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Most often, the bathroom is tiled. This material is durable, hygienic, easy to clean. But the cost of such repairs is considerable, so they try to arrange everything so that the bathroom looks the best for a long period of time. To solve this problem, a collection is carefully chosen, colors are selected, and a layout method is selected. About what options for laying tiles in the bathroom exist, how they are perceived – in the article.
General principles and rules
Everyone knows that light walls visually make the room more spacious. Nobody is going to argue with this, and this fact is taken into account when choosing options for laying tiles in the bathroom. But there are a few more interesting points, the knowledge of which will help to avoid mistakes when drawing up the layout and selecting the color of the tile, its location, and the color of the grout.
Vertical and horizontal layout
Recently, rectangular tiles have been more often placed on the walls. At the same time, the first thing to be determined is whether to place the tiles horizontally or vertically on the walls. It is believed that the horizontal layout visually makes the room wider, and the vertical one – higher. In fact, on colored, bright tiles, the seams between which are sealed with grout of the same or a similar color, the difference is very slight (in the photo there are a couple of drawings below). In this case, the laying direction has almost no effect on perception. In this case, you can choose the options for laying tiles in the bathroom based only on your preferences.
This effect is more pronounced when using light-colored tiles with contrasting grout (upper pictures). In this case, the eye “slides” along the seams, creating the desired visual changes. In this case, the vertical or horizontal layout really affects our perception.
Guide strips
To expand the room or raise the ceiling, when choosing the layout, vertical or horizontal “guides” are made. These are stripes of tiles of a different color, along which the eye glides. These stripes change the visual perception of the size of the room.
A lighter horizontal strip, which runs along the perimeter of the room approximately in the middle of the height, visually significantly expands the space. If a dark stripe is added to light walls, no effect is observed. Rather, the room will look at its “own” volume, since the dark strip neutralizes the visual increase in space due to light colors in the decoration.
If necessary, make the ceiling visually higher, with a vertical layout, you can lay out a strip of lighter tiles on one of the walls (preferably opposite the entrance). Even with bright or dark tiles and matching grout, the ceiling will “lift up”. If on this wall you use a tile of a lighter tone, and even with a contrasting grout and a vertical strip of tiles with an ornament, the effect will be even more pronounced (in the figure below on the right).
Border
Another way to make the room look taller is to place decorative tiles in the form of a border closer to the ceiling. Being high, they attract attention, while the room seems higher. The border does not have to be done around the perimeter. It is enough to make one wall of a different light shade, place a border at the top. Moreover, this contrasting wall can be darker or lighter.
All these techniques are not difficult to implement, but they help to correctly compose the layout of the tiles. To visualize what you get, you can use special programs.
Tile layout examples
In addition to the layout examples above, there are tile laying options that can be considered classics, others, on the contrary, have appeared quite recently and, although they often go against many recommendations, they look very good.
Darker bottom
This technique belongs to the classics: the lower third of the wall is made darker, the upper one is several tones lighter. This method of laying ceramic tiles, to put it mildly, is not at the peak of popularity. It was popular about a decade ago. But there are a few tricks that give the classics a modern sound.
With this method of laying tiles, the room seems spacious, since most of the walls are decorated in light shades. In this case, the tiles on the floor are chosen in the same color as the tiles on the bottom of the wall. If you can’t pick up exactly the same, they are looking for a very close one in texture and color. In its “pure” form, this way of laying tiles does not look very modern.
To make this bathroom tile look more modern, you can add vertical or horizontal stripes to break up the monotonous design. Many collections offer not only darker and lighter tile options, but also decor of different sizes, from which strips of different widths are formed.
More often, not two, but three types of tiles are combined: two plain and decor that combines both primary colors. Decorative elements can be of different widths. Then from them you can make strips or columns of different widths. To prevent the upper part from being so monotonous and boring, thin stripes of the same color as the lower part of the wall are added, and a floral or floral border is added at the bottom.
Most factories produce collections in which there are two basic colors of tiles – darker and lighter – and a set of decorative elements. Such collections are usually not cheap, but it is easier to make a competent composition from them, and they are suitable in size, so there will be no problems with styling and fitting.
Accent wall
If the division of the walls by height does not appeal to you, but the monochromatic design inspires despondency, you can consider the option with an accent wall. Most often, it is decorated with tiles of the same color, but of a different shade – several tones lighter or darker than the main one.
In this case, not one wall is trimmed with brown tiles, but it also comes into part of the neighboring one. This technique is suitable for narrow long rooms – it visually makes the room look more like a square.
The accent wall does not have to be tiled the same size. One wall decorated with mosaics or small format tiles looks great.
Mosaic looks great both on its own and in combination with tiles of different sizes – square, rectangular, large and medium. It is used when finishing curved surfaces – due to its structure, it fits even columns of a small radius.
Flower motifs
Recent design trends have resulted in most bathroom tiles being plain. Many collections are distinguished by an interesting texture, but are made in the form of monochromatic fragments. Not everyone likes this design – the interior turns out to be too “cold”. You can add fantasy with tiles with flowers or butterflies, floral or geometric motifs.
But with this type of decor you have to be careful: it’s too easy to “overdo it” especially in a small volume. But a few single fragments also do not look good. So it is advisable to work with floral decor in programs that give a three-dimensional picture – it will be easier to imagine what you actually get.
Laying tiles on the floor
In addition to choosing options for laying tiles in the bathroom on the walls, you need to decide how to decorate the floor.
When using a square tile, it is usually laid in the form of a checkerboard (checker pattern), a method with an offset of 1/2 tile can be used. There are two laying directions – parallel to the walls and diagonally.
If a rectangular tile is selected, there are more layout options – with an offset (deck, wicker, herringbone). There are also options for a combination of rectangular and square tiles – a labyrinth, if methods using fragments of different sizes.
It makes sense to implement all more or less complex schemes in large rooms – here unusual compositions can be appreciated. In small bathrooms, the simplest schemes are most often chosen – usually only a few tiles are placed, so there is simply no point in complicating the work.