Decorative Tiles - Adding Colour & Interest to Your Tiled Walls

Wall tiles have been used in homes for centuries, across the world from ancient Egypt to China and beyond. They have remained a part of people’s homes consistently throughout this time. Ceramic tiles are durable, made from natural materials and are practical. They can withstand regular cleaning and the moisture, humidity and temperature fluctuations of a kitchen or bathroom. But they don’t just have to be practical. Decorative wall tiles can be a beautiful addition to home decor – turning a plain wall or splashback into a striking feature wall. In this blog, we are going to look at some decorative tiles ideas for your interior design project.

Decorative Tiles - Ceramic mosaic tiles covering the outside of an historical building — Decorative tiles have been used to create incredibly beautiful designs, while protecting walls, for centuries.

Decorative Tiles: Border Tiles

One of the traditional ways of using decorative wall tiles is to use a horizontal line of rectangular border tiles along a wall. These could be across the middle of a fully tiled wall to break up an otherwise plain wall, or as the top or bottom row of tiles, to act as a border or edge for the tiled wall. Border tiles are a relatively subtle way to add decorative tiles to your walls:

Decorative Tiles - Red rose floral border tiles pattern example — These red rose border tiles add a subtle little touch of colour to a otherwise plain wall.

Decorative Tiles - Yellow Roses Border Tiles Pattern Example — Another example of using decorative tiles for a border, this time with a vintage inspired yellow roses design

Decorative Tiles Scattered Among Plain Tiles

Another popular and subtle way to use decorative tiles to add interest to a tiled wall and break up a large tiled area is to just choose a few to scatter here and there on your wall. Single flower tiles work well in this type of design, either using the same tile and repeating – or a selection of different decorative wall tiles adds even more interest.

Decorative Tiles - Pink watercolour scattered roses tiles pattern example — These decorative wall tiles with pale pink roses were originally painted in watercolours, giving them a hand-painted effect, with delicate colours and lots of detail. Another way to break up a plain tiled wall by using just a few decorative tiles.

Hydrangea Single Pink and Blue Scattered decorative tiles pattern Example — But there’s no need to stick to one colour or style – this pattern has both blue and pink Hydrangea flower decorative tiles.

A variation of using plain tiles and decorative tiles together is a check pattern, where decorative tiles alternate with plain tiles:

Decorative Tiles - Pale green roses wall tiles check pattern example — Alternating plain and decorative tiles in a check pattern is another popular tiling pattern. Using tiles in a checker pattern includes lots of detail and interest while keeping an element of plain tiles too.

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Decorative Wall Tiles: Patterned Tiles

Until recent years, decorative tiles have often been either brightly coloured without a pattern, or geometric patterns. Moroccan and Mexican tiles are often colourful and brightly patterned, but at Floral Tiles we wanted to create wall tiles which were more detailed, with softer colours and vintage-inspired. So Floral Tiles have created a range of more than forty floral patterned tiles, in a range of styles and colours.

Decorative tiles - a selection of decorative ceramic wall tiles with floral designs — Some of the decorative tiles in Floral Tiles’ range.

Some of our decorative wall tiles are based on antique botanical illustrations, which is a great way to use tiles in a room with vintage decor. Other tiles in the range were originally painted in delicate watercolours, giving them a hand-painted look.

Patterned decorative wall tiles are ‘seamless’ in some cases – meaning that they can be placed together to create a larger pattern. Patterned tiles can be a good choice if you would like to create a feature wall in a kitchen or bathroom – where patterned wallpaper often struggles to withstand the moisture and humidity for long.

Grey and white roses seamless pattern decorative tiles example — Here is an example of a seamless pattern – with a grey and white roses design – where the pattern continues when the tiles are placed together. There are many grout colours available, so it could be possible to choose a grout to match the tile too. If you like this pattern but not the colour, it is available in dark blue, light blue, pink and yellow, too.

Decorative Tiles - Retro floral pattern ceramic wall tiles — A highly decorative seamless pattern, this time in a retro, mid century style floral pattern with bright pinks, yellows and teal.

Decorative Tiles - Vintage Flower Wall Tiles Seamless Pattern Example — These vintage style floral tiles can be placed together to create a pretty pattern, almost Victorian in style.

Decorative tiles - Blue Roses Patterned ceramic wall tile — Of course, not all decorative tiles have seamless patterns or need to be used as part of a repeated pattern. Some, such as this blue and white roses design could be used as part of a checker pattern, or with other decorative wall tiles to create a patchwork feature wall (more on that later).

More Patterned Decorative Tiles

Decorative Tiles: Printed Photo Tiles and Tile Murals

There are companies who will take your own photo or illustration and print it onto tiles – a good option if you have very specific colours or style in mind, or you have a favourite photo you’d like to use to create permanent wall art.

A tile mural is a design or image which covers multiple tiles – some can be huge and cover entire walls. Floral Tiles don’t currently offer photo tile printing or tile murals, but a quick Google should turn up lots of options if this is what you had in mind for your decorative tiles.

Decorative Tiles - blue and white tile mural example — Tile murals are usually images which cover multiple tiles and can be highly decorative.

Decorative Wall Tiles – Patchwork Pattern Feature Walls

If you’d like to be really creative with your decorative wall tiles and create a unique and eye-catching feature wall, patchwork tile patterns are an excellent way to do this. Patchwork patterns tend to use an eclectic mix of decorative tiles with different colours, patterns and styles to create a colourful interior design statement.

Decorative Tiles - Pale pinks patchwork tiles pattern example — Patchwork patterns can be based around a certain colour scheme, such as this pink example.

Decorative tiles - patchwork tile pattern in greens — Or as in this example of decorative wall tiles being used to create a patchwork pattern – in greens.

Decorative Tiles - pink Hydrangea flowers patchwork pattern example — Alternatively, the pattern can be based on your favourite type of flower – such as this pink Hydrangea example.

Decorative Tiles - blue roses decorative wall tiles in a patchwork pattern — Using plain coloured tiles among your decorative tiles can also work well when creating a patchwork pattern.

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Feeling Inspired?

I hope these ideas have inspired you to use some decorative wall tiles in your interior design – the possibilities are endless and some really beautiful feature walls can be created with them. For more tiles ideas and inspiration, you can find our other blog posts here. To take a look at all of the decorative tiles in our range, you can find our shop here. Best of luck with redecorating!