Tile Choices for a New Build

When building a house, you will run across several different choices that are difficult to make; one of them being stone & tile choice. Now remember, this doesn’t just mean floor tiles. When looking at tile, you need to consider all spaces in your home that might include tile-such as kitchen backsplash, bathroom floors and walls, laundry room, entryway, mudroom, etc. Let’s dig into some tips I have for selecting tile in your new build.

-Tips to help with your tile selection-

• Tip 1: Buy tile products when they are on sale. If you wait until the very last minute to make these choices, you’re likely going to be stuck paying the full price because you don’t want to hold up the build process. I recommend thinking about these decisions early on so you can watch for sales on specific tile and get it at fantastic pricing. Some places require you to have a wholesale account to purchase but others don’t. You can also go look at tile in stores as some commercial spaces will allow. There are even some places that will give discounts for bulk orders. Also this allows you time to check stock of the products.
• Tip 2: Make sure you calculate the correct square feet you will need for the project. If you need help with this, ask your builder or flooring contractor to help. You want to be as precise as possible so you don’t have an abundance left over and you don’t run short.
• Tip 3: When looking at material options, consider the area you’re putting it. Tile comes in so many options (ceramic tile, natural stone, porcelain tile, etc) and you need to make sure whatever tile you’re thinking about using is right for that space. Again, your builder or flooring contractor can help with this and may ask for clarification of use if you are thinking of a product that will not work in a certain space (for example: mosaic tile in high-traffic areas may not be the best choice).
• Tip 4: Just as you should with paint colors, make sure you get tile samples and bring them into your space to study and think about. There are so many variations in coloring, tile thickness, larger format tiles vs smaller format tiles, etc. You can get tile samples free at some stores but other stores do require you to pay for them. 
• Tip 5: Think about the overall look and feel of your home when choosing tile. This will help determine whether you want a very detailed tile or a more simplistic tile. If your home is more modern farmhouse, you may not want to go with a bright pink tile floor in a bathroom. If you like a more modern look, maybe consider something more unique than white subway tile. 

Here are just some of the tile choices we made when building our new home.

In this first picture, you can see the stunning La Riviera Blanc Ceramic Subway tile that we used on the upper portion of our master bathroom. I wanted something here that was classic and would allow the gold tones in the bathroom to shine. 

In the second photo, you can see the Roman Flower Blue Celeste Marble Mosaic tile that I used in my daughter’s shower. I absolutely love how this bathroom turned out as I was going for a fun, girly vibe. I wanted something she could grow into with time.

In the third photo, you will see a classic tile combo that I used for the flooring and wall tile in my youngest daughters bathroom. The pink wall tile is the La Riviera Rose Pink Ceramic Square tile. And the flooring is Bianco Carrara Penny Round Honed Marble Tile. 

As you can see from these photos, you’re able to change the look of different areas in your home with each unique tile selection. It was so fun to bring these areas to life when the work was done. All of these specific tile choices came from tileclub.com – and I will say, we had the best experience with them while selecting and ordering tile for our home.