Well, I did a trial with a few tiles and then covered them with polyurethane. The trial didn't necessarily go entirely to plan but I was able to establish that PU will be too soft. Epoxy is likely to yellow even indoors, so that leaves me with the following solution: 1. make the tiles thicker (not a big deal) use tile selection and a thicker tile bed to enable a relatively flat surface to be made 3. seal it with a thin polyurethane to protect from mess Thanks for the contributions.

Have you been to visit some kitchen showrooms? You can customise the photo search here on Houzz quite a bit. For example, you can simply select [dark wood[(https://www.houzz.com.au/photos/kitchen-design-ideas-with-dark-wood-cabinets-phbr1-bp~t_10444~a_17-103) cabinet finish in the filter options. Then add more filters like floor colour, kitchen layout, cabinet style, wall colour etc if you wish. Leave the benchtop and splashback options open and see what results you get. You can then save any photos that appeal to your ideabook.

How long until you renovate your bathroom again? Something that is "quite trendy at the moment" works fine if you are a real estate flipper, but can start to look very dated after 10 years. If you are planning to use your bathroom for more than 10 years before the next renovation go classic, rather than trendy. Of course Beaumonts tiles want you go with something on-trend as that is how the suppliers market their products, so it will date, and somebody will want to replace it with something else that is on-trend in ten years time! Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

If the hexagon tiles are to be the feature then the wall tiles should not draw attention to themselves. I would go with stacked horizontal as this will make the small room seem wider and it will be a simple grout pattern that won't try and compete with the hexagon mosaic. For small bathrooms understated and simple always looks cleaner. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls