Every few years, the tile and remodeling industry shifts. Homeowners who were installing subway tile and cool gray walls in 2016 are now staring at those same bathrooms and wondering if they made a mistake. Some of them did. Some of them made fine choices that just went out of fashion — which is a different problem entirely.

This article is a contractor's honest take on what's worth building into your bathroom right now, what has real staying power, and what you should approach with caution before spending $15,000 or more on a remodel. We install tile every day in Greenville, SC and Charlotte, NC, and we have opinions.

Not every trend deserves your money. Some look great in a magazine photo and are a headache to live with. Some look dated within three years. And some — the ones worth paying attention to — are design directions that will still feel right a decade from now.

The Curbless Shower and Wet Room Concept

What It Actually Is

A wet room is a fully waterproofed bathroom space where the shower area has no curb or barrier separating it from the rest of the floor. Water drains to one or more floor drains, the entire space is treated as a wet zone, and the shower glass — if there is any — is the only visual divider.

A curbless shower is a step toward the wet room concept without going all the way. You eliminate the shower curb and install a linear drain or a center drain with a sloped floor, but the rest of the bathroom floor remains dry. Both designs are popular right now, and both require a fundamentally different approach to substrate and waterproofing than a standard shower.

Why Homeowners Want This

Curbless showers look clean and open. They photograph well. They make a bathroom feel larger. And they are genuinely better for accessibility — no threshold to step over means easier entry for people with mobility limitations, and they future-proof a home for aging-in-place.

For homes in the Greenville and Charlotte markets, where multigenerational living and long-term homeownership are common, curbless showers make practical sense beyond aesthetics.

What Installation Actually Requires

This is where the conversation gets real. A curbless shower is not simply a standard shower without a curb. The substrate under the tile has to be sloped toward the drain — typically 1/4 inch per foot — and that slope has to be built into the floor framing or subfloor before tile goes down. In a renovation where the existing floor is flat, that slope has to be created with a mortar bed or pre-sloped foam substrate.

Linear drains — the long, narrow drains you see along one wall or at the entry edge of a curbless shower — require careful planning. The drain location determines where all the water travels, and the entire floor must pitch toward it. Linear drains also need adequate pipe sizing and trap access. If your plumber hasn't done a linear drain installation before, it shows.

The waterproofing membrane has to extend beyond the shower area into the transition zone. Many leaks in curbless showers come from improper membrane termination at the edge — water wicks under tile and into the subfloor. This is not an area to cut corners on materials or labor.

The Cost Reality

Expect to pay a meaningful premium for a well-executed curbless shower compared to a standard shower build. You're paying for additional substrate work, a more expensive drain, more precise tile installation (tighter lippage tolerances with a sloped floor), and more extensive waterproofing. A contractor who quotes a curbless shower at the same price as a standard shower either doesn't understand what's involved or is cutting corners you'll regret.

Large Format Tile: 24x24, 32x32, and Plank Formats

The Appeal

Large format tile has been growing in popularity for a decade, and it's not a fad — it's a permanent shift in how tile is used in upscale homes. The reason is simple: fewer grout lines. A floor covered in 24x24 tile has far fewer visible seams than the same floor in 12x12. The result is a cleaner, more contemporary look that's also easier to mop.

Plank formats — typically 12x48 or 8x48 — give bathrooms a wood-look or architectural stone feel without the maintenance problems of real hardwood in a wet environment. They read as modern and distinctive.

What Makes Large Format Tile Harder to Install

Large format tile exposes every flaw. A wall that's slightly out of plumb becomes obvious when you're running 24x48 slabs up it. A floor with any variation shows lippage — the edge of one tile sitting higher than its neighbor — far more clearly than small tile would.

Lippage control is the primary technical challenge. Large format tile needs a larger mortar contact area, proper back-buttering, and — in most cases — a lippage control system (clips and wedges) during installation. When you see a large format floor that looks wavy or uneven, someone skipped this step or worked on a floor that wasn't adequately prepared.

Grout joint width is also a decision point. Very thin grout joints (1/16 inch) look sleek but require extremely precise tile and substrate. Slightly wider joints (3/16 inch) are more forgiving and still look clean. Rectified tile — precision-cut to consistent dimensions — makes narrow joints possible; non-rectified tile needs more joint width to accommodate size variation.

