If you have ever renovated a bathroom you know that one of the most difficult and time consuming things is choosing tiles. When you start you think it’s going to be easy: after all it’s a matter of choosing a coloured surface… but then as soon as you step into a tiles shop you realize there is so much choice, so many styles, so many kinds of tiles that you usually step out of the shop completely confused.

A good starting point is to forget about tiles and start imagining the atmosphere you want into your bathroom: does it have to be a sort of home-spa where you can relax and refill your energies? Is it a practical shower room to be used by the kids? Do you want a retro-look in line with a fin-de-siècle town house or do you like mixing old and new and go for the latest trends and accessories?

Once you have thought about the atmosphere you can start looking for pictures of bathrooms that you like. You will see that there will be something in common with all the pictures and this will give you an indication of what is that you like.

In terms of tiles there are two main typologies: ceramic and porcelain stoneware.

Ceramic is easy to work, softer to cut and it’s usually glazed and decorated. It often comes in vivid and bright colours and smaller formats and is used mainly as interior wall tiling.

Porcelain stoneware is much stronger because baked at higher temperatures and usually looks and feels more like stone.  However, a variety of decorations are possible, either by polishing the surface in different ways (thus obtaining a glazed look or a rougher one) or by imitating other materials such as wood, store, concrete or even leather. The tendency here is to have very big formats such as 90×120 cm or 80×180 (the size of a shower wall!). It can be used both for walls and floor tiling, for interiors and exteriors.

You’ll see that you’ll be naturally drawn towards one of the two styles according to the effect you want to create. Once you’ve decided the typology and you’ve seen what colours you’re naturally drawn to, you can narrow down the search.

Do not forget to keep in mind the dimensions of your bathroom to avoid having to cut too many tiles to adjust them in your space.

Pictures of tiles taken at Quadrus (www.quadrus.be)