March, 2016 – Megan Miln

Designing Bathroom Tile Layouts – Part 2.3

We have sketches of our bathroom which we can use to play with ideas. In this video, I talk about how we are approaching our bathroom tile design.

Credits
Transcript

My bathroom tile preoccupation started a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve been thinking about bathrooms a lot lately. Ever since we went to the showroom to pick our bathroom fixtures. We picked everything - the bath, the shower, the toilets - everything except the tiles. We were tired by then and overwhelmed by the choice.

We went back again two weeks later, but this time they were closing for lunch, so we didn’t have much time. And since then, we’ve looked at tiles again in a different store.

But none of this is actually helping me choose.

I guess I thought we’d go and look at all these tiles, see something we liked, and go from there. But, so far that’s not working.

I have a similar feeling when I look through pictures of bathrooms, and I’ve looked at a lot of pictures. I see things I like, I see things that are interesting, I see bathrooms that look amazing, but that I can’t imagine in our house.

The photos, and catalogues and the shops have been great for ideas, up to a point, but translating those ideas into our own bathroom is difficult.

So, we’re trying to tackle it from a different direction.

We have sketches of our bathroom which we can use to play with ideas. I can draw on them, colour them in, and try out different options.

We’ve done a set for the main bathroom, and I’m starting on the second bathroom.

The first thing I want to do is mark out the minimum area to tile. This is the area that will get wet.

We’re leaning towards tiling as much of the walls as we can afford. I like that continuity, and it seems easier to clean and maintain day-to-day. But it’s still helpful to know what is necessary and what’s not.

Then, I can play with different ideas.

The simplest option would be to do it all in one neutral colour. Or a neutral colour with an accent. I’ve seen designs with a strip of mosaic that runs around the room that I liked, but drawing it on my sketch, it’s difficult to make it flow nicely. We’ve also seen some examples of really messy grouting around mosaic in the showrooms, and that would annoy me.

I like the idea of adding colour to the bathroom. For any other room of the house, if you asked me what colour the walls should be, my first answer would be white. But with the bathrooms, I feel there’s an opportunity to have some fun. To be a bit more bold than I might be elsewhere.

We are considering a feature wall, or blocks of colour. I’ve also seen textured tiles used to really great effect. So, I’m not quite sure which way we’ll go.

It’s an interesting process. Sometimes, I have an idea that I think will work well, and when I colour in the sketch, it doesn’t. And other times, I’ll colour in a variation just for the sake of it, and I like it.

A lot will still depend on what tiles are available. But this process is helping focus on the areas we want to differentiate, and narrow down some of the choices. We’ll probably try another visit to the showroom when we’re in Vichy next.