Tile Terrors

Tile Terrors...kind of like night terrors. It may sound funny but of all parts of my business the tile store seems to be the place where clients are the most confused and overwhelmed.

Fabric stores, most people have been in one or at least are been in enough clothing stores that they are used to sorting through fabric. Bath and kitchen faucets and fixtures seem to produce an immediate reaction. People have clearer preferences on whether they long deep sinks, knobs or levers, hand held showers etc. I find that it's easier for people to "connect" to a design but tile confounds people.

When a client walks in a tile store, they are bombarded with all kinds of colors and patterns and materials. Do I want stone? porcelain? ceramic? Does this tile have all the pieces I need? What kind of pieces do I need? There's a ton of questions before you even get to the color. How easy is it to clean, what kind of texture do you want? Do you want a solid color or stone look, glass or metal strips? What kind of pattern do you want? Do you want something that you can make a pattern or have it already set on mesh for you? The list goes on and on.

Then there's the issue of budget. You may fall in love with a trim but the cost is scary. Even your regular tile at $5/sq ft may seem innocuous. Most people aren't used to thinking in terms of sq ft and when doing bathrooms and kitchens you are often dealing with more than one surface. So while your floor may only be 60 sq ft, your bath surround is probably that as well when you add in countertops, backsplashes etc., it all adds up.

A good salesperson is a great asset in a tile place and a designer can help you even more. First you should outline what surfaces you need to cover. Find out if you need bullnose or quarter round. Some companies don't have all the pieces but you can often mix and match. If you want it to all be the same you need to make sure that the line you get has all the different pieces. I am not opposed to mixing and matching and sometimes you can actually get a more interesting design that way.

Once you know what you need now you can look at the rest of the decisions. I like to make good use of accent tiles. They are like jewelry. Just like the perfect necklace can make your outfit, the perfect accent tile will have the same affect. I find the accent tiles are easier to fall in or out of love with as well. It's ok to do a more expensive tile for accent. Like your jewelry, it may cost a little more but the impact is huge. You will also be looking at this every day so make sure you love it. Once you have the accent tile, you will find it a much easier job to get a tile to go with it. Remember to keep the tile thicknesses the same as it is difficult to install otherwise. Sometimes the pattern is the thing you fall in love with, which will dictate how you use accents. But if you fall in love a pattern, it will narrow your choices tremendously.

If you are going in a tile store yourself and experience the overwhelm, try to find the accent tiles first and start looking. Ask for a sales person to tell you the best place to look for what you want or better yet, ask a designer to go with you or save yourself some angst and just have them bring you a few selections. This can take a lot of the stress out of the process.