The Tile Shop

Mixed experiences at The Tile Shop. When in doubt in such cases I go with 3 stars.
Husband and I browsed this store several times this spring and summer and then visited several more times throughout September and October as we moved forward with our purchase and the work associated with our foyer tile job. Here you’ll find tile from various categories – natural stone, faux wood, ceramic, etc.
I’ll get the bad out of the way first:
* Our experiences with The Tile Shop employees were mostly positive. The exception was a male associate who followed us around the store and refused to accept the fact that we were just browsing and that, well, we no longer wanted to talk to him after the first few minutes. My husband then pulled the jerkiest move by walking ahead and leaving me with the guy! Thanks, darling. The employee then followed just a step or two behind me, at one point speaking to me in what I can only describe as baby talk. Unbelievable. Presumably, commission here is a big deal.
* You (or your contractor) need to pick up your own tile, and The Tile Shop calls often to remind you.
* The Tile Shop works with a short list of contractors, experts the business has vetted and stands behind. When we purchased our tile in September we were told that all 5 contractors – apparently the list had recently been reduced from 8 to 5 due to some poor reviews – were booked until December. Bummer. In any event we were given the list of contractors and were able to set up a complimentary consultation with a contractor on short notice. During one of the calls from The Tile Shop (see 2^nd bullet point above) my husband mentioned that we’d met with a particular contractor but that we hadn’t yet decided to move forward. Soon thereafter the contractor called us to say that he received a call from The Tile Shop asking when he was going to pick up our tile. We hadn’t hired the guy, so needless to say The Tile Shop put everyone in an awkward position. Turns out The Tile Shop doesn’t get paid until the tile order is picked up, so hence the moderate harassment.
* Don’t bother purchasing small supplies such as tile spacers and grout sealer here unless you don’t mind paying a premium.
And now the good:
* Alycia assisted us with our purchase and was really nice and helpful, truly a breath of fresh air compared to our interactions with the aforementioned associate.
* After our job was complete we only had a few partial pieces of tile left, so we needed to order more for spares. Scott was very helpful in tracking down tile from the same dye batch, and we were grateful that he gave us a good deal on a couple spare boxes.
* The Tile Shop offers complimentary classes/​workshops, though we didn’t take advantage of those due to our other priorities.
* I love our tile and the price we paid for it.
We purchased our faux wood ceramic tile, the admixture, and the grout from The Tile Shop. All the other tools and supplies we either had on-​hand, borrowed, or bought at Home Depot.
Ended up doing the tile job (demo and installation) ourselves, with the help and guidance of a handyman. The job took a long time compared to the ~3 days it would have taken a contractor to pound it out, but on the upside we saved money and I was able to meticulously lay out every tile the way I wanted. If you check out my photos, you’ll see that our tile has a funky vibe and that there’s great potential for inadvertently repeating patterns. A contractor most likely would have done the standard mixing of the tiles from the various boxes but wouldn’t have bothered to lay out the entire design in an artistic way. In hindsight and though the job was dirty and stressful, I love that we did it and especially that I can say that I chose exactly where every single piece of tile went. My only regret is that we didn’t go with a darker grout. The Whisper Gray color grout that we chose appeared to be a medium gray in the store, but the end result looks almost white-​light.
The Tile Shop is a good option for tile and has decent prices, especially when it comes to Manager Specials. Our tile happened to be on special, and we saved a few hundred dollars!

Great showroom, well stocked with oodles and oodles of floor and wall coverings for your shopping pleasure. The staff were friendly and attentive, but not overbearing. There’s lots to see here, and some nice inspirational montages along the walls, so you can get an idea of how a project may come together for you with specific materials. They even have a list of contractors that they refer to, to steer those of us who aren’t do it yourselfers in the right direction.
All of the materials are laid out well, so that you can compare within each type. It’s very easy to sort through things and see what you may want to buy. This showroom has been open since October of 2014, and I imagine that it may stick around for many years to come as long as the economy holds up. Lots of great products and ideas to customize your pied-​à-​terre just the way you want it!
Will definitely be back — once we make up our minds!