Creative tile patterns from Sarah Richardson

I'm a huge fan of Sarah Richardson and one of the things I think she does best is come up with creative patterns for laying tile. She's fantastic at creating interesting tile "focal points" and using the more expensive stuff just where it matters most. Specifically, I really respect how she elevates the look of a space by pairing some more basic tile elements with just the right amount of high end tile. It's like she sees the stuff as individual LEGO pieces to be mixed and matched at will. The result is always so much more interesting than blanketing the room in one kind of tile.

Check out this tile "bath mat".

On a recent episode of Design Inc, she used a pricey (I think it was $30/sq ft!!) glass & marble mosaic on just the back wall of the shower - the wall you see when you first walk into the bathroom. So smart. I think I recall her saying that this one wall was going to run $1,500 but the visual impact is stunning. She then extended that tile onto the other 2 walls where she used a lower cost option (see that single line you see at about eye level?)

This is the other side of the same bathroom shown above. I love what she did with the floor here.

She seems to use that "accent wall" in the shower trick a lot. Check this one out.

I love the look of this full wall of penny rounds behind the vanity. So effective at upping the glam factor in even a small bathroom.

And check out the floor in this same bathroom. She's a big fan of adding little square tiles at the corners of larger squares. Again, just overall more interesting.

The one rule of thumb she shared in a recent episode was, when mixing tiles to create an interesting pattern, just make sure you're using tiles with the same depth profile. You don't want to be stubbing your toe on slightly raised square tile corner.

Do you have a folder of Sarah pictures you're saving?