Once again, I heard last week "but that person has a lot of money to do xyz". I said you too can do those things. First of all if you have an idea of something really cool to do - say tile a bathroom with some out of the ordinary patterns - remember that your bathroom is probably somewhere between 40 and 80 square feet. Even a $6.00/sf tile is only $240-480 for the floor. But you can use inexpensive tiles and use the more expensive tiles as an accent. The key is to shop craigslist and garage sales, close outs at tile stores, etc and lay out your tile on a flat surface so you can see what pattern is possible. Say on 40/sf (5x8 old school "GI" bathroom) you might find a "subway tile" - 2"x6-8" - but they say only have 60 of them @ $1.00/ea. That could become a border tile. Then get the $1.99 18"x18" tile from your local big box home store and you have essentially a complete floor for about less than $100. It is very possible to do. This works too for that very cool expensive tile where only use a little will create a big impact - such as a trim around a shower. Even broken tiles collected from a jobsite can be layed out in a mosiac pattern for a border.
An important fact to remember is to lay them out as much as possible first before you open the thin set.
A note as to what looks good to your eye : a big tile will create a feeling of spaciousness BUT also too big a tile in a small space will get lost. Always remember Fibonacci theory and the golden ratio when designing.
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