The kitchen and tile accents go hand in hand. Kitchen tile keeps your walls and floors safe from water damage and looks great as a design choice wherever its laid. Best of all, there’s a tile for just about any look you’re going for, with all kinds of shapes, colors, and materials available. Whether as a trendy backsplash or as area flooring, consider tiling a part or all of your kitchen to create stunning looks that make the place say “home sweet home.”
Traditional Subway Tile
Subway tile is classic and likely the first kind of tile you think of when considering a backsplash for your kitchen. They’re fairly simple in design, often white porcelain rectangles, but can go vertically horizontally, diagonally, and in patterns to spice up your kitchen wall. You can see these used easily in any bathroom or kitchen, especially with contemporary and cottage style flavors.
Dazzling Graphic Kitchen Tile
If you want to get fancy with your ceramic tile, graphic tile options exist to make dazzling patterns on your kitchen walls and other surfaces (like the kitchen island!). Instead of laying out your tile in a pattern to create interest, let the tile itself do the work with a pattern on its surface. Less is more: covering a small area is enough to create visual appeal for the room without feeling overwhelmed by the pattern you choose. Try experimenting with where to put graphic tile for maximum impact.
Powerful Stone Tile
Stone tile like granite, marble, travertine, and others are still popular and powerful in appearance. Taking from nature is always a bold statement in the home, especially with larger tiles and single-piece slabs. Natural stone has a lot of internal variation in color and texture which can be beautiful in its unpredictability, but not if you want a lot of design control when tiling your kitchen. I can see how unexpected lines, cracks, blemishes, and other stone features can “ruin” a tile if you’re not hand-picking every one, so don’t go with stone if you can’t handle the design not turning out exactly as imagined.
Glossy Glass Tile
Glass tile is contemporary and high-gloss, giving a different look to your kitchen than traditional ceramic. They’re available in most of the same sizes and colors as other tiles so you don’t have to compromise when choosing glass, and are translucent to let the color through. Glass is also reflective, making the space feel brighter and larger, which is always a perk in any room of the house.
Deceptive Wood Look Kitchen Tile
Wood look tile might not be your first choice for a backsplash, but is a solid choice for your kitchen floors. It’s convincing in its appearance as wood, but is made of sturdy, waterproof porcelain. No need to worry about damaging or warping the boards with water exposure, like underneath the ice dispenser or below the kitchen sink. As opposed to the real thing, every kitchen should consider a wood look tile to maintain its image over time but still get that good wood feeling throughout.
With so many options to choose from, your kitchen is a veritable playground of design ideas just waiting to happen. Aside from the bathroom, the kitchen is the best place to bring out your favorite tiles and personalize your space.
