Decorative Tiles To Inspire
Tiles are one of the most stylish ways to breathe life into a space, from being just a room with walls and a floor, to an enchanting environment that connects with your inner wellbeing. And when you combine elegant qualities of interior décor with modern influences, you can create a space that never goes out of style.
Decorative tiles have evolved into an art form with a staggering variety of styles, colours, textures, and patterns. Grout is also no longer simply used to install and space tiles but an important factor in the character of the overall tile design for your floor or wall.
With so many options, we often find that people may feel overwhelmed when choosing new tiles for their homes or spaces they wish to renovate. This compilation of some exciting tile trends and ideas might inspire you in your journey to finding the perfect tiles for your space.
Decorative Tiles For Bathrooms
The bathroom is probably the first room we go to in the morning, and the last at night, when preparing to rest. This is where you look in the mirror and think about your day ahead, a private space where you can visualize today as a good day. And when the sun goes down, leave the day outside, close the door and step into a luxurious shower or soak up the soothing aroma of a scented bath.
Whatever your choice of bathroom tiles and décor is, this room is a space where you can unwind and reconnect with your natural beauty.
The slightly Ombré look creates an artisan-crafted and organic feel. The rectangular and satin-finished decorative tile design with contrasting grout enhances a spa-like feeling of minimalism and peaceful serenity.
Green is one of the most restful colours to the human eye. Being in sync with the biophilia design trend, it is a sign of well-being and lush growth to invite nature into the home. With its inherently tranquil and soothing palette, green has healing qualities to recharge weariness with a promise of better things to come.
With these green tiles and lots of natural light in your bathroom, adding elements like plants, sisal, bamboo, and rustic wood shades can complement the natural ambience.
However, if your space is small with limited light, having tiles from the ceiling to the floor, can create an air of a swish hotel-style bathroom. The continuity opens a dark room and if you use larger tiles, a small space can take on an uncluttered and visually stretched effect.
Hexagon tiles are much in vogue on both floors and walls and continue to evolve into a unique variety of colours, sizes, and patterns.
No two mix-and-match designs are the same and the ways to display tiles with a hexagon shape, requires some thinking out-of-the-box. With their diagonal edges, it is an art to get the edges aligned especially if you wanted them crisply straight or precisely fitted into a corner. You could either just allow them to end free with some cut-off pieces to use elsewhere or follow the rough-edge approach as in the image above.
Using hexagon tiles in a bold colour or a busy pattern can look dramatic, different, and stunning. Apply them around areas to prevent spills and splashes and play with uneven edges for a unique look.
Decorative Tiles For Your Kitchen
Whether you are bold or serene in your choice of colourful tiles for your kitchen, make the most of the heart of your home with fascinating patterns, subtle textures, and decorative tiles for backsplash.
The value of easy-to-clean kitchen tiles over other surfaces is always predominant in homeowners’ minds as we spend a lot of time in there, cooking up a storm.
In the early 1900’s,subways in New York were tiled in this horizontal offset brick pattern. Hospitals then also took on the same trend.
To this day, subway tiles continue to grow in popularity all over the world, as an easy to design solution with a timeless look for kitchen and bathroom surfaces.
A kitchen with decorative tiles and grout in colours from a moody palette like the black on black, tourmaline shade (image above) simply radiates understated classy elegance.
The tourmaline stone is believed to attract compassion, prosperity, tolerance, and inspiration. It improves hand-eye coordination in balancing the left-right sides of the brain. (Sounds like a wonderful environment to prepare amazing food.)
Decorative Tiles For Floor
With inkjet technology, floor tile trends have become exceptional in their realistic look of wood, stone, marble, and concrete etc. While still maintaining the durability and benefits of porcelain tiles, we’ve reached the end of boring flooring.
In this image, the stone look-alike tiles appear as if they were brought in straight from their natural environment. It makes the contemporary look of tiles simply one of the most exciting options in the flooring industry where a floor becomes a feature and no longer just a surface to walk on.
Perhaps in response to an unsettling year, there is a subtle trend for calming, warm and neutral tile tones too. With people in need of comfort and spending more time at home, earthy hues are seen in the return of a mushroom, tan, and natural stone palette underfoot.
The use of encaustic tiles in a black and white colour palette with a traditional fleurette design, gives this room a definite sense of sophistication and endless style.
Encaustic decorative tiles dating back to the 13th century, are another beautiful trend that has come to stay. Just to refresh, traditional encaustic tiles were made of clay and powdered glazes, then fired in a coal or wood-fired kiln where the heat seals the powdered colours into the clay and bake the tiles to create a hard surface, technically like a ceramic tile. The tile patterns appeared to be inlaid into the body of the tile.
They are available in the traditional concrete materials but also in porcelain tiles that are less expensive, thinner but more durable.
With graphic and bold patterns in rich colours that give them an exotic appearance, they are hugely popular among vibrant cultures in tropical destinations all over the world.
Victorian black and white, geometrics and floral patterns are just as popular and gorgeously incorporated in contemporary interior designs internationally.
Areas where encaustic cement tiles can create a striking effect:
- as a faux runner down a passage or entrance hall
- on the risers of a staircase
- in the kitchen as a wall feature or backsplash
- in the family room
- as an accent piece in the dining area,
and in an outdoor or enclosed living area such as this stunning patio, picture below, where tourmaline subway tiles create a beautiful focus point.
Decorative Tiles For Social Spaces Like Offices, Studios, Restaurants and Coffee Shops
With scores of social places opening their doors again post-pandemic, South Africans are slowly but surely making their way back into offices, restaurants, and coffee shops. This feeling of a renewed zest for life is almost tangible.
Tile companies appear to be telegraphing the enthusiasm of homeowners, interior decorators, and property developers with colourful and trendy tile styles and there is more variety than ever in colour, shapes, and patterns. And with tiles being resistant to bacteria and easy to clean and sanitise, they are the perfect answer to give any public space a stunning facelift in a relative short time.
In this wine bar, both the floor and seating area are covered with trendy hexagon tiles, to make a stylish statement with a pretty burst of colour and pattern. With walls underneath countertops often dismissed, this easy to clean tiled surface creates a contemporary backdrop for the hanging menus and can handle the wear and tear of kicking shoes and bumping stools.
Where To Buy Tiles In Cape Town
With so many bedazzling choices of tiles and décor styles out there, we invite you to Tiletopia Somerset West for a consultation in a relaxed atmosphere. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff will gladly assist with ideas and inspiration.
We do understand that you wish to make the perfect choice for your dream space…and we’ve got you covered!