How to Choose the Right Tiles for Your Home: The Complete Tile Buying Guide
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Choosing tiles for your home can feel overwhelming. With so many colours, sizes, materials, finishes and patterns available, it can be difficult to know where to start.
The right tiles can completely transform a kitchen, bathroom, hallway or living space. This guide explains how to choose tiles for your home, including the best tile types for different rooms, how to choose tile size and colour, and what to consider before buying.
What Should You Consider When Choosing Tiles?
Before choosing a design, think about where the tiles will be installed and how the room will be used.
Consider:
- The room you're tiling
- Whether the tiles are for walls or floors
- Amount of foot traffic
- Exposure to water
- Required slip resistance
- Tile size
- Colour and finish
- Cleaning and maintenance
- Your overall budget
- Installation requirements
Taking these factors into account can help you choose tiles that look good and perform well.
What Are the Best Tiles for Bathrooms?
Bathroom tiles need to combine style with practicality.
Porcelain and ceramic tiles are popular choices for bathroom walls, while suitable porcelain tiles are often chosen for bathroom flooring.
For a smaller bathroom, lighter colours and carefully selected tile sizes can help create a brighter, more spacious appearance.
Popular Bathroom Tile Ideas
- Marble effect tiles
- Stone effect tiles
- Large format tiles
- Neutral porcelain tiles
- Patterned feature tiles
When choosing bathroom floor tiles, always check that the product is suitable for flooring and has the appropriate slip-resistance characteristics for the intended area.
What Are the Best Tiles for Kitchens?
Kitchens experience regular activity, spills and cleaning, so practical tile selection is important.
For kitchen floors, porcelain tiles are a popular option. For walls and splashbacks, ceramic and porcelain tiles offer a wide variety of colours and designs.
Kitchen Tile Ideas
A modern kitchen could feature:
- Large-format porcelain floor tiles
- Marble effect splashback tiles
- Marble wall tiles
- Concrete effect tiles
- Patterned feature tiles
- Stone effect flooring
Try coordinating the colour of your tiles with your cabinets, worktops and other finishes.
Porcelain vs Ceramic Tiles: What's the Difference?
Porcelain and ceramic tiles are both made from clay-based materials, but they differ in their manufacturing and characteristics.
Porcelain is generally denser and less porous, while ceramic tiles offer a huge range of styles and can be an excellent choice for many wall applications.
The best option depends on where the tile will be installed and the specifications of the individual product.
How Do You Choose the Right Tile Size?
Tile size can have a major effect on the appearance of a room.
Large Format Tiles
Large tiles can create a contemporary appearance and may reduce the number of visible grout lines.
Small Tiles
Smaller tiles can work particularly well for decorative designs, intricate layouts and areas where flexibility around shapes is useful.
Standard-Size Tiles
Medium-sized tiles offer a versatile option for many kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces.
There isn't one universally correct tile size. The best choice depends on the room dimensions, layout and desired appearance.
What Colour Tiles Make a Room Look Bigger?
Light-coloured tiles can help reflect light and contribute to a brighter, more open feeling.
White, cream, beige, light grey and other neutral shades are popular choices for creating an airy appearance.
Large-format tiles can also contribute to a more continuous visual effect because fewer grout lines are visible.
However, darker tiles can create a sophisticated and dramatic interior when used thoughtfully.
Are Floor Tiles Suitable for Walls?
Some floor tiles can also be suitable for walls, but not every floor tile is automatically suitable for every wall application.
Always check the manufacturer's specifications before installing a tile in a different location from its intended use.
How Many Tiles Do You Need?
Accurately measuring your space is essential before ordering tiles.
Start by calculating the area:
Length × Width = Area
For irregular rooms, divide the space into smaller sections and calculate each area separately before adding the measurements together.
You should also allow for an appropriate amount of additional tiles to account for cuts, breakages and future replacements. The exact allowance depends on the room and installation pattern.
Should You Choose Matt or Gloss Tiles?
Both finishes can create very different appearances.
Glossy tiles can reflect light and create a bright, polished appearance. They are often popular for walls and splashbacks.
Matt tiles provide a softer, more understated appearance and can work particularly well for contemporary floors and walls.
Your choice should also take cleaning, lighting and the intended application into account.
How to Choose Tiles for a Small Bathroom
Small bathrooms don't mean you have to compromise on style.
Consider:
- Using a consistent colour palette.
- Choosing lighter shades if you want a brighter appearance.
- Considering larger tiles to reduce visual grout lines.
- Using feature tiles selectively.
- Coordinating wall and floor colours.
- Checking that flooring has appropriate slip resistance.
A simple, coordinated design can make a small bathroom feel considerably more cohesive.
How to Choose Tiles for an Open-Plan Home
Open-plan spaces benefit from a consistent design.
Using the same or complementary flooring throughout connected areas can create visual continuity.
Large-format tiles, neutral colours and natural stone effects are popular options for modern open-plan interiors.