7 Ways to Use Tiles in Your Home
For most homeowners, tiles are purely functional, used in showers, entranceways, and kitchen floors, and in warmer climates, used throughout the home in most of the living spaces. It’s perfectly understandable. Tiles are the first prize for anywhere that sees a lot of wear and tear and water.
But these days, tiles can be chosen not only for their practicality – but for their longevity and aesthetic appeal too. When it comes to choosing a pattern, you need to choose something that ‘speaks to you’. Don’t go for something trending if it doesn’t make your heart skip a beat. You need to love it – regardless of what the popular theme of the moment is. Pick a patterned tile that YOU love, because it will never go out of style.
There are some truly beautiful tiles out there, so using them to add visual and monetary value to your home is a good choice. Apart from the obvious place of using tiles on the floor – here are 7 other interesting spaces to use tiles:
- Create a Focus with an Accent Wall
While interior accent walls are more typically created with paint or wallpaper, tile can serve a similar purpose. Wherever wallpaper can be used could also be a perfect place to use tile to create focus and attention. Lately, there has been a huge trend of tile replacing wallpaper in restaurants, coffee bars, breakfast nooks, at-home office spaces, laundry room feature walls, and living room feature walls. Choosing the right decorative tile for your space is a great way to show off your creativity and a chance to make a big impact in a small space.
- Upgrade Your Bathroom With a Vanity Wall
On a small area like a bathroom vanity, the bolder the better! And tiles are a great choice to use for creating a statement – and practical too because of the moisture content in a bathroom. Bathrooms are our sanctuary, so choosing something unique and handmade will offer a relaxing, restful feeling.
- Spruce Up Your Shower
Just like a vanity wall will create a statement, so will a bold, striking pattern on one, (or both) of your shower walls. Take the tile from the floor into the shower and up the wall for a unified look. Be cautious of what tile you use on the floor of your shower as wet tiles can be very slippery. A smaller tile (which will create more grout gaps) can work in this instance to create some grip underfoot.
- Kitchen Splashback
Whether you choose to tile from the sink to the ceiling, or to just tile 1 or 2 rows above the sink – both can create a striking focal point in your kitchen scullery. Run this throughout the kitchen above all the countertops to create a uniform look, or take the tiles to the ceiling above the sink and only 2 rows up above the countertops. This will create a flow and connection between the areas. Or do a centre piece behind your stove. Go bold with a pattern, or go neutral with a solid colour. Both can work – it all depends on what vibe you want to create in your space.
- Kitchen Counter Wall
A kitchen counter wall front can be a really lovely wall to tile, which would otherwise go unnoticed. Create an interesting space where a bold pattern peeks out from behind your bar stools – a space which is normally hidden (and painted white)
- Add some fun to your Stair Risers
Stair risers are not typically seen as spaces where you would add a splash of colour, never mind tiles, but it is often a stunning way to add some design and fun to your staircase. Small patterned tiles on stair risers create a strong visual effect, using either a repeating pattern or a patchwork pattern.
- Fire Place
Create a focal point with your fireplace by sprucing it up with some tiles and colour around it. Because of the heat generated by a fireplace, it’s best to lay the tiles onto cement backer boards – which are unaffected by heat. Another tip when tiling around a fireplace is to use epoxy grout. This is because the ash that a fire produces could possibly stain a cement-based grout – leaving your tiling work looking less than desirable after a few months.
