Tile and colour selections

For a long time I’ve been hanging out to finalise our tile and colour selections.

Working in the vicinity of so many tile shops was great as it meant that I could go browse during my lunch hours. I think my face became familiar to a few places! There were many lovely tiles, but indecision struck, not really know what direction I should take things in.

Having finally decided on a marble splashback in the kitchen, and gotten quotes that we were satisfied with, I decided it was time to call up an interior designer and go choose some tiles and decide on the cabinetry colours.

Having previously engaged Tucker and Negus, I was looking forward to working with them again as I was confident that their style would suit us. Since the last time, the partnership has (amicably) dissolved and Matt is now working on his own.

So I met up with Matt again at Homebase Expo, we talked through my ideas and design options, and began choosing the kitchen cabinetry colours. Kitchen sorted, we then we drove into Osborne Park and looked at tiles.

Mr T. and I had previously chosen a floor tile, which I showed to Matt, and he said it was fine. Phew! That was lucky, because we’d struggled to find a dark floor tile that we both liked.  So with that out of the way, and the kitchen basically sorted, all we needed to look at were the wet areas. I said that I would prefer the wall colour to be light, so went looking at whiteish tiles. Initially, we looked at natural stone, but it quickly became obvious that it was far too expensive. Using the cheaper stone, he said, was fine but it basically meant that everything would have to be rehoned and polished afterwards, which would obviously make it less economical.

Now, some of you may have noticed that I love my shiny things, but after a while Matt managed to talk me into looking at some matte tiles, explaining how it fit better with the look we were trying to cultivate. OK, mind open I persevered. The first few he showed me, I didn’t like. They seemed a bit “plasticky”.

He finally found one I liked, although I was worried it wouldn’t pass muster with Mr T. But the more I looked at it the more I really liked it. The colour was a wonderfully neutral soft white and it looked so elegant in the shop, I decided this was the one.

Bathroom tile inspiration. This is the grey tile, the white tile is more subtle. Thinking of laying it vertically rather than horizontal, so it looks like a waterfall.

Decision made, Matt suggested keeping things simple and use the tile in all the wet areas. This seemed like an easy enough decision, seeing as I hadn’t really seen anything else that would fit the bill! This tile also comes in a plain untextured version, so I’m keeping this in the back of my mind too, we might want to swap out some areas so it’s not too overwhelming.

However, I did have one caveat. I wanted something a bit more glitzy and fun in the laundry. Matt pouted but gave in, so we went looking for a tile that was shiny but still fit in with the rest of what we’d already selected. It was harder than I thought it would be. Once you go down one path it’s hard to change course. We went to a few places and then wound up in Tile Boutique, where we hit gold! Matt was so impressed he took a photo of the tile for himself.

The colour is a bit creamier than the bathroom tile, and it has a wonderful sheen to it, but it has a similar wavy pattern that seems to speak with the other tile.

Tiles selected, we popped into the Laminex showroom and quickly chose the matching laminate colours.
So with that, things seem to be sorted for now. I do have some niggling concerns about how easy or difficult the tiles will be to clean, so I’m road testing those out now.

In the meantime, I’ve put together some picture boards showing our selections.