Formats Worth Considering Right Now

Fluted and Ribbed Tile

Where It Works

Fluted tile — vertically or horizontally channeled tile with a corrugated texture — has had a strong run as a design accent. When used right, it adds depth and shadow play that flat tile can't achieve. A fluted accent wall behind a freestanding tub, a fluted niche surround in a shower, or a fluted vanity wall can add genuine visual interest.

Fluted tile works best in natural-toned ceramics and porcelain — warm whites, creams, soft greiges, and earthy terracottas. It reads well in natural light and in soft incandescent or warm LED lighting.

Installation Notes

Fluted tile takes longer to install than flat tile of the same size. The channels create more surface area to back-butter, and the ridges require more precision in alignment — a slightly crooked course of fluted tile is much more obvious than the same mistake with flat tile. Waste runs higher because cuts at the edges of fluted tiles often land mid-channel and have to be redone.

If you're pricing a project with fluted tile, expect roughly 15–20% more labor time versus comparable flat tile, and budget 10–15% additional tile for waste.

Where It Can Feel Dated

Fluted tile on every surface in the bathroom — floor, walls, shower, and niche — quickly tips from interesting to overwhelming. The texture reads best as an accent, not a wallpaper. It also ages faster when used in very trendy colorways; the same fluted tile in a timeless cream reads as architectural detail long after the trend cycle moves on.

Zellige and Handmade Tile

What Makes Zellige Distinctive

Zellige is a traditional Moroccan tile, hand-cut from glazed terracotta slabs. Each piece has natural variation in surface flatness, glaze thickness, color depth, and dimension. When light hits a wall covered in zellige, you get a shimmering, textured effect that no machine-made tile replicates. It's genuinely beautiful.

Handmade tile more broadly — including American-made studio tiles and Spanish-style handcrafted pieces — shares similar characteristics: slight variation in size, uneven glaze, surface texture.

What to Expect Before You Commit

The variation that makes zellige beautiful also makes it unpredictable. A batch from two different production runs will not match — order everything from a single run and add 20% overage minimum. If you run short mid-installation, sourcing a match is often impossible.

Because zellige pieces vary in thickness, the installer cannot use a standard snap line; each piece needs individual adjustment. This is skilled work that costs more than standard tile installation.

Lippage is inherent to zellige — visible surface variation is part of its character. If you want the look with flatter, more consistent results, consider machine-made zellige-look tile from Spanish manufacturers like Natucer or Aparici. You trade some of the authentic shimmer for easier installation and better consistency.

Grout Selection Matters More with Zellige

Zellige's irregular edges mean grout joints are not uniform. A grout too close to the tile color looks muddy; one that contrasts too strongly emphasizes the irregular spacing. Unsanded grout is rarely an option — joint width varies too much. A sanded or epoxy grout in a complementary neutral is usually the right call, and always test on a sample area first.

The Move Away from Cool Gray: Warm Neutrals and Earthy Tones

The cool gray bathroom — gray tile, gray grout, gray walls — dominated the 2012–2020 period. Many homeowners who installed it a decade ago are now looking at a space that feels cold and generic.

The current direction is warmer: soft whites with yellow or pink undertones rather than blue, greige tones that sit between gray and beige, terracotta and clay-adjacent colors, warm creams and sand tones, muted sage and olive. This shift has staying power — warm neutrals have historically been timeless in a way cool gray never was.

Practical Guidance on Warm Neutrals

Bring physical tile samples into your bathroom under your actual lighting before committing. A tile that reads warm under showroom fluorescents can look dingy in a north-facing bathroom with limited natural light. Terracotta works well in smaller doses — a floor, a shower accent, a niche surround — but can feel heavy when used on every surface. Warm greige tile pairs naturally with unlacquered brass, matte gold, and warm bronze fixtures.

Freestanding Tubs: A Realistic Assessment

Freestanding tubs are beautiful in photographs and challenging to live with. Before you spend $2,000–$8,000 on a sculptural soaking tub, here's what daily life looks like with one.

The Cleaning Problem

The space behind and beneath a freestanding tub accumulates dust, hair, and soap residue in a spot that requires getting on hands and knees with a long-handled brush. The tile grout around the base needs regular attention. It's a different maintenance routine than a built-in tub against a wall — not a dealbreaker, but worth knowing in advance.

Structural and Practical Considerations

A freestanding tub full of water and a person can weigh 800 to 1,200 pounds. In most homes built after 1990 with engineered floor joists, this isn't a problem. In older homes — common in Greenville's historic neighborhoods — get a structural engineer to verify before installation.

