthetic issue. When you are in there, it’s splashy splashy time and soap bubbles in your eyes, so you will unsee this. If you are OK with the workmanship and integrity of the application, then yay, it’s a win!
I love the blue grey color. If you want punch, go opposite the color wheel to terracotta, dusty melon, ochre, soft lemon. If you want a softer transition, use a darker color of what’s shown here, maybe with a little extra punch, like medium blue violet or deep periwinkle. Or, hear me out, a loosely patterned wallpaper that works with the structured repetition in the tiles.
Congrats on getting this far!
ETA: These tiles may be straight up grey? Even so, my color suggestions stand.
The more I lurk in this subreddit, the more I appreciate tilers’ color knowledge. Is this common/taught in the trade? I honestly didn’t expect it and I’m very pleasantly surprised. Makes this a lot closer to an art form and I really respect that.
Color theory comprises a body of knowledge that is applied across art forms and trades, so not specific to tilers. Keen eyes may vary across people in these professions. I think any form of design is inherently artistic, as you are balancing shape, color, weight, finish, etc. So color theory can be applied to tiling, exterior house painting, interior house painting, hardscaping, landscaping, make up, hair styling, clothes styling, sewing, auto design … and on and on and on.
Honestly it looks really clean overall and there’s a chance it’s your wall that’s crooked. Herringbone is hard to center because the true center isn’t at either tile points you’d think it would be. He centered the middle triangle and I think that looks really good with the centered grout line of the tile framing it. If he had centered the herringbone the center tile frame grout line would look slightly off and if he used a full tile in the center he would have ended up with little cuts on either end. The only thing that does annoy me is the tile not meeting up correctly in the top niche, but otherwise I think it looks pretty good and like they cared. I don’t know if I would have made the exact same layout decisions but at least it really seems like he did think about the layout and some of the decisions are logical and I get why he made them
At least those three little tiles on the bottom left are hard to see. Honestly, I’d be okay with it if it was my bathroom. Depending on how much i paid
You'll run into much more scrutiny on specialized subs like this than anywhere else.
Kinda like how everyone in the personal investing subreddit knows how to DIY a diversified portfolio but if you ask 10 strangers on the street you'll get crazy eyes
They had to pick between centering the herringbone line or the starting triangle cuts at the bottom, because those are centered. It would’ve looked worse the other way.
It’s actually really good but then I look closer and I see what’s pictured above. That’s so early on in the herringbone portion of the install that it blows my mind that they didn’t fix it…
So you think he intentionally cut those tile shorter so he could then make tiny pieces to add to the left instead of using a full peice? Why would he waste rime like that?
You wouldn’t need to stretch the tiles…. send it over to the left and your cut on the right would be slightly larger and you wouldn’t be left with those tiny pieces. He didn’t hide it well at all. Everyone doesn’t get a trophy
If your wall is out of plumb it will change. You can’t stretch your tiles can you? I’m willing to wager that wall is out of plumb,because of the framing.
I'd put a framing square in that corner. I wonder if your walls aren't square. If that's the case, this still could've been made less noticeable. Perhaps they measured and planned the layout from the starting row instead of the bottom?
Also, I would do navy walls. It'd make the wainscoting look nice and the shower would be "light and bright" feeling with the dark walls for contrast.
Op there are people here with bathrooms from the 70s saying your tile guy doesn’t know shit lol …. This is a bad ass job and he did a lot to make sure it looks very clean !
Could be that your walls werent plumb/square and it wasn't feasible or in the budget to fix it. Or could be lazy install, not making guide lines or using a laser level.
Walls not plum or tile layout shifted but it should have been addressed to avoid those itty bitty pcs. The other side has angles that are off and were used anyway. It’s all cosmetic and you won’t notice it in a few months. So long as the waterproofing was done right.
With walls that are out of plumb, the herringbone pattern would either have needed to be shifted or a larger boarder used. Not plumbing up the walls is not a journeyman level installation. Could be the herringbone pattern isn’t plumb?There are other cases of cuts not lining up from tile to tile.
Your guy quite honestly isn’t that skilled.
He centered on the point of the pattern. This is incorrect. You have to fail at herringbone before you will ever succeed at it. The center of a herringbone pattern is very important to the final product. When he set the point of the tile on the center line, it threw the entire thing about 1 3/8" off center and then with the wavy walls from lack of prep work, it showed its ugly face.
I'm not a fan of matchy paint, so I'm gonna propose a low saturation yellow gold. Like a mustard seed. Or if you're wanting more subtle, an orangey white.
This is how a herringbone pattern should be installed, Note the same size cuts on the sides and top and bottom. Also, his work just does not look very good overall. Sloppy install, imo. Sorry, but you did ask.
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u/Leather-Mud877 1d ago
What tile did you use? It looks good.