What to Consider When Choosing Tiles

When it comes to renovations or new home builds, choosing the right tiles is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. But with so many options available, how do you narrow down the list to find what’s right for you and your home? To help you out, here are our picks for the main factors you need to consider when choosing tiles for your home.

Budget and Design Preference

To start off, you need to have an understanding of both your budget and your design preferences. Setting even a rough budget will allow you to solely focus on tiles that you can afford, rather than wasting time on tiles that’ll leave too much of a dent in your bank account.

In addition to your budget, try and develop some type of style guide to help kickstart your journey. Have a look through magazines and online sources to find tiles that you like and go from there. Remember to try and find options that fit in with the style of your home, rather than awkwardly attempting to force something that doesn’t match the rest of your interior.

Tile Colour

With so many colours available for you to choose from, the best way to narrow them down is to consider the atmosphere of the room that you want to create. Do you want something dark and alluring, soothing and tranquil or bold and exciting? If you want to create something more relaxing, choose colours that complement each other, and if you want something more vibrant select colours that contrast.

It’s also important to consider how much natural light the space has and the size of the room. Lighter colours can help open up a room and make the most of a smaller amount of natural light. Alternatively, darker colours create a more cosy feeling and add a sense of flair and drama. If your bathroom lacks natural light, glossy tiles will help reflect more light and brighten up the room significantly.

Size

When it comes to choosing the size of your tiles, the general guideline is that the bigger the room, the bigger the tile can be. For example, if you’re looking to place tiles in an open-plan living area, you can opt for large, grand floor tiles. On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re working with a small bathroom space then you might want to consider petite, mosaic penny round tiles that can help add texture and depth to the space.

Tile Shape and Pattern

Tiles aren’t always square or rectangular, and there’s a whole world of tile shapes out there for you to discover. Choosing a left-of-centre tile shape is a fantastic way to make your kitchen or bathroom stand out from the pack and add some extra drama and flair. Some popular tile shapes include:

• Penny Rounds
• Hexagons
• Subway Tiles
• Chevrons
• Slabs

Once you’ve chosen your tile shape and colour, you then have to decide its layout pattern. Whether you want to lay one tile out two different ways, randomise different shades for a laidback look, exaggerate the height of your bathroom with statement stripes or something else, the world is your oyster.

Grout Colour

Another factor you’ll have to consider is your grout colour, and the smaller your tiles the more grout you’ll need to use. If your tiles are a unique shape, you might want to use a contrasting grout colour to draw attention to this. However if you want a more seamless look, opt for a colour that’s as close to the colour of your tiles as possible.

Or if having to clean and maintain grout doesn’t sound appealing, you can opt for extra large tiles that minimise grout and allow for easy, simple maintenance.