Tile selection done

Well, that was easy

When faced with the tile selection paperwork its easy to feel a little overwhelmed by the apparent number of tile selections there are, I guess if we wanted to go to the limits and individualize each room separately then we could be looking at over 20 separate tile selections.

Show homes don't really help with this respect, its quite common to enter these places and see they have a separate colour and tile scheme for each and every room, and forget that the builder deliberately did this to show off different options, not because it was a smart idea.

There is also the argument for making the tiling a feature of the house, but here's the problem with features.... they go out of fashion, and if the feature is a fundamental part of the building construction (like floor tiles) then what could now be a huge value adding feature today, in say 15 years time when you want to resell, could just be a dated eyesore that turns buyers away or goes on top of the list of things they need to rip out and factor the cost into their offer price, need I mention 1980s coloured bathroom suites or 1970s wood paneling to make this point?

The other factor we needed to consider was that the tiles included in the builder quotation were a standard package supplied via Beaumont Tiles, and whilst there are plenty of opportunities to upgrade neither Jill or I felt we wanted to go over the top...

So, we go off to Beumont tiles and prepare for a stressful afternoon of tile selection, and I must say that I was very please that any attempts at up-selling us was limited to asking if we wanted to stick with the standard package and we walk away with this tile selection...

....6 tiles, well arguably its 8, but technically its only three as the mid sized tiles are dark/light/plain/patterned variants of the same tile, the large floor tile comes in outdoor, textured versions (patio), and smaller sizes (wet areas) so its a simple package but versatile enough to use everywhere, the plain light tile will get used for wet area skirtings and splash-backs, and the other tiles used for bath, and showers

Observant readers may notice there is an odd tile out here, the bright red tile is for kitchen splashbacks and is our one concession to features, Jill and I had decided to do this beforehand and it was unfortunate that the choice of colours for this kind of tile once you eliminated the greys and browns was limited to red or orange

The reason for this tile is that our pallet is deliberately monochrome, colour and feature will be mostly be added by soft furnishings, but we felt that since its fairly hard to hide a kitchen in an open plan design we may as well featurise it... besides, if it really doesn't work or we get tired of it then replacing them with something different is a lot easier than replacing the floors or bathrooms.