I have installed pebble tiles in several showersPros - very elegant, gives a sense of space as pebbles are different so no long defining linesCons - difficult to clean, must determine at outset if you want the stones deep in grout (you see lots more grout but the surface is smoother) or not so deep (you see less grout, but the surface is bumpier).Some people recommend epoxy grout, I don't for the simple reason it is much harder to get the grouting even with pebbles than tiles so more time needs to be taken.

Thank you @Creative Style Interior Design and @bigreader @Creativelychallenged - Thank you for your nice words. We are indeed very happy with the result. We also went through all these stages you describe, so don't feel depressed... there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Our research stage was so long and quite discouraging at times. We've always wanted to live in a queenslander, but our house is not one. This didn't stop us on going ahead adding some character to our bathrooms design (and kitchen). We started with the idea of making these bathrooms with a colonial touch but we found that it was not easy to find the elements we wanted (tiles, furniture, tapware) at a cost that would fit our budget. We learned that the type of tiles we liked (encaustic) were VERY expensive ($200+), traditional looking furniture was also very expensive... So we shifted to a more modern design...(not very happily though), and after a while of collecting ideas for modern tiles, furniture etc.. we felt quite depressed because we were compromising... updating our bathrooms with something fresher, but far, far away from what we really liked. In our view modern furniture looked very plain, streamlined and... boring, but we were doing 2 bathrooms (on a budget) so we were not prepared to spend a fortune, and we settled with modern. We ordered marble type tiles for the floor 900x600, and wood like tiles for the walls, and booked the builder to start demolition. Luckily for us National tiles called us saying that there was an error and the tiles they promised were not going to be available for 3 more months!!! Depressed again.... It took us so long to find something we liked (kinda) and now we were back to square one. Then my lovely wife said... Why don't we give it another go and try to make a more traditional design as we originally wanted.... So to make it short... we went back online with 'refreshed' energy and pressure (demolition already started) and found many things I coudn't find before: Floor tiles @ $25/m2 Subway tiles for walls @$16 the box on sale... Ensuite furniture and basin from Ikea Main bathroom furniture was an antique dresser we found in an op shop for $150 repainted and repurposed.... etc... In the end we spent approx $12,5K for both bathrooms in total :-) So, to summarise... don't dispair... just look in this website, on pinterest, magazines, google, etc... Play around with ideas and copy!... (you'll see that our ensuite is quite similar to the first photo in this discussion)... Good luck! :-)

The size of the tiles is dictated more to the skill of your tiler. Some tilers prefer smaller as its easier for them to get the fall right. Using wastes that are linear like the grates make it easier as its straighter for them to cut the tiles. Having round drains do make it harder to tile a fall in the floor with larger tiles but now days there are so many choices with the waste options for the shower spaces that it allows more choice in sizes of tiles. What size shower are you wanting to go? Will it be more like a 1000 x 1200 rather than the standard 900 x 900??

I currently have the same problem It quite braves to use White on the floor ( I know you said grey) but we are toying with as it works well with the grey bath we have chosen Have a think about swapping it around to have black on the floor which works great with a contrasting colour bath (white) Also think about contrasting colour for taps (black taps against white or grey tiles)