Today our Renton showroom had the pleasure of working with Guy and Sue, a couple who were giving their Master Bathroom a facelift.  The challenge was to work with the existing mauve granite they already had installed on their countertops.  Guy and Sue were the epitome of the perfect tile customer – open minded, honest with their opinions, and with a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve.

When we started working with them, they had already pulled a sample from our beautiful Agates collection from Lunada Bay.  This silk finished 1×4 brick mosaic was a warm blue color, and the fact that they were able to hone in on the small flecks of blue in their mauve granite was pretty impressive.  It was the perfect color to pull out from their existing tile, highlighting something minor, yet much more modern than the overall mauve color.

To keep with the “modernization” theme, we selected a large format porcelain tile for their flooring, using the Ergon Back2Back series in Mineral Grey, which instantly changed the look of the granite and made it less feminine.  Guy had one request, which was to bring in some of our Island Pebbles on the shower floor – and our Aberdeen Grey was the perfect pairing with the floor tile.

Finally, we played with options for the shower surround, and ended up selecting a glossy grey from our Royal Mosa 10THirty line, which will be used in conjunction with the blue Agates brick mosaic.

As we stood back to look at how perfectly this was all falling together, we began a discussion about what to use for the bench seat in their shower.  They were low on leftover pieces of granite, but liked the idea of somehow tying that mauve color into the other side of the bathroom, to keep the look cohesive.  When we thought about bringing the granite back over to the seat, the visual was a little jarring.  Enter our Jasba Homing series in Plum!  It pulled the color of the mauve into the shower, but in a much subtler and contemporary way than the busy granite would have done.  The gentle veining of the porcelain also gave a nice contrast to the glossy ceramic we had selected for the walls.

We can’t wait to hear (and see) how the finished room turns out!  We hope this encourages some of you to not despair when working with what you might consider outdated materials.  There are always ways to upgrade, combing new materials and formats to create a whole new look and feel.  As always, we highly suggest bringing samples of any existing materials to our showroom so we can be as efficient as possible when helping you create your new space.

(For more information on any of the products mentioned, click on any of the photos below.)