"We chose our bathroom tiles before the bathroom had walls." Ava and her husband were building their first family home when the builder asked for every tile selection early, while the house was still plans and framing. Choosing a whole ensuite from small digital swatches was the part she was not prepared to do.
Every decision affected the next one
New build selections snowball. The floor affects the walls, the walls affect the vanity, the vanity affects the tapware, and the builder needs it all locked in by a date. Ava knew she wanted a calm, travertine-style ensuite that would not date, but she did not want every surface identical either.
A material board on the kitchen table
She ordered the Hobart Ivory and a handful of feature-tile samples and built a small material board at home: tiles, an oak cabinetry sample, the brass tapware. The sage kit kat earned its place the moment it landed next to the oak. Enough colour to lift the room, not enough to compete with the ivory base.
How the room came together
The Hobart Travertine Look Ivory runs across the main floor and walls, one soft tone through the whole room. The Wilsons sage kit kat sits behind the double vanity as the single feature, under curved mirrors and brass tapware, beside a white freestanding bath. The result reads as one considered room, not a collection of separate selections.
New builds live and die on batch matching: how many tiles you actually need explains ordering each room in one go, and the sample method is in how to test a tile sample at home.