Fill time matters too. A sculptural freestanding tub holds 55–80 gallons versus 40–60 for a standard whirlpool. That's 15–25 minutes of fill time while the temperature is dropping. Acrylic and composite models retain heat reasonably well; stone resin tubs retain heat better but cost and weigh significantly more.

If you use a bathtub regularly and want to soak for 30+ minutes, a built-in soaking tub with an insulated wall surround often outperforms a freestanding model on temperature retention. The freestanding option earns its price as a focal point in a large primary bath — less so as a daily functional soaking tub.

Walk-In Shower vs. Keeping the Tub

This is one of the questions we get most often, and the answer depends heavily on who lives in the house and whether you're planning to sell.

When Removing the Tub Makes Sense

If another bathroom in the house has a tub, converting the primary bath tub to a larger walk-in shower is usually a smart move. The footprint that held a 30x60-inch tub can become a 48x72-inch shower with a rainfall head, handheld wand, and built-in bench — a daily upgrade most people notice immediately.

The Resale Consideration

Real estate agents in Greenville and Charlotte consistently advise against removing the last tub in a house before selling. Families with young children need one, and buyers in that demographic will notice its absence. If you're planning to sell within five years, keep the tub or ensure another bath in the home has one. If you're staying 10+ years, renovate for your actual life.

A Middle Option

Some clients solve this by keeping a deep built-in soaking tub and adding a separate walk-in shower. This requires roughly 12x12 feet of bathroom floor space at minimum to do both well — but it appeals to a wide range of buyers and lifestyle preferences.

Floating Vanities

Floating (wall-mounted) vanities have moved from contemporary specialty item to mainstream bathroom fixture over the past several years, and for good reason.

The Real Benefits

A floating vanity makes a small bathroom feel larger because the floor is visible and uninterrupted. It's genuinely easier to clean the floor — a mop or Swiffer runs under the vanity without moving anything. At an adjustable height, it's more accessible for wheelchair users and shorter family members.

Visually, a floating vanity with leg clearance underneath reads as lighter and less furniture-like than a floor-standing cabinet, which suits the clean, minimal aesthetic that works well with large format tile and warm neutral palettes.

The Plumbing Reality

Wall-mounted vanities expose supply lines and the drain in the open space underneath. Most homeowners paint the plumbing to match the wall, route it through a wall chase, or embrace the industrial look. The vanity must be mounted to wall studs or solid blocking — drywall alone cannot support the weight of products and a person leaning on the counter. During a tile renovation, we block the wall behind the vanity before closing it up; it costs little during construction and matters significantly later.

Mixed Metal Finishes

The rule that all hardware in a room must match is no longer enforced, and the design community has largely abandoned it. A thoughtful mix of metals can add visual complexity and prevent a bathroom from feeling overly matchy.

The Combinations That Work

Matte black and warm brass is the most common pairing right now — matte black for hardware (towel bars, robe hooks, toilet paper holder) and warm brushed or unlacquered brass for plumbing fixtures (faucet, shower valve trim). The contrast is clean and reads as contemporary. Brushed nickel with warm brass works too — the cool-warm contrast is softer and suits transitional styles. Polished chrome tends to fight most warm metal accents and is harder to mix intentionally.

How to Pull It Off Without Chaos

Limit yourself to two metals, maximum three. One dominant metal for the largest pieces — shower valve, faucet, tub spout — and one secondary metal for hardware. Keep finish consistent within each category: two matte black pieces and two warm brass pieces feel designed; one polished black, one satin black, one antique brass, and one bright gold feels unresolved.

Smart Bathroom Fixtures

What's Actually Worth It

Digital shower controls — valves with a digital display for exact temperature and pre-warming — are legitimate quality-of-life upgrades. Brands like Kohler Konnect, Moen U, and Brizo offer reliable options. Installation includes running dedicated wiring to the valve, which is best done during a renovation when walls are open.

Heated towel bars draw 60–150 watts (comparable to a light bulb) and are inexpensive to install during construction. A pre-warmed towel is a small daily luxury with a favorable cost-to-payoff ratio.

Smart mirrors with integrated LED lighting and defoggers outperform most traditional light bars for grooming and makeup tasks. The defogger is genuinely useful in bathrooms with limited ventilation.

What to Be Skeptical Of

Smart toilets from established brands (TOTO, Kohler, Brondell) have improved, but budget alternatives have variable electronics lifespans and require a technician for repairs. If you're not already comfortable managing a smart home ecosystem, the traditional thermostatic valve is more reliable than a fully voice-activated shower system.

Shower Niche Design

Built-in shower niches — recessed shelf openings in the shower wall — have largely replaced the industrial shower caddies that hung from showerheads. They look cleaner, don't fall down, and don't rust. Done well, they become a design detail rather than just functional storage.

Built-In vs. Pre-Fabricated Recessed Units

Framed niches offer more size flexibility but require careful waterproofing — the niche interior is a horizontal surface that holds water, and the membrane on the back and sides must integrate seamlessly with the rest of the shower membrane. Pre-fabricated foam niches (standard sizes: 12x24 and 12x36) are easier to waterproof since the unit itself is the substrate and accepts tile directly.

Niche as Accent Opportunity

The niche back wall is the best place in a shower to use an accent tile without significant added cost. A contrasting mosaic, handmade tile, or zellige on a 12x24 niche back wall adds visual depth without the expense of running that tile across an entire wall. We've done small-format marble hexagon inside a large format porcelain shower — the contrast is effective and the total material cost is modest.

A standard 12x24 niche holds most shampoo and body wash bottles. If you use tall pump bottles, verify clearance. Two niches at each user's height is more functional than a single large niche everyone competes for.

Bathroom lighting is often an afterthought that gets decided after the tile is already in — which is exactly backwards. Lighting affects how every other decision in the bathroom looks.

Backlit Mirrors

A mirror with LED lighting built into the perimeter or behind a frosted panel provides even, diffused light across the face — far better for makeup application and grooming than a single overhead fixture that casts shadows under the nose and chin. Choose a mirror with adjustable color temperature and a dimmer. Warm light (2700K–3000K) is flattering; cooler light (4000K) is better for color-accurate makeup. A tunable mirror gives you both.

LED Niche Lighting

A small LED strip inside a shower niche adds visual depth and useful task lighting. If you're building a niche during construction, have your electrician rough in a low-voltage circuit inside the niche opening before tile goes up — retrofitting it afterward is significantly more work.

Color Temperature Matters

The most common bathroom lighting mistake is installing 5000K daylight LEDs. That blue-white light emphasizes dark circles, makes skin look sallow, and is functionally counterproductive for grooming tasks. Stay in the 2700K–3000K range for general bathroom ambiance. If you need brighter task lighting at the mirror, add a 3500K–4000K dedicated fixture there — bright enough to see clearly, warm enough not to feel clinical.

Not every trend deserves your renovation budget. Some of the following are getting a lot of attention in design media right now and deserve more scrutiny than they typically receive.

All-Black Grout Everywhere

Dark grout works well in the right application — charcoal grout with a large format floor tile is clean and effective. But all-black grout on every surface tips from bold to oppressive in a small bathroom, and it shows light-colored residue, soap scum, and calcium deposits in ways that lighter grouts don't. Use it deliberately in selected areas rather than as a whole-bathroom treatment.

High-Gloss Tile Floors

High-gloss floor tile looks stunning in photographs and is a liability in real bathrooms. It shows every water droplet, footprint, and streak, and the coefficient of friction (COF) on high-gloss tile often falls below the 0.42 minimum recommended for wet areas. A satin or matte tile with a slight sheen gives you the cleaner look without the maintenance burden or slip risk.

Wet Rooms Without the Waterproofing Budget

The wet room aesthetic is appealing, but a wet room executed without a proper waterproofing system is a slow-motion water damage event. We occasionally see project bids where a homeowner has priced out a curbless shower from multiple contractors and chosen the lowest bid — only to discover later that the low bidder planned to use a felt paper moisture barrier rather than a modern sheet membrane or liquid-applied system.

The waterproofing in a wet room needs to cover more area than a standard shower — potentially the entire floor of the bathroom — and needs to be installed with more precision because there's no threshold stopping water from migrating. Do not choose your curbless shower contractor based on the lowest waterproofing spec. (For a deeper treatment of waterproofing systems and what to look for, see our [shower waterproofing guide].)

Barn Doors on Bathrooms

Barn doors don't seal. The gap between door and jamb allows sound, odor, and light to pass freely — a real privacy problem in a bathroom. In some jurisdictions, bathrooms with water closets have minimum privacy requirements that a barn door with visible gaps may not meet. Verify local code before installing one, and consider whether the aesthetic is worth the tradeoff.

Shiplap in Wet Areas

Shiplap on a dry bathroom wall is fine if properly sealed and painted. Inside a shower or in consistent direct spray contact, it will fail — wood eventually absorbs moisture, expands, and cracks whatever sealant sits on top of it. Tile or water-resistant panel products belong in wet areas. Shiplap does not.

