Rough, coarse, smooth, or silky… Texture is an integral part of any design – in fact, it’s a simple way to turn an interior from ‘missing something’ to ‘must-see’. Of course, you need the right color palette, furniture and layout, but forgetting to layer in texture can lead to a space that feels incomplete!
When playing with texture, we often tend to focus on obvious areas of fabric in the room, however, integrating texture is more than just adding a throw rug here and some fringe-edged cushions there. Quite simply, it’s a mistake to leave other surfaces - such as the walls and floors - out of the equation. Luckily, that’s where textured tile designs come into play – a design trend that excites our senses while taking a room’s style to another dimension!
The beauty of Zellige tiles is that they invite a layer of organic aesthetic with their perfectly imperfect surface. The handmade exture added by La Riviera Quetzal Ceramic Tile gave this wall space a distinct, natural feeling to take the bathroom’s aesthetics to a whole new level.
There’s no denying the role of texture with a cozy, soft carpet between our toes or with a rough-sawn wooden table running under our hands. But if you want to create a design scheme that’s rich and full of depth, you should not rely on just fabric or furniture finishes. In fact, there are a few areas in a home where fabrics don’t play a significant impact - such as in bathrooms and kitchens where wall and floor tiles determine the overall feeling of the space.
Textured tiles allow us to turn away from homogenous surfaces, creating walls and floors full of nuance, and stimulate our senses to achieve greater visual impact. Such tiles create endless possibilities for interior design projects– you can choose from 3D wall tiles to class up a modern bathroom wall to Zellige tiles that create a play of light in a chic kitchen. Whether you prefer metallic tiles to introduce an exciting element to a blank wall, or etched tiles to dress up your floors with an old-world feel, one thing is for sure: these tiles make an unforgettable statement!
If you haven't taken a look at the myriad of possibilities you can add with tile textures, this post has a ton of ideas to inspire your inner designer! Ready to take a look at our favorite ways to use tiles that excite the senses?
Ways to Design with Textured Tiles
1. Warm Up White Kitchen Décor
Everyone knows that a predominantly white kitchen is the little black dress of interior design, but not every person realizes that designing an all-white room isn’t as simple as it may seem. The lack of different textures can easily turn your white décor that can (at times) feel one-dimensional, and quite sterile. When our eyes need something to gravitate towards, a textured tile backsplash can be your secret weapon to add a visually dynamic element to your room.
A textured tile design is the golden opportunity to provide additional layers of textural appeal to keep an all-white kitchen scheme from looking one-note. Since color is absent, a beveled subway tile steps in to fill this kitchen décor with personality as well as to warm things up a little. With its delicate veining in golden hues and a slope at the edges, we love the way Calacatta Gold 3x6 Beveled MarbleTile skews the white color palette toward warmer tones while its 3D texture helps elevate what would otherwise feel like a flat kitchen setup!
Add dimension to a white kitchen backsplash with a dimensional tile! The glazed angled facets of our Chateau White Square Ceramic Mosaic Tile are not only gorgeous, but they're easy to clean! This combo creates a charming and dynamic detail to elevate a white kitchen design!
2. Energize Your Bathroom Walls with 3D TIle
When you want your space to benefit from artsy wall décor, adding 3D wall tiles is the easiest way to bring life to a room without the expense of replacing the furniture. But while you may only imagine a 3D wall in your living room, bedroom or entryway, there’s a space that’s often overlooked – the bathroom! So, how about giving your bathroom the decoration attention it deserves, and turning the wall area into a magnificent art feature with 3D tiles?
Varana Morengo Décor displays a sculptural effect that lends to a captivating interplay of light and shadows, tricking the eyes to see more space than is really there. This deep gray 3D porcelain tile is a durable choice for textured tile wall designs, bringing an energizing flow to the bathroom, especially for those mornings when you need a little help getting ready for the day!
Porcelain tiles in a 3D graphic pattern are ideal for industrial, contemporary or eclectic bathroom designs and they hit the mark when used from floor to bottom! These tiles push the limits of traditional tile to give you visual interest, and make an ideal accompaniment for wet areas thanks to the non-porous and water-resistant qualities of the porcelain. From designs that resemble crinkled waves, wind-blown sands, and unique dimensional illusions, 3D porcelain tiles will easily make any bathroom feel more luxurious and original!
3. Design an Artisanal Fireplace Surround
If looking at your fireplace makes you want to snooze, it might not be the warmth of flames. It might be your fireplace décor that looks dull or grab – and that means it’s time for an upgrade to create the show-stopping centerpiece you’ve been dreaming of! Textured tile designs offer a fascinating design element to bring a whole new dimension to your fireplace surround while elevating the whole living space, creating a true focal point in your interior!
With little effort, the striking patterns of a textured tile can create an impressive feature wall around the fireplace that is truly outside-of-the-box. This living room decided to kiss the classic plain tiles goodbye and draw the eyes with 3D wall tiles for a fabulous textural touch! Decor Sospiro Smoke Ceramic Tile adds a unique artisanal appeal to the modern fireplace design and turns the entire wall into an architectural interest!
