The complete guide to choosing white tiles for your home

White tiles offer a simple yet obvious choice for those wanting an enduring, versatile and stylish solution. They can serve as the perfect foundation or the ideal contrast and will rarely not be trending!

If you’re looking for white kitchen or bathroom tiles, subways, mosaics, matt or glossy tiles, the shades, sizes, textures and finishes of contemporary tile layouts are limitless. While some designers may avoid white wall or white floor tiles in living spaces at the risk of being too plain or obvious, the range of depth, texture and sophistication that can be achieved with white tile layouts should not be underestimated.

When choosing white tiles, there are many things to consider – from which shades of white will best suit your design, to how many you’ll need, to cover the space you’re tiling. You may also need to choose different white tiles for different surfaces and trims and of course grout and other materials that will be essential to achieve the final result.

For those looking for a clean, contemporary foundation, our Pure White Gloss Recitified tile is a strong example of how modern white tiles can achieve a crisp, refined level of whiteness in interior design. With a clean, consistent white finish designed specifically for wall applications, it works seamlessly across kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces, offering a timeless backdrop that enhances light, space and surrounding materials depending on your overall aesthetic.

How white is white?

One person’s white is another person’s beige, so learning about all the shades of white is important. The variations in pigments, textures, base tones and even the light of the room can determine the appearance of ‘whiteness’ of the white tiles you choose.

Undertones

The starting point in the white spectrum is pure white which has no undertones and is the crispest, ‘whitest’ version of white. Adding small amounts of colour to pure white brings in undertones and develops ‘off white’. Yellows and reds create ‘warm’ whites, while blues and greens create ‘cool’ whites and the undertone will determine its closeness to grey at the cool end and beige at the warm end. The sheer number of whites is amazing - from white to off-white, eggshell to ivory, ice white to snowflake, alabaster to porcelain, or bone to chalk.

Undertones are also significant in how they clash or complement against other tones, colours or lighting. An aesthetic that features natural materials such as timber, wicker, and brick, along with a neutral colour palette such as creams and pastels, may benefit from white tiles with warm undertones. White tiles with cool undertones may pair better with interiors that feature stone, glass, or stainless steel. Similarly, cool colour palettes that feature greys, blues, and charcoals, and palettes with jewel tones such as sapphire, emerald and ruby may feel colder when paired with a cool white tile, or a warm white tile may appear yellowed or dirty in contrast.

Design for beginners

Your choice of undertone, along with lighting, furnishings, floor coverings and window dressings, is critical to bring your design together and achieve the look and feel you want in the space. A tile will look completely different under natural warm sunlight compared to bright cool white halogen downlights. The wrong size, shape or layout can also be your undoing. Learn from the successes of others and do your research!

Pinterest

Before the overwhelm sets in, sign up for a Pinterest account and start pinning your favourite designs to a board for referencing later. Search ‘white interiors’ or ‘white tile layouts’ and consider the choices others have made in their projects regarding colour, finish, grout and layout and how they’ve styled them. As you fill your board with ideas, patterns will emerge and you can refine your choices based on the things you consistently choose. This process will reveal your true design aesthetic for your project, and this can often be surprising!

Gloss versus matt

You should also consider the finish of a tile in the context of your design. If you want to brighten and open up a space, the reflective qualities of gloss tiles are ideal. However, they’ll also highlight any flaws or imperfections so take care using them against old fittings and fixtures. Matt tiles are great in high traffic or wet areas as they offer better slip resistance, they also offer a softer more forgiving finish but can be dull and collect grime more easily in the wrong location.

Size does matter

Make sure you have the exact dimensions of the areas to be tiled and then do some quick maths based on the size of tiles and their cost per square metre. In some cases, the tile you want may be ruled out over the tile you can afford thanks to budget. You may also choose to go for a larger tile that’s on sale as it covers more surface area, or a smaller tile due the actual area you need covered.

Shape and layout

Often the design you have in mind will require a certain shape of tile and vice versa, for example a subway tiled bathroom wall, a mosaic edged bathtub, or large patterned tiles that need to be laid to a plan to create an overall picture or design. Laying tiles out in vertical or horizontal patterns can make a room seem bigger or wider and creating a pattern such as herringbone or stripes in a layout can bring energy and vibrancy or flow into what might otherwise be a dull space. Knowing the colour palette of your overall design is crucial here so you can define a white tile layout that fits.

Keep it practical

Cleaning and maintenance should also be considered. If they’re floor tiles in high traffic areas, are they safe and will they mark easily? Black high gloss tiles will show every sweaty footprint and slippery tiles in a bathroom are a definite no. Gloss finishes are ideal for splashbacks and benchtops because they’re easy to clean, while matt tiles are less prone to fingerprints, smears and smudges but their rough surfaces may collect grime more easily. Your future self will thank you for the right choices here.

Try before you buy

As you make choices on all of these features, it’s a good idea to have a few options for each in mind because once you see the real thing in place you might change your mind. Before any final decision is made, play with some samples on site to validate your choices.

Let’s get creative

Having physical samples in your hands will allow you to indulge your creativity and play around with different options on walls and floors. See how they look in different light and against other materials such as timber floors, marble walls, stainless steel benchtops, or glass. You can also play around with combinations of matt and gloss white tiles, and different textures or colours.

One of the big advantages of white tiles is the scope for experimentation. They pair well with almost every colour, contrast and texture and can function as both feature, foundation or contrast tile. They also offer great flexibility as wall or floor tiles, for the same reasons. When you’re choosing white tiles, consider which will better suit walls versus floors and how those choices will pair or contrast with the surrounding cabinets, countertops, fittings and fixtures.

Tiles in motion

Make sure you get enough samples to cover an area rather than just one of each – you want to see what the tiling will look like once all the tiles are laid and also visualise the colour of grout that will work best. You’ll get different layout results with identical tiles versus unique or multi-face tiles. The face of a tile refers to the distinct pattern or features on the tile and is especially important when designing a white tile layout. A Carrara tile for example comes in 24 faces, so each tile is the same colour, but there are 24 different marbling patterns as options. Laying one 600mm x 600mm tile on a floor or a wall as an example will not give you the same perspective as laying six tiles with six different faces. Multiple options help you understand how the marbling pattern will flow together, and also how the actual size of the tile feels in the space.

Another example where this is important is Zellige tiles, which have a handcrafted appearance and high variation in shades between each tile. So, although you may choose the white tile once you get a dozen or more of them in your hands, you’ll see that each individual tile has a slightly different colour and texture. When placed together they create a beautiful rustic, multi toned palette which may or may not be what you’re looking for.

Get out the grout

Seeing the tiles laid out in place is the best time to think about what grout you might choose for your project. If you want contrast go for grout that is darker than your tile, but if you want the finish to appear seamless, grout that matches the tile colour is a better option. In both cases you should consider maintenance – darker grouts will hide dirt but also mould, and lighter grouts will do the opposite which may be your preference.

Make your final choices

Finally, check back to your Pinterest board. Many of the white tile layouts you chose early will still resonate but you might also find white tiles were the only common feature between your final design and your original inspiration! White tiles definitely require thought and experimentation but with the right research and inspiration, can bring timeless elegance, bright airy vibes, and luxury to any room.