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willWohnen22 Jun 2015 12:53Hello dear builders,
We still need to decide on grout colors. This is quite important for us because the entire house will be tiled.
We are using different tiles, but all with warm tones. On the ground floor, the floor tiles are in various dark brown shades everywhere. The guest bathroom has pure white glossy wall tiles and a wall mosaic in white/blue/gray. (The office, bedroom, and other rooms have medium to light brown tones.)
On the upper floor, we have a light yellow speckled (“sand”? but definitely yellow, not sand-colored) floor tile and a very light beige wall tile.
The tiler initially suggested using gray grout everywhere, specifically silver gray, which seems to be his favorite.
He couldn’t really explain why, just that it would probably be low-maintenance.
Personally, I imagine gray would contrast badly with the brown and especially the yellow tones. We also don’t have any gray in the decor, no anthracite or black, no chrome furniture, no glass tables—just wood furniture and a kitchen in “magnolia.”
What do you think of my ideas:
Medium brown grout for the dark brown floor tiles. (Medium brown, because the construction supervisor said he had very dark anthracite-colored grout and wasn’t happy with it, as very dark colors can also show dirt easily. If you are happy with dark brown, please let me know.)
In the guest bathroom, I would even dare to try a light/medium blue grout on the walls because that should fit well with the mosaic (sea motif) and the white tiles. I think the guest bathroom can be a bit more playful and colorful. We plan to add some cheerful sea/fish decorations there—you know how much variety there is. Well, silver gray could also work here, but it wouldn’t be as fun.
The most difficult is the upstairs bathroom with its light yellow floor tiles and light beige wall tiles. I don’t want the grout to be too light, so medium brown—at least on the floor? Or would it be better and more important to use the same grout color for floor and walls? Beige or “Pergamon” (a beige tone) is apparently another option. Would that be too sensitive? Can a light beige wall tile be combined with a darker medium brown grout?
I will, of course, get advice from the specialty store here, but they often give very standard answers that follow current trends. That’s my impression at least. “This is how it’s done now.” “Many people do it this way.” And from the craftsmen: “We’ve always done it this way!”
Best regards
willWohnen
We still need to decide on grout colors. This is quite important for us because the entire house will be tiled.
We are using different tiles, but all with warm tones. On the ground floor, the floor tiles are in various dark brown shades everywhere. The guest bathroom has pure white glossy wall tiles and a wall mosaic in white/blue/gray. (The office, bedroom, and other rooms have medium to light brown tones.)
On the upper floor, we have a light yellow speckled (“sand”? but definitely yellow, not sand-colored) floor tile and a very light beige wall tile.
The tiler initially suggested using gray grout everywhere, specifically silver gray, which seems to be his favorite.
He couldn’t really explain why, just that it would probably be low-maintenance.
Personally, I imagine gray would contrast badly with the brown and especially the yellow tones. We also don’t have any gray in the decor, no anthracite or black, no chrome furniture, no glass tables—just wood furniture and a kitchen in “magnolia.”
What do you think of my ideas:
Medium brown grout for the dark brown floor tiles. (Medium brown, because the construction supervisor said he had very dark anthracite-colored grout and wasn’t happy with it, as very dark colors can also show dirt easily. If you are happy with dark brown, please let me know.)
In the guest bathroom, I would even dare to try a light/medium blue grout on the walls because that should fit well with the mosaic (sea motif) and the white tiles. I think the guest bathroom can be a bit more playful and colorful. We plan to add some cheerful sea/fish decorations there—you know how much variety there is. Well, silver gray could also work here, but it wouldn’t be as fun.
The most difficult is the upstairs bathroom with its light yellow floor tiles and light beige wall tiles. I don’t want the grout to be too light, so medium brown—at least on the floor? Or would it be better and more important to use the same grout color for floor and walls? Beige or “Pergamon” (a beige tone) is apparently another option. Would that be too sensitive? Can a light beige wall tile be combined with a darker medium brown grout?
I will, of course, get advice from the specialty store here, but they often give very standard answers that follow current trends. That’s my impression at least. “This is how it’s done now.” “Many people do it this way.” And from the craftsmen: “We’ve always done it this way!”
Best regards
willWohnen
C
christhunter22 Jun 2015 22:50Silver-gray matches almost any tile.
Oh yes... I spent more time on this than I initially expected. Depending on what effect you want to achieve with the grout, you should also choose the color accordingly. If you want the surface to look calm and cohesive, choose grout in a color similar to the tile. If you want the surface to stand out and draw attention to something, then choose contrasting grout.
I prefer calm surfaces, so we used dark brown grout with our brown floor tiles and Pergamon-colored grout with the beige wall tiles. We are very happy with both.
