How to Choose Tiles – A Tile Choosing Guide

How to Choose Tiles – A Tile Choosing Guide

Whether you’re about to embark on a tiling DIY job or are hiring a professional tradesman to do tiling for you, choosing which tiles to go for can be a difficult decision. You want something that looks great, that is good quality and that will be functional in your home.

We’re just about to do another tiling project in our house so I thought it would be a good time to write about the tile choosing process in a guide here. We have previously tiled a bathroom and are now going to tackle our hallway. Read on to learn more about how to choose tiles.

• Look for Inspiration

The first thing to do is to find inspiration — unless you already know exactly what look you’re going for. Look online on social media platforms like Pinterest or Instagram, visit interior design websites for stylish photos or head directly over to tile retailer sites to see what kind of tiles are available and how they have styled them.

If you can, it’s also a good idea to look at tiles in real life by visiting a tile shop or a tile showroom. You can’t beat seeing the product in real life to make sure that you like it.

• Order Samples

Ordering tile samples is essential, especially if you can’t visit anywhere to look at the tiles in person. Even if you have been able to look at the tiles in a shop, having samples that you can look at in your home, in the place where the tiles will go, will help you visualise the space and the final look and will help you narrow down the tile choices!

Most tile retailers will let you order a few cut tile samples for free or for a small postage charge so once you’ve found a few that you like, get some samples ordered to look at in your own house. You can order full size tile samples too, but you usually have to pay for these and pay for postage as well.

I recommend ordering some samples from a good tile shop, then return to buy the rest of the supplies – grout, tile adhesive, tiling tools, tile spacers, Hardie Backer 6mm boards, etc. once you’ve chosen the right style for your home.

• Take a Good Look

Once you have your tile samples, take a good look at them in the location that they will be used. Look at the tiles in the natural daylight and in the evening when you are using artificial lighting to make sure that they look good at any time of the day.

Ask someone to hold the tile samples up for you so that you can move back and look at them from a distance as that’s how you’ll be looking at them most of the time. From a normal distance, you’ll be able to see how the tiles will be viewed and can imagine how the full tiled area might look.

• Important Tile Considerations

When you are choosing tiles there are lots of things to think about — tile size, texture, layout/pattern, colour, spacing, grout colour and edging material/colour. Some designs can make the room look smaller or bigger, some tiles look best in smaller spaces while others lend themselves better to a larger area.

If you can, draw up a plan by hand or on your computer (or see if your tile retailer can help you with this — some have software for this on their website) to visualise how different options look and how they will impact the space.

When it comes to grout, you’ll see much less of it when using large tiles and much more of it with mosaics and other smaller tiles. This has a big effect on the final look. If you want to create contrast, choose a different coloured grout — this will highlight each tile and make them more prominent. If you want a more seamless look, choose the same-coloured tiles and grout.

Just like when you’re ordering wallpaper or paint, it’s important to make sure that your tiles all have the same batch number to ensure that they all look the same.

Hopefully the above tips have been useful to you if you are looking to start a new tiling project and are wondering how to choose the best tiles.

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