The Gray Tile Era Is Over: What Sacramento Bathrooms Look Like in 2026

For the better part of a decade, gray was THE color for bathrooms. Gray floor tile, gray subway tile in the shower, gray paint on the walls, gray vanity. It was everywhere. And we installed a lot of it. Across Sacramento, Roseville, Granite Bay, and every neighborhood in between, homeowners wanted gray and builders spec'd gray. It was the safe choice, the modern choice, the realtor-approved choice.

But something shifted over the past year or two. We started noticing it in our consultations first — homeowners pulling up inspiration photos that looked nothing like the cool, monochromatic bathrooms we'd been building. Warm tones. Natural stone. Earth colors. Texture. We're now pulling gray tile out of bathrooms almost as often as we're installing new tile. The cool gray era is definitively over, and what's replacing it is warmer, more personal, and — we think — much better.

Italian designers have been calling this movement "New Nostalgia" — a deliberate shift away from cold minimalism toward warmth, texture, and materials that feel human. It's not about going backward to the beige-and-travertine bathrooms of 2005. It's about moving forward with a design language that actually makes you feel something when you walk into a room. After fifteen years of installing tile across Sacramento, we can tell you: the bathrooms we're building right now are the most interesting ones we've ever done.

Why Gray Dominated (And Why It Stopped Working)

Let's give gray its due. Gray worked for as long as it did because it solved a real problem. It was genuinely neutral — it went with chrome fixtures, brushed nickel, stainless steel, black accents, white trim. You could pair it with virtually any accent color. It photographed well. It felt clean and modern without being sterile (at first, anyway). Real estate agents loved it because it appealed to the broadest possible range of buyers. Gray was the design equivalent of a firm handshake: inoffensive, competent, universally acceptable.

But the problem with universality is saturation. When every bathroom remodel, every HGTV flip, every Airbnb, and every new construction build uses the same gray large-format tile with the same gray paint and the same gray-white quartz countertop, it stops feeling modern and starts feeling generic. By 2023 or so, walking into a gray bathroom was like walking into a waiting room. You couldn't tell if you were in a Sacramento home or a hotel in any city in America. The personality had been completely designed out of the room.

The thing about neutrals is that they're only neutral if they're not everywhere. Once gray became the dominant color in American bathrooms, it wasn't neutral anymore — it was just dated. Gray became the visual equivalent of beige carpet in the early 2000s. Not bad, exactly. Just exhausted. And Sacramento homeowners, to their credit, started asking for something different.

What's Replacing Gray in Sacramento Bathrooms

The shift away from gray isn't a shift toward a single replacement color. It's a shift toward a whole palette of warm, natural, and earthy tones. Here's what we're seeing in our Sacramento projects right now, and what the broader design world is confirming.

Warm Whites and Creams

The most popular "base color" in bathrooms right now isn't gray and it isn't bright white — it's warm white. Think soft ivory, warm cloud white, the color of heavy cream. There's a reason Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year is "Cloud Dancer" — a soft, billowy warm white that captures this exact shift. The difference between cool white (which has blue or gray undertones) and warm white (which has yellow or cream undertones) is subtle on a paint chip and enormous on your walls. Warm whites make a bathroom feel inviting instead of clinical. They pair beautifully with brass and gold fixtures, natural wood, and stone — all of which are trending heavily right now.

Travertine and Warm Stone Tones

If there's a single material defining bathroom design in 2025 and 2026, it's travertine. Soft beige, tan, honey, warm sand — the entire warm stone spectrum is back in a major way. Travertine has been called the most desirable tile material of the moment by designers from Milan to Los Angeles, and we're seeing that demand reflected directly in our Sacramento projects. The honed, filled travertine look — with its soft texture and gentle color variation — brings a level of warmth and sophistication that gray porcelain never could. For homeowners who love the look but want lower maintenance, porcelain tile that mimics travertine has gotten incredibly good. The best travertine-look porcelain is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, and it doesn't need sealing.

Earthy Greens

Green tile is having a genuine moment, and it's one of the trends we think has real staying power. Sage, olive, forest green, muted jade — these aren't loud, trendy greens. They're the colors you see in nature, and they bring an organic calm to bathrooms that gray never achieved. We're installing green tile most often in showers — either as a full shower surround in a soft sage or as an accent wall in a deeper olive or forest tone. Green pairs exceptionally well with warm brass fixtures and natural wood, which is exactly the combination that defines the 2026 bathroom aesthetic.

Terracotta and Clay Tones

Warm, Mediterranean, and grounded — terracotta is the color family that feels most like a direct rejection of the gray era. These burnt orange, clay, and russet tones connect a bathroom to the earth in a way that cool gray actively avoided. Terracotta tiles pair beautifully with wood vanities, woven baskets, and natural textiles. They feel especially right in Sacramento, where our Mediterranean climate and Spanish Colonial architecture have always had a natural affinity for these warm earth tones. We're seeing terracotta used on floors, on accent walls, and in shower niches.

