Tiles dress the home

Renovating your space, or building a new home? One of the most difficult things to choose is sure to be your floor covering — and with more style choices than ever before, the practical option of tiles may be your best bet.

“We’re moving away from just the tame and tasteful, understated tile offerings of the past few years that have caused so much interior design to look the same,” says Matt Tucker, creative director at Matt Tucker Design Studio.

“What we’re beginning to see now are tiles that focus on adding texture, geometry and graphic patterns to our homes — and we’re also seeing a return to colour, which hasn’t been around for a while.”

Jessica Ciccarelli, sales and design consultant at Myaree Ceramics, says the 70s revival making its way through tiles is one of her favourite new trends.

“Tiles have taken a turn for the textural and imperfect — we’re seeing a lot of beautiful thickly-glazed wall tiles with hand-cut edges, inspired by the zellige tiles you see everywhere in Morocco,” she says.

“It’s a great opportunity for unusual finishes — tiles aren’t just for your bathroom and can be used for external walls, entry ways or the front porch.”

When considering how much or how little of a wall to tile, Mr Tucker says he’d always recommend tiling all the way to the ceiling.

“I love a tiled feature wall in a bathroom – to keep your space feeling open and uncomplicated, take your floor tile and run it up one main wall,” he says.

“What’s great about doing this is that it doesn’t matter how adventurous or subtle you want to be in your choice, it still looks great.”

Let’s get practical here: what is the easiest tile to keep clean?

“Anything too plain as a floor tile can be a nightmare, like black floor tiles with no movement — they’re amazing when they’re perfectly clean, but an absolute nightmare in showing watermarks and dirt,” says Ms Ciccarelli.

“Try and choose a tile that suits your lifestyle — there are plenty of nice finishes and textures you can use in bathroom wall tiles, too, like a beautiful soft white which is great for hiding fingerprints.”

Mr Tucker says it’s important to choose coloured tiles because you love them — not just because they’re on-trend.

“I’m always cautious with colour trends that come and go quickly in interior design — more often than not, what you achieve is a really fashionable look at the time that very quickly dates once the fad is gone,” he says.

“That being said, I’m an absolute advocate for colour — there are plenty of timeless options and exciting design opportunities if you choose well.”