The High Price of Tile

Wait! Before you run off to the new, neighborhood "green living store," read this post about my experience buying tile. It seems like there are boutique "green" home stores opening up everywhere these days. I've spent a fair amount of time organic interior design and home furnishing shops over the past six months, and while there is no doubt they are convenient, I believe you pay a premium for this convenience.

I needed to tile my bathroom. The existing tile was hideous-- stained, outdated, and cracked. I thought about creative ways of saving it, but in the end, new tile was our destiny. My first stop was Epoxy Green in Venice. I browsed the different tile options with my designer, Kishani () and priced the different options on recycled glass bathroom tiles. Prices ranged anywhere from $25-45/sq foot. The tiles were nice, but still, the prices seemed steep. Kishani suggested we take a quick look at what her favorite stone and tile shop had in stock, thinking that maybe they offered a recycled glass tile option without the high price tag of a specialty store. Afterall, recycled tile should, in theory, be less expensive.

Thank god for my designer. We headed over to Royal Stone Tile, in West Los Angeles, where a very nice-- and super cute-- salesperson named David brought out samples of their recycled glass tile options. Glass ranged from 25-100% recycled material, and prices were substantially less expensive. I settled on a nice lavender/gray mosaic at under $3.00/sq foot! At about 80 square feet of tile, I saved close to $2000. Granted, the tiles at Epoxy Green were nicer tiles, but for someone on a budget concerned primarily with environmental responsibility, this was an important discovery.

Shop around! Research the options, know what you want, and look beyond the one-stop high end "green" boutique store to find it. It worked for me.