Ceramic Tiles Design Guide
A brief guide to ceramic tiles, their uses and the types of floor tiles available.
:: Ceramic Tiles
:: Tile Guide
:: Tile Resources
When you walk into a room, the structural element most exposed is usually the floor. Walls have furniture standing against them, with pictures or cupboards above, and are interrupted by doors and windows. One's eye is rarely led directly up to the ceiling unless it is decorated in a special way. The floor, however, spreads out before you. Its visual importance makes it a powerful element: it can make a positive contribution to the success of a room's decoration, or it can make a mess of it. Alternatively, it can retire quietly and discreetly, leaving some other element of the room to make an overriding visual statement.
Pattern
is clearly significant in this context, both on the individual tile and
over the floor as a whole. Use it carefully to avoid fussiness, especially
if
you plan quite an elaborate floor. Conversely, use pattern to give
interest
to a plain and simple or empty room. In either case, consider
whether these are the only tiles in the room: in a kitchen or bathroom,
for example, there may well be other tiles, on walls or other surfaces.
If there are to be other tiles, plan the tiling as a whole, linking the
different areas to each other and possibly limiting pattern to either
the floor or the walls.
— encaustic tiles, for example, and inlaid, medieval-style, crafts
man-made tiles.
Apart from the square, the other most regular shape is the rectangle. This can be laid on its own in a variety of patterns including the classic herringbone. at right angles to each other and separated by small squares in a loose basket-weave pattern, or in different sizes and combined with squares of different sizes for a more random effect. The rectangle has an elegant variation in the six-sided lozenge, in which each end of the rectangle has been extended into a point. These fit together by themselves, in a close-fitting basket-weave pattern, or with squares of various sizes, in a number of satisfying patterns. There are other, more elaborate, shapes of tile, most notably in the Islamic style, which are generally made of glazed stoneware suitable for walls rather than floors.
Various patterns can be made with plain square tiles of the same size but
different colours. They may be different colours because they are made from
different materials, or from different types of the same material — red and
yellow.
With three colours of tiles, a kaleidoscope of patterns becomes possible,
generally with an effect rather like tartan or plaid. Set lines of each colour
either straight or diagonally to the walls, or diagonally across a straight
grid. Or form a chequerboard from alternate single or double squares of darker-coloured
tiles separated by squares of lighter tiles. Alternatively, the squares can
be formed from two of each darker colour, set diagonally. Three or more colours
can also be placed apparently at random, though it is worthwhile planning the
'random' effect carefully in advance. Do this by drawing it out first, or make
a plan using small cutout squares of different colours,
corresponding to the tile colours you are considering (so that you can order
roughly the correct number of each colour) and then by laying the tiles out
dry and loose on the floor to confirm your design before fixing them in place.
CERAMIC TILES
