Granite and Tile and Accents, oh my!

Y'all would have been so proud of us! Chad and I were able to come to an agreement on several big decisions.

So here are some big things:

After some debate, we both agreed that we just weren't feeling any of the level one granite options. I knew there was a chance this would happen. My dad used to joke that even as a little girl I could go to a restaurant and pick out the most expensive thing on the menu. Call it a gift... or a curse. Depending on if you're my best friend... or my husband. There were some level ones that were nice enough - but weren't exactly what I was looking for.

Then I saw it - Colonial Gold.

Ooooh.
Aaaah.

Chad agreed. I had read that finding your granite is like finding your wedding dress. Once you see "the one" you'll know. I thought those people were idiots. But I now see what they mean. You get excited when you find what you're looking for. Colonial Gold will look great - its a nice creamy white with some caramels, golds and bronze running through it. It's definitely more veins than speckles...which I prefer. We're still waiting to find out the cost of the upgrade. If it is absolutely ridiculous we'll have to rethink things... but I'm crossing my fingers for now.

For the master bathroom - we were allowed to choose from any level granite, since you don't need a full slab so you can pick whatever remnant in the granite yard you find. We picked River White.



Ooooh.


Aaaah.

River white is a great natural white with some silvers, blacks and a few specks of merlot. I think it will look fab with our black cabinets.

On a side note - I've learned more about granite in the past 2 weeks than I've ever cared to know. So if you go shopping for granite - I'm happy to pass along my insight.

On to the tile store. Here is where Chad and I began to butt heads a bit.

We began with the master bathroom. Here is what we ended up choosing:

The tile on the floor and shower stall will be that nice cream colored tile. We'll use the blue-green glass tile (which Chad loves... and I'll explain later how this became an issue) as the accent in the shower stall (a row of three that will go around the stall at eye level), as well as a row of three on the floor when you cross over the threshold into the bathroom, and again into the master closet (which is off the bathroom). The nice little pebble matting with be on the shower floor... so it'll be like having your own little foot massage in the bathroom.

Fancy. I know. If you're super sweet to me - maybe I'll let you come use our shower one day. Maybe.

I'm planning on painting the master bathroom Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage to match the master bedroom. I think it will be a nice relaxing color.
We were on the same page for the bathroom - for the most part. Things got a little tricky in the kitchen.

For the tile backsplash in the kitchen, I had looked into various options. Glass tile, subway tile, etc. I ended up wanting to do a neutral ceramic tile in various shades of cream and white. Chad was cool with that. However, problems arose when choosing a detailing for behind the range. Chad wanted to do the blue glass tiles - like in the bathroom. I didn't. At all. I tried to explain that the blue glass worked well for the bathroom because it was a cooler color. But I wanted to kitchen to be warmer - with my yellows and cream. Chad did not understand the concept of cool vs. warm as it pertains to a color palette. He's a scientist... not an artist.

However I convinced him (more like he gave up) to do a rectangular detail around the center of the range in this nice scroll ceramic:We also chose tile for the laundry room and buddy bath - but that would take too much time and the bathroom/kitchen is more of the highlight anyway.

Then there were decisions like this...

...for the kitchen faucet.


...and this one...


....for the downstairs and master bathroom.

This for the lavatory.


This for the doors...


...and this for door knobs.

And on, and on. So it was a very good, happy, productive day. We have our framing walk-thru next Monday - and then they'll be rolling on interior stuff. Halfway there, friends!