4. Create a Black Bathroom with Depth
Stylish, sophisticated and so easy to match with other shades, black is the trending color for a dramatic take on luxury bathrooms. However, designers agree that executing a bold black bathroom demands a bit more thought than a can of black paint. Most well-designed black bathrooms, indeed, have one thing in common: highly reflective textures. If you need a bit help mastering both reflection and texture for a brilliantly black bathroom design, here’s the solution for all: Zellige tiles!
Zellige tiles work really well to create shadows within the black color, thanks to their handmade look that allows light to bounce off them in a way you could never get with perfectly smooth tiles. Consider black Zellige wall tiles to set a rich backdrop for a masculine interior design and extend them up the entire wall to max the effect of reflective surfaces of an otherwise light-absorbing space. Plus, the contrast of black textured tiles and smooth, lustrous brass is a swoon-worthy combination - this powder room with Mallorca Black ceramic tiles is all the proof we need!
Take a cue from this scene and opt for grey or white grout to make your textured tile the star attraction in the space!
If you prefer a moodier approach, keep your grout dark to create a seamless look! This Diamond Black Glass Pebble Mosaic Tile combines polished and frosted glass in a pebble tile design to add stunning texture and sheen, while the dark gray colored grout to let the detail stand out rather than add a contrasting color.
TILE TIP: Test out a small swatch of your grout in an out-of-the-way corner to make sure you like the results with your tile before you grout the whole area!
5. Set Your Coffee Station Apart with a Textured Backsplash
For coffee lovers out there, a well decorated coffee station can celebrate one’s love of the beverage while creating an inviting space to sit down and take a moment to relax! When it comes to setting up a premium coffee shop experience at your very own home, an espresso bar with a textured tile design is a durable design element that allows you to put your personal stamp onto this area. It doesn’t matter if you’re going for a farmhouse, modern interior or a Rae Dunn-inspired look – a textured tile wall brings so much more dimension to this corner that you cannot get with a few coffee shop signs here and there!
For bright and cheerful mornings, you can set your coffee station apart with a textured tile backsplash that adds a playful pattern – the uniform surface on the six-sided pattern of our Textured Cararra Honeycomb Hexagon Marble Mosaic Tile is what truly magnifies the beauty of this corner. This coffee nook fits perfectly into an arched alcove in this white and blue kitchen with open shelves and copper drawer pulls.
Going with a textured tile in neutral colors will also allow you to get more creative with your mugs and accessories – in case you want to get into the spirit of each season, and change up the style just like in your local coffee shops!
6. Evoke Old-World Ambience with your Foyer Floor
Do you enjoy tactile sensation under your feet? Or a bit of pattern that gives you the illusion of time travel? Then take note - this style’s for you! You can treat your feet in the most stylish way with etched tiles for a décor that resemble the villas in Mediterranean coasts of Spain, and bring an art-like effect to your floors that looks like one precious giant rug in the entryway.
Just like in a painting, where you create a greater sense of depth in the foreground with thicker abundant strokes, our Moroccan Blue Star & White Cross Etched Marble Mosaic Tile features tactile difference between the blue and white details on the intricately etched stone. It’s fine detailing provides textural interest to the foyer’s two-toned palette and makes a lasting first impression with history in mind.
Note that tiles with an etched surface can look beautiful when set in between plain tiles too! When used to create accent features on a floor, they will look like jewels just waiting to be discovered!
7. Class Up an Entryway Wall
Speaking of entryways, thinking of how you have limited space to experiment with texture? How about putting up etched tiles for a textured wall décor instead of a series of photos? You can make use of this idea especially if your foyer is narrow - a textured wall design with minimum accessories in the design will give an open, neat and classy feel.
A textured subway tile is a foolproof way to give the classic natural stone tile a well-deserved refresh — this entryway wall is a prime example. With an authentic texture and movement inspired by an alligator’s skin, Carrara Gator Etched Subway Marble Tile is a transforming piece for this narrow space - it almost begs to be touched and inspected more closely!
8. Give an Artistic Boost to Rug-Free Rooms
Yes, a rug does so much to warm up and add texture to a living room, but don’t think you have to add one to create a visual boost in your room’s setting. Sometimes bare floors are the best solution - especially when you have pets or kids, or just looking for something that is stain resistant instead – and when textured floor tiles do all the show stopping! Wood-look tiles with extra texture add that much-needed warmth to help bare floors from feeling stark, and ensure that the final room is inviting without carpet underfoot.
Not only the tactile texture but also the modern geometrical design of the Melange Natural floor tile is what keeps this room from feeling too sparse. The warm appeal of wood-look tile lends a ground effect and the typically raised texture of these tiles gives them non-slip properties, making them an ideal choice for living rooms, entryways, as well as kitchens and bathrooms that tend to get slippery. If you had an interesting texture that needed no covering up, would you still need a rug?
Ionic Decor Code Steel 3D Porcelain Tile infuses a luminous dimension which is ideal for this neutral bathroom design that would otherwise display a visual repetition on all surfaces.
Texture gives depth to a room even before you enter it, exciting your senses just from the doorway. As you’ve seen in the examples above, a room isn’t made of just color, furniture and layout. Incorporating texture can challenge and awaken your senses, and give you feelings you’d be surprised you get just from a room!
While you can add different tactile qualities to a room in a whole host of ways, on a large or small scale, textured tile designs help break up the sameness on wall and floor areas where you’d not always expect an unconventional touch. As a matter of fact, it’s all about the details!
