How to cut the cost of tile

On design projects, tile can often eat up a very large portion of the budget-there are a lot of amazing choices out there and a great tile design can really take a project from good to great. But what to do about the cost? One trick I use quite regularly when I am working on a project's budget is to use a larger tile in the same pattern/style as the smaller one I originally fell in love with. For example: my clients and I found a great tile that we want to use for the entire walk in shower surround. We found it in a 1x1 size but once I added up all the square footage, it was going to use 50% of our tile budget but only going to be about 10% of the tile needed! So, I decided to go with a 12x24 sized piece of the same tile and get creative with the pattern of it's installation. The price: 1/4 of the cost of the mosiac pattern. The client gets the look they want AND the price. The end result is that we also came up with a design that would not have been, had we not had to get creative with the budget.......Don't worry, I will find another way to spend that money on this project!  photos will be along after installation.......