I am not a big fan of wide/thick grout lines -- not only do they cheapen the overall look of a room, they also trap in and accumulate dust and dirt over time. So wherever feasible and possible, I would request to minimize the grout lines. The first step to that of course is to pick tiles with straight edges (as opposed beveled edge which requires more grout to fill the gaps).
A few years ago when our house was under construction, we opted out of tile upgrade in the foyer as it would cost us a ridiculous amount through our builder (like 10K). We chose the least ugly ones but little did we know our builder would lay the tiles this way.
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| Our Foyer Feb 2012 |
So, I see I have two options: either to live with it, after all, we spend the least amount of time in the foyer; or to yank out all the existing tiles, and put in marble or porcelain tiles with almost no grout lines. The latter option would cost us about 5K. And money is the least of our concern...a rip-and-replace job like this is guaranteed to be very messy and dusty.
The ceramic tiles are rugged and functional for a foyer, but they don't seem to fit in the overall ambiance of my house. An open-to-the-above grand foyer like this is a key selling feature of a house.
So, what would you do if this was your foyer? Is it a good investment in your opinion?
