Floor Talk! A Guide to Fabulous Flooring and Design

Bathroom Blogfest ‘08 - Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces Around Us

Since 2006, a group of women bloggers focused on the customer experience has reserved one week each year to discuss a most important location - the ladies room. Because everyone needs them, restrooms are universally necessary, making them a hugely important - and often forgotten - part of the customer experience in retail locations.

Today, I will be focusing on areas of a bathroom that can be tiled. Tile is such a wonderful way to make a statement in a bathroom whether it be in a home or a commercial application. There are more areas than the floor that can be decorated with tile!

When tiling floors, don’t forget that you can use patterns to jazz up the floor. Tiles don’t have to be laid straight. They can be laid on the diagonal, dots can be added, mosaics can be used, different tiles can be used to outline areas to create an area rug look. There are just a few examples.

Wall tile often gets overlooked, often because you are so exhausted after making the decision on the floor tile. There are many areas on the walls that can be tiled to add design, punch or drama to your room. Basically, the bathroom is one room that can be tiled from floor to ceiling and everything in between.

Areas that can be tiled on the walls:

• Wainscoting - wainscoting can be used to protect the walls from water or from damage, but it can also be used as a decorative element. Tile can be installed below the chair rail, higher up to eye level or all the way up to the ceiling.
• Showers - showers can be tiled from the shower floor to just above the shower head all the way up to the ceiling. The ceiling can also be tiled! Shower tile can be integrated into the tub tile or the tile wainscoting.
• Tub Surrounds - tile can be installed on the three walls around a tub creating a feeling much like a shower. Tub surrounds are great places to add decorative tile, listellos, glass or mosaics for an added decorative element. This wall tile can also be integrated into tile wainscoting.
• Bathtubs - bathtubs can receive tile in several places: the top (called the deck), the front where it meets the floor and the splash (like a kitchen backsplash)
• Mirror Frames - depending on your mirror in your bathroom you can use mosaic tiles, glass tiles or listellos to outline your mirror frame creating a picture framed look. This can be especially helpful when trying to tie in several tiles used in the room.
• Sink splashes - tile on sink splashes can be decorative or functional. They can be useful in keeping water from getting behind the faucet on the wall or they can be another way to tie in other tiles in the room.
• Countertops - one thing to keep in mind while shopping for tile for the countertops is a way to finish off the front of the countertops. Some tile lines have tiles for the front of the counter that match, others do not. In this case something else, like wood, would have to be made to finish off the front of the countertop so that the raw edge from the tile does not show.

When tiling more areas in a bathroom than the floor, you can use the same tile throughout if the size accomodates. You can use the same tile in different sizes. You can use several different, coordinating tiles. If you choose to use the same tile in the same size or the same tile in different sizes, remember that you can add accent pieces like listellos, glass tiles, decorative painted tiles or mosaics into your design scheme.