Travertine in the Bathroom

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Want a bathroom that feels like it's carved out of stone? We love the material travertine. It's a type of limestone and it can create a sense of nature like none other...

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You can get travertine material that is open or filled. The open material is full of open divets. We like it most because of its natural appearance. However, it can be harder to clean and the divets may tend to wear/ chip. The other option is to go with filled travertine. This is when the divets are filled in smooth. The result is a much more finished appearance that's uniform and easy to clean.

Wanna see some travertine in person? Check it out on the plaza of Lincoln Center. It's notoriously worn there, but it's outside, not in your bathroom!

Comments (10)

We have this in our bathroom (floor and shower walls). The holes in ours are filled with grout. The honed finish is nice and not slippery on bare, wet feet. The uneven surface makes it harder to keep clean than smooth ceramic tile. Also, it was cheap!

posted by Jon_B on March 12th 2008 at 12:08pm
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How do you clean your shower floor? We recently bought a house with travertine in the shower and we've been using a standard "bathroom cleaner" with bleach, but I know there must be a better way. I read not to use acidic cleaners, but i don't really want to pay for the "natural stone cleaners" if I don't have to. I use vinegar to clean the rest of the house, but am afraid it will damage the travertine (probably no worse than the bleach).

posted by emhoop on March 12th 2008 at 12:59pm
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Travertine in the bathroom is a disaster. Sure it looks nice, but there is no maintenance solution to the mildew stains that will build up over time in the shower. Bleach will etch it.

posted by Jeanne Ziegler on March 12th 2008 at 2:21pm
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I really don't care how pretty it is. And yes, it is pretty.

It's absolutely masochistic (and not very green) to put something so difficult to clean in your bathroom, right? I mean, seriously... if it's really that hard to keep clean, aren't you just kind of asking for a lifetime of back-breaking cleaning that will come to nothing? And if you're going to have someone come in to clean it for you, wouldn't it cost you a fortune, and wouldn't the bathroom need a revolving door when they keep quitting?

posted by Curtis on March 12th 2008 at 5:59pm
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Agreed. Not practical for a shower stall. BTW Is that an IKEA sing and faucet?

posted by besimple on March 12th 2008 at 6:08pm
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Oops, I meant sinK not sinG!

posted by besimple on March 12th 2008 at 6:09pm
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so over travertine in the bathroom...done done done. I love the Getty and all of Italy as much as the next person, but if I see one more spec house with "luxury granite kitchens and travertine baths" I am going to scream! There are so many beautiful options out there that aren't those.

posted by eowes on March 12th 2008 at 9:24pm
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I'm remodeling 1.5 of my bathrooms. What tile would you all recommend that is EASY to clean. I love the look of glass mosaic tiles but they look like they might be too delicate for a floor.

posted by mdeathstar on March 13th 2008 at 3:36am
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Eowes- I was thinking the same thing!

posted by a to the toy on March 13th 2008 at 5:33am
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Mdeatstar: glass mosaic will be hard to clean too because of the grout lines. You should go with a porcelain, the larger the better, on the shower walls too.

posted by Jeanne Ziegler on April 7th 2008 at 8:00pm
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