Rich Accent Colors

Not every bathroom needs to be entirely neutral. We're installing more accent color than we have in years — navy blue, burgundy, deep cherry, petrol blue — used strategically as a shower niche liner, a single accent wall, or a vanity backsplash. The key word is strategically. Nobody is tiling an entire bathroom in burgundy. But a deep navy niche set into a warm cream shower? A petrol blue accent strip in a travertine-toned bathroom? These choices add personality and depth without committing the whole room to a bold color. It's confidence without recklessness, and it makes for much more interesting bathrooms.

The Sacramento Connection

Here's something we've thought about a lot: the cool gray palette that dominated for the past decade never really fit Sacramento. It was a Pacific Northwest color story — overcast skies, cool light, rain-soaked landscapes. Gray tile looked natural in Seattle or Portland, where the outdoor palette is green and gray and silver. But Sacramento's light is golden. Our hills turn amber in summer. Our oak trees are warm-toned. Our Mediterranean climate and Spanish-influenced architecture have always been most at home with warm, earthy colors.

The shift toward warm tones isn't just a national trend playing out locally — it's Sacramento homeowners finally choosing colors that reflect where they actually live. When you step out of a bathroom with warm travertine tile and brass fixtures into a Sacramento backyard bathed in golden afternoon light, it makes sense. It connects. The cool gray bathroom always felt like it belonged somewhere else. We're seeing this across the region — from midtown Sacramento remodels to new builds in Granite Bay, homeowners are choosing palettes that feel like they belong here.

What to Do If You Already Have Gray Tile

If you're reading this and looking at your gray bathroom, don't panic. We're not saying your bathroom is ugly. Gray tile that's in good condition and was well-installed still looks fine — and ripping out perfectly good tile because the internet told you it's over isn't a great use of your remodeling budget. What we are saying is that if your gray bathroom feels cold or impersonal, there are ways to warm it up without touching the tile.

These updates can genuinely transform a gray bathroom from feeling dated to feeling intentional. The gray becomes a backdrop rather than the whole personality of the room. When you eventually do replace the tile, you'll have a clearer sense of the warmer direction you want to go.

Choosing Colors That Won't Date in 5 Years

We understand the hesitation. Gray dominated for a decade precisely because people were afraid of choosing something that would date quickly. Nobody wants to rip out tile every five years. So how do you choose colors that will still look good in 2031?

The safest bets are warm neutrals with natural texture. Think travertine-look porcelain, limestone-look tile, warm concrete finishes. These materials have been beautiful for literally centuries — the bathrooms of ancient Rome and the villas of Tuscany used these same warm stone tones, and they still look incredible today. Materials rooted in nature don't date the way trendy colors do because our eyes never get tired of them. A warm stone bathroom will look just as good in ten years as it does today.

If you want color, earthy greens and warm blues have staying power because they're also rooted in nature. Sage green is the color of leaves. Warm blue is the color of sky and water. These aren't invented colors — they're colors our brains are wired to find calming and beautiful. The things that date fastest are very specific "color of the year" choices (remember when everyone wanted millennial pink?), high-contrast geometric patterns, and finishes that are tied to a specific design moment rather than to something timeless.

Our practical advice: choose your base tile in a warm neutral and add personality through elements that are easier to change — paint color, fixtures, accessories, vanity. Your shower tile is with you for twenty years. Your paint color can change in a weekend. Your floor tile should be something you'll love for the long haul, not something that feels exciting right now but exhausting in three years.

Real Materials Trending in Sacramento Right Now

Beyond color, the materials themselves are shifting. Here's what we're installing most in Sacramento bathrooms right now, and why each one works.

Our Advice: Warm, Textured, Personal

After fifteen years of installing tile across Sacramento, here's what we've learned about trends: the best bathrooms aren't the ones that follow the trend most closely. They're the ones where the homeowner chose materials that feel right for their home, their lifestyle, and their taste — and then had those materials installed with care and craftsmanship.

The best bathrooms we're building in Sacramento right now aren't following a single trend. They're choosing materials that feel personal and warm. They have texture — the subtle variation of natural stone, the handmade imperfection of zellige, the organic grain of wood-look tile. They feel like they belong in the home, not like they were copied from a Pinterest board. They have a point of view.

If your bathroom still has that cold, gray, HGTV-flip vibe, 2026 is a great year to bring some warmth in. Whether that means a complete remodel with warm travertine and brass fixtures, or simply swapping out your chrome for gold and painting the walls a warm cream, the direction is clear. Warmer. More natural. More you. After a decade of playing it safe with gray, Sacramento homeowners are finally making their bathrooms feel like home.