THE CHALLENGE OF CHOOSING TILE

Pick something you’ll love for at least a decade instead of a fleeting trend

Tile Carrying tile from the backsplash onto the walls and up to the ceiling creates the illusion of space.

Photo courtesy Brian Patrick Flynn

Choosing tile for your home once meant picking from among a handful of pastel ceramic squares. Would it be dusty pink or dusty blue? If you were feeling bold, maybe mint green or pale yellow?

Today, we’re surrounded — some might say overwhelmed — by choices.

Porcelain tile is now made to realistically look like everything from aged wood and rough fieldstones to sleek Italian marble. Tiles of glass, cork, mirror and even leather are taking the place of traditional ceramics.

In all shapes and sizes, they are being used not just in kitchens and baths, but also in entryways, mud rooms and more.

Amid all these possibilities, the biggest challenge is to choose something you’ll continue loving for a decade or more.

“There’s so much decorative tile now,” says Matthew Quinn, principal of Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath Studio in Atlanta. “Some of it, you can just tell in three or four years this is not something you’re going to want to see every day.”

Here, Quinn and interior designers Brian Patrick Flynn and Mallory Mathison share ideas on embracing tile’s new possibilities while creating a timeless effect.

 •  Floor to ceiling

All three designers are fans of using tile all the way up to the ceiling, rather than the more old-fashioned approach of doing partial tile walls with a snub-nosed edge.

“It makes the entire room more cohesive, and it can also give the illusion that a space is larger than it actually is,” says Flynn. “One of the easiest ways to shrink a room visually is by chopping it up; many times, for me, tile used in just one area quickly chops up a space.”

Quinn says clients sometimes assume full walls of tile will make a project expensive. But the cost depends entirely on your choice of tile.

“You can find a fabulous white crackled subway tile for less than $3 a square foot. For about $1,000, you can cover every wall of a bathroom, floor to ceiling, and it’s extremely durable.”

 •  Beyond ceramics

Flynn loves using tiles made of “unexpected materials, such as leather, cork and wood. Leather tiles can be used on walls and ceilings, but in lower-traffic areas. Cork is a dream because it helps soundproof a space, plus it offers a really warm, organic texture instead of the sleek ceramic surfaces we’re used to seeing.”

“Wooden tiles are rather pricey,” Flynn says, but Quinn points out that manufacturers such as Porcelanosa now offer porcelain tiles that look strikingly like real wood. They are durable, resistant to moisture and need no maintenance.

Traditionally, a homeowner chose a particular tile and used it throughout a space. Quinn says clients love the effect when he alternates large and small tiles in various patterns.

Simple changes can make a bathroom more stylish and interesting, without becoming outdated quickly.

You can also get creative with grout: Simple white or beige tiles can be installed with thin, barely visible lines of grout, or thick lines of grout in bold or dark colours that contrast with the tile.

 •  Glass

Glass tile has become popular. Because it’s translucent, Mathison sometimes uses it in smaller bathrooms: “Your eye kind of looks through it, so it doesn’t create a boundary,” she says. “It’s an almost limitless look” that can make a small shower area feel larger.

Flynn says glass tile can be expensive and it’s trendy. One fresh option is “using extra-large, extra-wide, back-painted glass panels on walls,” rather than small glass tiles, “to bring contemporary architectural interest into a space.”

 •  Forget DIY

It’s possible to remove old tile and install new on your own. But all three designers recommend hiring professionals.

Even the highest quality tile will look unattractive if it’s been installed incorrectly. And demolition and tile cutting can be dangerous.