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! :-)

I like your choices. Prefer the dark tile for the floor with matching grout, easier for cleaning. I do like the combination of the subway tiles in a herringbone layout as pictured. Use the same grout as the floor and also use this pattern in the shower niche. Then just tile the rest in 300x600 white gloss. Simple and timeless and all the colour can come from your accessories.

With a small bathroom like yours, and large format tiles the joints between the tiles are actually more important than the tile. You want to make the bathroom seem bigger, and horizontal joints will help this. Don't lay in a traditional brick pattern, where every second tile is offset from the tile above as this makes it visually busy. Go with a standard grid pattern, with your rectangular tiles laid horizontally. Try to get your tiler align the joints in the floor tile with the joints in the wall tile. By keeping it as plain and simple as possible you will perceive the bathroom to be bigger. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

I am using an Adp London vanity in my en-suite. Hoping to have white walls was going 60x30 gloss white but maybe need a smaller tile to create more pattern ? Would love a Carrera marble look tile on the floor but don’t want actual marble as want to avoid ongoing maintenance. Not sure if I need the white marble look but having trouble finding them with a non slip surface. The second option is the greyer Carrara tile which best matches the vanity top but worried that it will be too “dirty” looking. Also considering tiles in third photo but they are fairly busy compared to the vanity top. Happy to hear your suggestions fir something different - thank you