Q: Which bathroom trends have the longest staying power?
A: Curbless showers, large format tile, warm neutral palettes, and floating vanities are design directions grounded in function and aesthetics rather than novelty. They're still going to look right in 15 years. Highly specific accent trends — a particular grout color, a specific tile texture, a niche color palette — cycle faster.

Q: Is it worth spending more on large format tile versus standard 12x12?
A: Usually yes, with the caveat that the substrate preparation has to match. Large format tile on a poorly prepared substrate will look worse than standard tile on a good substrate. If you're hiring a contractor, ask how they plan to prepare the floor and walls before tile goes down. The answer tells you a lot.

Q: Do I need special tile for a curbless shower floor?
A: Yes. Without a threshold reminding you when you've crossed into the wet zone, the floor needs a higher coefficient of friction than a standard shower. Look for tile with a COF of 0.60 or higher for wet areas. Small mosaic tile (2x2 or 1x1) provides more grout joints per square foot, which increases traction — a practical reason why small format tile remains popular for shower floors even as large format dominates walls.

Q: Is zellige tile practical for a full shower surround?
A: It can be done, but we'd recommend it for accent areas — niche backs, a feature wall — rather than full floor-to-ceiling coverage. The variability in zellige thickness makes a large installation technically demanding and more expensive. Zellige-look machine-made tile is a more practical choice for full coverage.

Q: How do I know if my floor can support a freestanding tub?
A: If your home was built after 1990 and the bathroom floor is on an upper level with standard wood framing, have a contractor or structural engineer verify the joist sizing and span before finalizing the tub selection. The weight concern is most relevant in older homes or when using a very heavy stone resin tub. In most cases, tub weight alone isn't a problem — it's the combined weight of the tub, the water, and the occupant concentrated on a relatively small footprint.

Q: Can I mix warm and cool metal finishes in a bathroom?
A: Mixing is fine. Mixing without a plan is where things go wrong. Pick a dominant metal for the major fixtures (usually the plumbing hardware — faucet, shower valve trim, tub filler) and a secondary metal for the hardware. Two metals, used intentionally, read as designed. Three or more metals in a small space usually reads as unresolved.

Q: Should I remove the tub in my primary bathroom if we never use it?
A: If it's the only tub in the house, we'd advise against it if you're within five to seven years of selling. If you have another tub in the home, converting the primary bath tub space to a larger shower almost always improves the usability of the space. Talk to a local real estate agent about your specific market and price point before making the decision — the math is different in different neighborhoods.

Q: What's the right color temperature for bathroom lighting?
A: 2700K–3000K for general ambiance and flattering skin tone rendering. 3500K–4000K for task lighting at the mirror if you need high-accuracy light for makeup or detail work. Avoid 5000K and above in a bathroom — it's accurate but unflattering and feels clinical.

Q: How much more does a curbless shower cost than a standard shower?
A: Expect to add 20–35% to the tile installation and substrate cost of a comparable standard shower. The additional cost comes from the sloped mortar bed or pre-sloped foam substrate, the linear drain (which costs more than a standard center drain), and the more extensive waterproofing membrane coverage. On a typical primary bathroom shower in Greenville or Charlotte, this might represent an additional $1,500–$3,000 over a standard build.

Q: Is fluted tile a passing trend or is it here to stay?
A: Fluted tile as an architectural element has a long history — it predates the current interior design trend cycle by decades. Used as an accent rather than a dominant surface material, it won't read as dated the way some trends do. Where it becomes risky is in very trendy colorways or when it's applied to every surface in the bathroom — that's the signature of a moment-in-time design decision rather than a lasting one.

Q: What's the most common mistake homeowners make when following design trends?
A: Prioritizing the look over the substrate. The most beautiful tile installation we've ever seen has failed because the wall behind it wasn't properly waterproofed, the floor wasn't level enough to prevent lippage, or the wrong setting material was used. Trends are legitimate sources of inspiration. But the investment value of a tile installation comes from execution quality — proper substrate, proper materials, proper installation technique — not from how on-trend the tile is.

VT TILE LLC serves homeowners throughout Greenville, SC and Charlotte, NC. We're licensed and insured, and we specialize in custom tile showers, bathroom remodels, kitchen backsplashes, floors, and fireplaces. For a consultation on your bathroom renovation, contact us directly. You can also explore related topics in our [bathroom remodeling guide], [shower installation guide], and [best tile for bathrooms] resources.