Tips for Tiling the Walls of Your Home

When it comes to the walls of our homes, tiles have been used as a durable, aesthetically pleasing exterior and interior surface for thousands of years. In hot and cold climates, from Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas, tiles have been used all over the world to great success.

Using tiles for the exterior of a home is common, but it is important that the job is done right. With a properly prepared surface, quality mortar, and solid, high density tiles, your tile surface is likely to outlive you. However, improperly installed tiles could be prone to cracking, shattering, falling down, and a host of other problems. If you are doing a tile exterior, make sure you are using a reputable contractor and quality materials.

Using tiles in the bathroom

Tiles are a beautiful way to finish your bathroom walls. They are durable, easy to clean, and resistant to the moisture that showers and baths create. That said, in a small space like a bathroom, there are some important factors to keep in mind if you are installing tiles. Aesthetically speaking, cutting small tiles to fit into corners will be the most notable imperfection in your tile work. A great rule of thumb is working to avoid the use of small cut tiles, ensuring that tiles are never cut smaller than half the size of a regular tile. You can do this by adjusting the gap between tiles slightly to make sure that, once you get to the edge of a wall, you won’t need to cut a small sliver to fill in the gap.

Using tiles on kitchen walls

As with the bathroom, using tiles in the kitchen is a fantastic, durable surface. In the process of cooking, cleaning, and eating, the versatility of tiles will shine through in their easy clean up. When tiling in your kitchen, it is important to keep symmetry in mind, as tiles could stick out like a sore thumb if they don’t match. This is particularly important as you tile around your sink, stovetop, and counter space. You don’t want half-size tiles on one side of an object and full-size tiles on the other side. Plan ahead to make sure your layout is symmetrical, it will prevent those eye-catching mistakes down the road.

Tiling rules in any room

If you have a stain on a couch cushion, you turn it over to keep it out of sight. The same goes for tiling rooms in your home. You want to use full tiles in the highly visible areas, and hide your cut tiles in the corners where they are less noticeable. Nothing will catch the eye like an out-of-place cut piece in the middle of an open floor or wall.

For expert advice on tiling and other home improvement projects, talk to an expert to learn more.