High/Low

The best way to meet the budget in any project is choose your budget breakers wisely, and don't choose too many of them!  I am working on tile right now for our house.  Im having to make some of those decisions.  I think when we were putting figures into our budget we really shaved off the tile budget to make it all work.  Now Im faced with trying to make the tile I want fit into the budget!

The kitchen backsplash for instance:  I could go with $1.50 per square foot bevelled subway tile, or $35 per square foot tile like this:

We have a very large mudroom/laundry/powder room area that is going to get the most high traffic use of almost anywhere in the house.  Ive been introduced to a groutable vinyl tile.  Almost indestructable, looks almost identical to tile but is not quite as hard under foot.  Unfortunately the choices are very limited.  Also, from a design and practicality prospective it has to go into the powder room.  The powder room is the only bathroom in the house that the majority of our guests will see, and we will use regularily.  Most people pour their money into the master ensuite which is fine if that is your priority.  I had thought I would choose my budget breaker as the powder room instead.  But, if I use vinyl, the flooring needs to carry into the powder room.  That kinda put a damper on my grand plans :)  Tile and install for the vinyl is $4.50, the cheapest ceramic tile I can find - which is quite nice, plus install is $7.50 a square foot.  Here is the vinyl tile:  The colouring is good, but not perfect....

In the powder room I would love to do something like this on the floor or wall:

A less expensive way to make a statement would be to do stripes on the wall in the powder room:

So I have some decisions to make....  For now, I have decided on a beautiful mother of pearl mini brick tile to do a tile area rug in our ensuite.  The rest of the tile is only $2 a square foot - so it all evens out in the end!  Im a believer in making sacrifices where you can so you can sqeeze some "holy cows!" into the budget.  Id love to hear your th0ughts.  Your comments are appreciated :)

I've got a few more pictures of our house for the blog.....  I'll post those later today.