Try Daltile - they have lots of stuff for a great price.

http://www.daltile.com/

They have warehouses in Manassas and Alexandria. If you go to the Alexandria location, you may need someone with a contractor license to actually be able to purchase the stuff. We just had a friend call and say we're picking up for him.

We also went with Morris Tile. They had a good selection and very nice customer service. We are newbies too and they were very nice about answering our thousand questions. They also fed-exed us sample sheets of our two top choices for backsplash, for free.

I'm in the same boat as you- except I'm going with 4x4's on the wall. I ended up driving around to a bunch of tile places, and the one we're going with is Morris Tile Distributors up in Gaithersburg. They have a great selection and Big Box store prices.

We really liked Conestoga Tile in Sterling. Great selection, very helpful people in the showroom.

OP here. Thank you so much!!!

Best Tile, Mosaic Tile and Architectural Ceramics. They are in the Bethesda/Rockville area.

try architectural ceramics in bethesda

It's more expensive, but Porcelanosa Tile Kitchen Bath in Rockville has wonderful tile. Check out their website:

http://www.porcelanosa-usa.com/

Check out Circa Tile in Fairfax. They have a nice selection in a range of prices and are very knowledgeable.

The Tile Shop - it's a franchise in MD and VA. Pretty basic, plain, affordable stuff with a fairly knowledgeable (but transient) staff and a good return policy (order extra boxes if you're getting a natural stone - that way you can cull through and pick the pieces you like among the variation, and return by the box full).

We had good service from Wheaton Tile Center. I did a backsplash in the kitchen behind the stove. We later (10 months) decided to do the same wall further down (on the other side of a utility closet) and found that the tile we found at Lowe's was discontinued. I called Wheaton Tile Center and they were able to find a warehouse that still had 5 cases of the tile we needed, they ordered it and we got it. The new case was even cheaper than the price we purchased the first case from Lowe's. They are open Mon & Thu 10am-7pm, Tue/Wed/Fri 10am-5pm and Sat 10am-4pm. Maybe not as often as the box store, but long enough hours.

First, best wishes - we've been going through this and find the process ridiculously inconvenient, because tile stores other than Home Depot don't seem to believe that they need to be bothered to open on the weekend other than for a few hours on Saturday if you're lucky. Apparently people who WOH don't renovate? I don't know... Sorry, rant over, I'll move on to your actual question.

We found that if you're not finding something you like at Home Depot or Lowe's, you're then pretty much stuck going to tile specialty stores. In NoVa, we had some good finds at Jud Tile in Vienna, Firuze Tile in Springfield, and Mosaic Tile in Chantilly. The Tile Shop in Manassas gets extra bonus points for being open in til something like 8pm and on Sundays.

I found Lowe's to have a better selection than HD. If you're looking for just basic tile, I would stick to a big box store. The problem with lots of tile stores is that you have to pay extra for them to get it shipped from the manufacturer. If you don't mind this added cost, try Ideal Tile in Falls Church. They had lots of options we liked but the cost was prohibitive.

Also look online. Sometimes even places like Overstock have great deals on tile - just watch out for any shipping fee add-ons.

FYI - I know Home Depot is cheap. It just seemed like a logical starting place for someone who has no idea what they're doing.

We're upgrading a bathroom. Looking for basic tile - currently considering hex on the floor, with subway tile on the wall with an accent tile. Not looking to spend a fortune, but doesn't need to be cheap, either.

I looked at Home Depot, but didn't see anything.

We're first time homeowners, so new to this.

Thanks!