The
bathroom construction has gotten far enough along that it's time to pick out and order tiles! This is a huge step for us, psychologically - if we're starting to select finishes, then it means we're finally beginning to see the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel of construction.
We have actually managed to accumulate almost four dozen stone samples! But (as with everything else related to this project!) it was a bit of a journey to get to this point...
 |
| The piles of stone tile samples |
We had initially looked at tile over a year and a half ago, back when
we were optimistic that construction would be relatively quick and
painless, and before things
got complicated.
At that time, we had visited several tile shops in and around London,
collected around a dozen samples and had picked out a few options we
liked: dark(ish) porcelain tiles from Spain. But as the bathroom
construction progressed, and after actually living in the flat for many months, I started having doubts
about those porcelain tiles: they now felt too dark, and too "perfect".
Considering how much character the
ceiling
now has and our intention to re-use the old wood floor planks, I had a
gut feeling that we should go with a natural stone that was lighter in
color.
 |
| Two types of slate from a supply shop in Vauxhall: a honed wine colored (left) and a riven-cut "oyster" ( right) |
 |
| A type of limestone they called "Barcelona", but that was not readily available. |
That meant starting the search for tiles from scratch. At least (having spent time doing it a year and a half ago), I already knew of a few good places - but I had forgotten how far away and how spread out across the city these shops were. As a result, I ended spending close to a week running around London collecting samples and determining availability.
 |
| Just outside the shop in Vauxhall - you can see the "Shard" under construction. Designed by Renzo Piano, soon to be the tallest building in Europe when completed |
 |
| The showroom of a shop that specializes in stone tile - located on the edge of Southwark & Southfields |
 |
| A showroom wall with different types of stone |
 |
| A marble installation |
Eventually we started to realize that "Aglaya" really wanted a colorful and varied stone, while I was gravitating towards a cleaner, simpler limestone. I had envisioned the bathroom as having two different stones: one for the shower area and another for the rest of bathroom. Because I was extremely taken by a warm toned limestone (with a hint of blue) called Batieg Azul (which came from Portugal and Spain) we started focusing our efforts on finding a second stone that would be more colorful but would also complement this limestone.
 |
| The Bateig Azul installed in a showroom mock-up |
 |
| A detail of the Bateig Azul limestone |
We soon decided that slate should be our second stone. I knew that there were hundreds of types of slate - in my New York office, we have several drawers full of slate samples from a specialty supplier there, but for some reason I could only find a few options in London. Eventually I found a specialty supplier of slate in Finchley (north London) with several dozen options, including a copper colored slate that "Aglaya" absolutely loved.
Once we returned to the flat, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the copper slate really worked well against the limestone. We slept on it for a few days, tried other options, but the combination of copper slate and Bateig Azul remained our favorite.
 |
| The honed Copper Slate on top of the Bateig Azul |
We decided not order the stone before I return to New York, but "Aglaya" can place the order a week before I return to London again...
