Ideas for Tiling Your Bathroom
One design element that significantly impacts a bathroom's aesthetic is the tiles covering the walls and floor. During a renovation, you choose the tile placement — where to lay them and when to swap to another surface. And you select what type of tiles to spread, whether large-format, subway, or textured. For inspiration in creating your bathroom surfaces, consider the following ideas.
Floor to Ceiling Wall Tiles
If your bathroom is compact, you may be seeking ways to make it feel roomier. You can use tiles for this purpose. Cover the entire wall, from floor to ceiling, in tiles, including inside the shower, to give the effect of tall walls and a higher ceiling. If you only partly cover the wall with tiles, ending them halfway up, you visually break the wall in two with a horizontal dividing line.
However, if you do extend the tiles halfway, you could cover both wall and tiles with the same colour. The repeating hue will minimise the transition between the surfaces, making them feel like one large expanse rather than two smaller ones, which will visually enlarge the bathroom overall.
Large-Format Tiles
Another way to give a spacious and chic feel to a bathroom is to spread large format tiles around the space. Doing this will create surfaces with more tile area and fewer grout lines. Usually, large format tiles are rectified rather than pillow-edged. Rectified tiles have been machine cut to precise sizes, and they form smooth, flat surfaces, often with thin grout lines.
Conversely, traditional soft-edge tiles vary in size, as each one reacts slightly differently in the kiln, and contractors lay them with thicker grout lines to accommodate these variances. Also, pillow edges curve inwards, so the tiling surface as a whole appears less smooth and even. Because of the larger tile, thinner grouting, and flatter surface, large-format rectified tiles will create a minimal, seamless feel.
Subway Tiles
To give your bathroom an on-trend look, you could decorate it with subway tiles. You might want to evoke a vintage vibe with white subway tiles and matching grout or shake things up by combining their classic shape with different colours and textures. For example, lay sea-green and ocean-blue wall tiles, contrasting them against ivory flooring for a tranquil setting. Another idea is to intersperse textured fawn, tan, and sandy subway tiles, to give the bathroom a raw industrial edge.
Textured 3D White Tiles
You may love all-white designs, but they can be dull. To add interest during bathroom renovations, cover one of the white walls with textured tiles. For example, you could install tiles with regular circular mounds, creating a geometric design. Or, the textured tiles could feature random grooves and wave patterns. You could cover most of the bathroom in more traditional smooth tiles, and create a feature area with the texture effects.
If you are going through a bathroom renovation, consider how your tilework could update and improve your bathroom.