My 1936 Mediterranean tiled bathroom needed a complete shower replacement, but I didn't want to re-do rest of the room (all tiled up to the ceiling, some parts ceiling, too, even the WC is tiled!).
As mentioned by other Yelpers, I came in with no sample, just a year and description. Kirk immediately pulled out the B&W sample card, and there were the modern equivalents of my '30s colors. I went home with a couple sample tiles and looked up the B&W web site, where I discovered pieces not in the Art Tile samples, but which were perfect additions to my design. Kevin (who wrote up my order after 3 visits to look at and discuss stuff) was amused by my coming in with printed catalog pages of items they didn't know B&W carried (those pages are now in the Art Tile B&W book), patient with my naive questions, and even came around on my cockamamie idea about using glass tiles for my niche shelves (worked great, I must say).
I discovered that nobody re-does showers between Thanksgiving and New Years, which was good because I could wander in to the store any afternoon and get friendly attention, but not so good because the tile manufacturers' turnaround time is slower due to Xmas vacation. And because my design was evolving, my tile contractor and I underestimated some tile needs, which involved further waiting for small lots. But the guys were good about small add-on orders, even by phone. The big determinate of delivery time is on the manufacturing end, and the guys were good about explaining this.
Apart from matches for vintage tiles, Art Tile has a very large selection of old and new styles, but the showroom is small, and it's easy to overlook some of the selection. So ask if you don't see something, it's probably hiding. There's more than enough on display to spark ideas for projects and made me re-think my future plans for the kitchen. This is a list price sort of place, so if you are looking for discounts, you'll be disappointed.
If you are not a big contractor, go after lunch, when the place has no other customers (maybe not so true outside the holiday season) and you can ask questions. These guys do not jump up from the backroom to fawn on you, so I can see how some people might find the service lacking, but they responded cheerfully and helpfully to anything I asked.
Free parking is usually available on the curb out in front. read more