Tile Scheme

So I picked out the tile for the bathroom. It was Fabrique - blanc linen by Daltile. They are large tiles 12 X 24 and I found three local places that could order them for me. The best price of the three charged $5.60 a square foot with an $80 shipping charge. That came to about $375. I found the tile online for $3.99/sq ft, but the website charged a $199 freight charge to deliver it. Which came to about $390.52. Let me just say, neither of these numbers were in the budget.

So I came up with a scheme to score some tile. On the Daltile website, you can order a full-size sample of whatever tile you want for $7.95. Same price for any tile they have. Since my tiles are essentially 2 square feet each, I only need 20. Budget in 20% breakage, and I really needed 24. 24 tiles at 7.95 each comes to $190.80. This number rocked. So I started ordering sample tiles. They only let you order one at a time, so I had to order 3 or 4 a day several hours a part to keep them from catching on. At one point they called me to make sure I wanted to order 4 of the same sample, but I just said yes. And they said cool. Today I received the last of my tiles; each came in it's own giant box, which I have piled up in my garage. All in all, the plan went awesome. I saved $200 on tile and didn't even have to leave the house to do it. :)

Here's a swatch of my beautiful new tile: