White Subway Tub Surround in Blue Island

About This Project

A Blue Island bathroom that paired a classic white subway tile tub surround with a bold black-and-white patterned cement floor tile. The contrast between the clean, simple wall tile and the graphic floor is a deliberate design decision — and one that required careful layout planning so the pattern on the floor centered properly in the room.

White subway tile is one of the most straightforward tile products to set, but the details still matter: we used a bright white unsanded grout in 1/16-inch joints to keep the field reading clean, and applied a white polymer-modified thinset rather than gray so the grout color stays consistent across the field. On the floor, the patterned cement tile required a penetrating sealer applied before grouting — cement tile is porous and will absorb grout permanently if not sealed first.

This Blue Island home had the original cast iron tub, which we worked around. The back-dam caulk joint at the tub lip was done in a white silicone rather than grout — the correct approach at any tub-to-tile junction where the two surfaces move independently.