Ceramic Tile Ideas

Have you fallen in love with ceramic tile and now look for ceramic tile ideas to dress up your home and garden areas? Well, the secret to great ceramic tile ideas involves simplicity in design and a light touch on the use of colors.

Everyone knows about ceramic tile ideas that encompass covering walls, floor, and countertops. But often the results turn out boring because the single-colored or patterned tiles have been laid straight across the surface in question with no thought to design. But have you thought about mixing up the look with listellos, trim, and other colors of tile?

One example of ceramic tile ideas that is easy to do is this: For a kitchen floor, lay out the tile in a single, solid color everywhere except in front of the sink or island area. For these spaces, use the same sized tile, but create a block pattern of three different solid colors with perhaps a patterned tile that incorporates all three colors. When finished, you will have what appears to be an “area rug” of blocked colors – made from ceramic tile.

Another simple trick in the list of ceramic tile ideas includes using listellos. A listello is a long, narrow tile that can be either a plain, solid-colored tile or a highly decorative one that may even incorporate a raised pattern. One easy method of getting the biggest bang for just a little effort using listellos involves using them in creating a granite kitchen island. In this instance, we’ll suggest using black granite as the field tiles. Lay the granite tiles all around the island’s top, leaving space for the listellos one tile inward from the perimeter of the island edges. Go back and install the listellos. Now you have a chicly simple design using a minimum amount of effort. You could employ this same design on a kitchen backsplash to pull the décor together in a stunningly complementary motif.

When considering ceramic tile ideas, always go with the least amount of “busy-ness” in a pattern. Overdoing patterns and using too many colors is the hallmark of an amateur, so go easy on both. Keep everything color-coordinated and don’t use more than two or three colors in a design. Most importantly, have fun! The most successful ceramic tile ideas come to fruition when the installer enjoys the work!