Is there such a thing as a right or wrong size tile for your project?
This is one of those questions that causes a great deal of anxiety when looking for the ideal tile to suit the rest of your project, so we thought we’d throw our hat into the ring with these few pointers:
Nothing is more important than having a good quality tiler set out and install the tiles. Whether the tiles are big or small, if you’re left with awkward little cuts into the corners or an unbalanced look around a window, then they are simply going to look wrong for the room.
Long tiles tend to draw the eye, so if you have a long thin area you may not want to run tiles lengthwise along the room, you may find it more beneficial to run from side to side to accentuate the width, or even diagonally to open up the area even more, but when used on the walls of a small cloakroom for example it can accentuate the overall size.
Small tiles can look fussy in large areas and appear to close the room in, especially if using a lot of mosaics. Too many grout joints can draw the eyes along the grid lines to the point that you almost see the grout more than the tile, but if you choose a smaller tile in a smaller area you can introduce a good range of colours and movement that just isn’t possible with the larger sizes. Different tile sizes can also be good for ‘zoning’ a larger room, for example using mosaics within a shower area but a larger matching tile everywhere else.
A very important point that is quite often overlooked is to always consider the natural and artificial light in a space. Is it going to be a dark area, in which case keep your choice of tiles light to bounce the light around and enhance a sense of space, or if it’s a very bright and open space you can easily get away with a darker choice.
