TILE. WO IS ME.....

So, there are few things about the house renovation that I had a clear picture of in my head. I did want to keep to the theme of the reno to "classic basic" with a touch of retro ...you know white tile, utilitarian looking hardware. Basically,  an understated backdrop that would allow our stuff do the jazzing up.  In all my naivety I thought this would be an inexpensive or at least a moderately priced proposition for something with a bit of lasting power.

One thing I knew I wanted (actually the linchpin in my whole retro classic vision...) was black and white hexagonal tiles in the hall and kitchen to replace the ugly, pinkish, textured ceramic tiles that are currently there.  Here are some of my clipped inspirational images:

(alas, I don't remember where I got these pics from...)

Beauty, right? I know. So I did a little internetting...it seems like if I was in the United States of America I could have these tiles for a reasonable price...say in the $3.00-5.00/sq.ft . range. When I hit the (tiled) pavement in T.O. I found that such tiles are more like $7.00-10.00/sq. ft. around here. The super, super nice unglazed ones with a nice subtle black tile I found for  about 8 bucks a square foot at best and 11 at worst.  Then at Olympia Tile I found cheap ones...but they really do look cheap...you know that optical, blue-white colour that is the sure sign of cheapness in all products from t-shirts to tile. Plus, they come in 3/4"size which is just not quite the same as the classic 1" ones.

(aaahhh...must interrupt post for a rant about tile shopping...my mind has been BLOWN by the incredible variety in shockingly ugly tile on the market.  I just don't understand why there are literally hundreds and hundreds of different types of fake stone tiles and so few options for basic white...it would be way cheaper to recreate a Roman bath than to do a basic white bathroom. Why...why why?)

Luckily, I think I have found a compromise that I am comfortable with at Lowes (thank heavens for big box stores). 

This spiral patter I think is still in the same vein as the hexagons and is much more in the budget. I don't like the shiny, black centres so I'm debating between going with all white and hoping the dark grout will make enough of an impact that the front hall won't look like a public bathroom OR replacing a few (every third?) centre with a charcoal grey tile so the overall effect is a bit polka-dottie. 

I think the polka-dot option would give the right happy feeling to the flooring.  Thoughts?