I have done lots of pondering and lots of wandering. Wearing out shoe leather looking at tiles, hopping in baths, sitting on toilets. I think I have found my tiles. It's funny to think I started off wanting carrara (or a version/copy thereof), then went to black and white, and now these. The colour really does vary depending on the angle and light. These photos were taken with my ipad, so not true to colour. They are an ash tone and throw grey, off white or a bone colour depending on lighting and the angle. I think they say "classic and elegant like a little black dress, a string of pearls and diamond studs." I hope they don't actually say, "i've turned into my mother and I'm playing it safe." I figure I can go wild with towels. Question is should I lay them horizontally or vertically? The feature tile will go up the side of my wall on top of the bath and be directly opposite as you walk in the door. I wonder if i should use the floor tile or the festure tile on the side of the bath? I am thinking a black tap on the vanity (not necessarily this tap), but chrome elsewhere? The U.K. Has a version of the showerhead with a black rim, if I could be guaranteed it would fit and work the same here I would be tempted to buy it. Black or chrome accessories (towel rails, soap holder etc)? All suggestions, viewpoints etc welcome.

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! :-)

thanks to everyone for your helpful comments! I was going to have to pay around $190 for 6 more, but will order them from Beaumont who have a 25% sale on at the moment. I agree that I need to just live with the cost and finish the job properly, but your shortcut suggestions were all really interesting and much appreciated. And archimondo, I'd say it's like having a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.

I'd just live with it, paint the walls and vanity your sage green. My decision would be based on the fact that getting rid of the pattern is either going to be extremely time intensive or $$ intensive for not much gain. You can leave that pattern and update the bathroom easily by painting walls and vanity. The only way to get a nice finish on painted tile is to have it resin coated professionally. It's not cheap. With a stone toned bathroom it's always going to look dated because that colour way has been out of fashion for about 30yrs anyway. Best to just update cheaply and refresh the whole bathroom once it's no longer servicable. You spend on average 30mins a day in the bathroom. If it's neat and clean that's good enough. Close the door on it after use.