How to Match Tile Color with Your Interior Design
Choosing the correct tile color can completely transform the appearance and atmosphere of your home. Tiles are not only practical surfaces, but they also contribute to the overall interior design of your home. A good color combination can make your room look bigger, brighter, warmer, calmer, and more luxurious, too much of the incorrect combination can do the opposite even in a well-designed space.
Regardless if you are designing a contemporary living room, a sophisticated bedroom, a chic kitchen or a spa-like bathroom, knowing how to pair tile color with your interior design can help you create a room that feels comfortable and considered.
Why Tile Color Matters in Interior Design
Tile color is important when it comes to defining the look of a room. Because floors and walls have the potential to cover large areas, the colors of these can affect the appearance of furniture, lighting, decoration and building elements.
Bright walls, floors, and ceilings are a great way to make small spaces seem more open and airier, whereas darker shades can add elegance and intimacy to the atmosphere. Neutral colors like beige, ivory, taupe, grey and off white are the most adaptable as they suit just about any décor scheme and style of furniture.
With tiles, when you’re making choices, think beyond the tile. Take into account the entire color scheme of the room, with the walls, furniture, curtains, cabinets, lighting and decorative items.
Start with Your Interior Color Palette
Before you select a tile color, determine the prevailing colors that are already in your room. This is one of the simplest ways to achieve a matched interior.
If your furniture and walls are strong colors or patterns, use neutral tiles to bring the eye rest. Conversely, if your décor is clean, white and plain, then tiles with light variation, texture or a pop of color can create interest.
A simple approach is to follow the 60-30-10 color rule:
· 60%: Dominant color, usually walls, flooring, or larger surfaces
· 30%: Secondary color, such as furniture or cabinetry
· 10%: Accent color used through décor and accessories
Your tiles can become the foundation of this color scheme.
Choose Tile Colors According to Room Size
Ensure the size of your room is considered when choosing your tile color.
For smaller spaces, light and muted tones can bounce more light around and open up a space visually. Warm white, cream, beige, light grey and soft taupe are some of the shades that can work really well.
With big rooms, you can afford to be a trifle bolder with your color choices. Charcoal, dark grey, rustic brown and many other elegant colors can be used to create a striking and opulent look.
But the room size is just a part of the story. Natural light, ceiling height, furniture color and tile finish should also be taken into consideration before the final decision ok taker.
Match Floor Tiles with Wall Colors
Interior design coordination has many facets, and one of those is to harmonize the floor and wall tiles together.
You don't have to get the exact same color. Just go for complementary colors.
For instance, warm beige floor tiles can look stunning against cream or off-white walls. Cool grey flooring can also complement soft grey, white or light neutral walls.
Alternatively, a darker floor combined with lighter walls can create contrast for a more modern look. This play on text can give some depth to the room without making it feel too cluttered.
When working with patterned or textured wall tiles, try to bring a subtler tone on the floor. That makes the feature wall the special point.
Consider Warm and Cool Tones
Warm and cool color theory can help with matching color in interior tile.
Warm tile colors are beige, cream, sand, terracotta-based shades, and warm taupe. These tones can help bring a warm and cozy feeling into a room.
Cool shades of blue-grey, off white, slate based grey and some muted greens. They can emanate a clean, modern, and soothing environment.
Try to stay consistent with the undertones of your tiles and other elements of your interiors. Warm rooms can look out of place when combined with tiles that have strong cool undertones.
Match Tiles with Furniture and Décor
Your choice of furnishings should also determine your tile color ideas.
If you have dark furniture, light tile can provide contrast and help keep the space from feeling too heavy. If your furniture is light and airy, darker or mid-tone tiles can help define the space.
For wooden furniture, tiling in earthy and neutral color palettes can also lend a naturally harmonious look. For sleek black, white, or grey contemporary furniture, neutral, cool blues will complement a clean-lined look.
Keep in mind that matching doesn’t mean making everything the same. Great interiors are about relationships between colors, not one color repeated endlessly.
Use Tile Color to Create a Visual Mood
Different tile colors can communicate different moods.
White and ivory: Clean, bright, spacious, and timeless.
Beige and taupe: Warm, elegant, comfortable, and sophisticated.
Light grey: Contemporary, refined, and minimalist.
Dark grey: Dramatic, luxurious, and modern.
Earthy tones: Natural, welcoming, and organic.
When selecting a color, consider how you want the room to make you feel. A calming bedroom may be decorated in gentle neutral hues, whereas a modern sitting room can cope with a little more contrast.
Think About Natural and Artificial Lighting
Lighting can drastically alter the appearance of a tile color.
A tile that looks warm and creamy under the showroom lights may look different in real life. Neutral tiles can have their tones modified by artificial warm light in the evening.
If you can you should always check out your favorite tile sample in the room that it's going to be used in. Look at it at different times of the day and in natural and artificial light.
This is especially true when choosing subtle hues, as minor variations in undertone may become more apparent when the tile is laid out over a distance.
Don't Forget Grout Color
Grout is one of those minor details that can really make or break your tile design as a whole.
A grout color that is close to the tile gives a seamless look and it can make the surface look more continuous. Contrasting grout color emphasizes individual tile shapes and grout lines creating a more intricate pattern.
For a simple interior, you can achieve the clean and elegant look by bringing the grout color close to the color of the tile.
Create Contrast Without Losing Balance
If an interior is full of contrast it can look more eye-catching, but too much of it can make a room feel jarring.
A good rule of thumb is to pair one dominant color with complementary neutrals. For instance, a dark grey floor can be softened by warm white walls and furniture in natural hues.
Contrast can be created in texture instead of color. A mild textured tile juxtaposed with a plain wall can create dimension without overpowering the color scheme.
Test Before Making the Final Decision
One of the largest errors that homeowners make is choosing tiles just by looking at a tiny image on a catalogue.
Tile color can vary with room lighting, materials used around the tile, tile size, finish and installation pattern.
Do ask for a sample if at all feasible. Put it alongside your flooring and walls, and next to your furniture, cabinets, and other materials — so you can get a feel for how everything plays together.
Just this one stage will help you make more confident decision before the final tile choice commitment.
Final Thoughts
The best tile color for your home is not always the most fashionable color. It is the color that feels right for your room and your eyes, not just for your furniture and architecture, but for the other aspects of the design vision you have in mind.
Start from what you have got in terms of color, consider the scale and lighting of the room and match for both floor and walls, and layer in contrast. Most important of all: make sure you look at physical tile samples under your own home’s lighting before locking in your color.
With the right balance of color, texture, lighting and scale, tiles can be more than just a surface – they can help define the character and visual make-up of your home. Discover high quality tile patterns and color palettes that enable you to realize your interior vision with certainty of results.