A New World of Bathroom Tile Choices

Tile for the bathroom is not just your mother's aqua ceramic anymore. OK, you knew that. You know about subway tile and stone tile, too. But how about pebble tile? Or tiles with lights? Or glass tile mosaics with semi-precious stones? Perhaps not. Let's take a tour of the latest clay out of the kiln:

Mosaics are the tiles of the moment, says Mary Lou Kalmus, ASID, of Designing Edge in LaGrange, Ill. They can be porcelain, glass or metal, with traditional motifs or modern. And shapes range from chipped pieces to squares, rectangles, hexagons and circles.

Glass mosaics come in intense and myriad colors. And some, such as Ann Sacks designer Erin Adams' Quilt tiles, combine colors. They look almost like pillows, with a center color and then one or two bands of different colors around that. Put together, even Grandma couldn't come up with prettier patterns.

Oceanside Glass Tile's Tessera tiles contain earth oxides such as copper, cobalt, and chrome to make them shine in all their 42 colors. And they're earth friendly, made from recycled glass.

Metal tiles can give a wall or floor the look of medieval chain mail or add spots of shine in your own mosaic design. Sicis' Metallismo comes in stainless steel or polished brass and in shapes such as squares, mini-bricks, ovals, dots, rhomboids and elongated octagons.