Your ideas are pretty good already. Just be careful if you plan to have blue grout on white tiles. Our tiler once told me about a case where he couldn’t completely remove the grout residue from the tile surface, and it left a colored film on the light tile. It’s definitely not that straightforward.
I hope this helps a bit.
I prefer calm surfaces, so we used dark brown grout with our brown floor tiles and Pergamon-colored grout with the beige wall tiles. We are very happy with both.
Your ideas are pretty good already. Just be careful if you plan to have blue grout on white tiles. Our tiler once told me about a case where he couldn’t completely remove the grout residue from the tile surface, and it left a colored film on the light tile. It’s definitely not that straightforward.
I hope this helps a bit.
W
willWohnen23 Jun 2015 21:35@Kisska86 Thank you for your contribution and your time, it really helps me a lot! I actually want to keep things as calm as possible in general.
I have since visited a specialty store and compared the color samples supported by our general contractor with our tiles. There was exactly one shade of blue that surprisingly also appears in our mosaic. *amazed* Sometimes you just get lucky.
So we might actually go ahead with that – but thanks for your tip about the "leftovers," I’ll have the tiler start with that inside the shower (enclosed with walls) first, then I’ll check it before he continues with the rest of the walls. We might also consider doing blue grout on only part of the walls to bring out the blue from the mosaic again.
Regarding the brown floor tiles and beige wall tiles, several shades match, but I’m still unsure which would be easiest to maintain.
Darker is better for the floor, right? For the ground floor, where the brown floor tiles also cover the hallway in front of the entrance door, we'll probably choose "bali brown." It’s very discreet, a bit darker, and more of a gray-brown. I guess in the entrance area, grout will gray quickly. Caramel would look much warmer and nicer, but how long would that last..?
The upstairs bathroom is the most challenging, with yellow floor tiles and light beige wall tiles. Caramel could actually work for both, since it is mid-tone and slightly yellowish. But especially in the bathroom, I think the floor grout around the tub and shower will darken fastest, so maybe the darker brown would be better.(?) And the color "beige" fits perfectly with the wall tiles – that fascinates me. That would be almost tone-on-tone, making the grout nearly invisible. But very light!
Unfortunately, they didn’t have “chocolate brown” literally in their range. That sounds beautiful.
@christhunter Thanks to you, too, of course. I still don’t really get it. No one wears a brown jacket with gray trousers or a brown belt with gray trousers, after all.
I have since visited a specialty store and compared the color samples supported by our general contractor with our tiles. There was exactly one shade of blue that surprisingly also appears in our mosaic. *amazed* Sometimes you just get lucky.
So we might actually go ahead with that – but thanks for your tip about the "leftovers," I’ll have the tiler start with that inside the shower (enclosed with walls) first, then I’ll check it before he continues with the rest of the walls. We might also consider doing blue grout on only part of the walls to bring out the blue from the mosaic again.
Regarding the brown floor tiles and beige wall tiles, several shades match, but I’m still unsure which would be easiest to maintain.
Darker is better for the floor, right? For the ground floor, where the brown floor tiles also cover the hallway in front of the entrance door, we'll probably choose "bali brown." It’s very discreet, a bit darker, and more of a gray-brown. I guess in the entrance area, grout will gray quickly. Caramel would look much warmer and nicer, but how long would that last..?
The upstairs bathroom is the most challenging, with yellow floor tiles and light beige wall tiles. Caramel could actually work for both, since it is mid-tone and slightly yellowish. But especially in the bathroom, I think the floor grout around the tub and shower will darken fastest, so maybe the darker brown would be better.(?) And the color "beige" fits perfectly with the wall tiles – that fascinates me. That would be almost tone-on-tone, making the grout nearly invisible. But very light!
Unfortunately, they didn’t have “chocolate brown” literally in their range. That sounds beautiful.
@christhunter Thanks to you, too, of course. I still don’t really get it. No one wears a brown jacket with gray trousers or a brown belt with gray trousers, after all.
I told our tiler the same thing, WillWohnen. I just thought the idea of brown and gray was ugly... But silver gray is another matter. My in-laws have actually used it with all kinds of tiles (white, cream, light blue, blue, blue-gray), and before we started building, I never thought it looked bad.
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willWohnen23 Jun 2015 22:31@Kisska86 Before I started building, I didn’t really notice anything, I realized haha. I was basically blind to houses and apartments, including my own, and just accepted everything as it was. (Well, almost. Some things in the apartment were annoying.) But with your parents-in-law, I think silver gray works well with blue tones. Blue-gray, of course, fits perfectly. I just imagine cream to be, uh, well, ugly.
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