Ways to inexpensively use tile in your home

Creating an Upscale design With Tile without the high price tag

Tile is one of the oldest and most beloved forms of design elements. It’s been used and reinvented to create unique spaces year after year. We love incorporating tile because the color, size, material, and installation allow for immense creative freedom and completely transform the same shell of a bathroom into countless unique looks. Tiles are extremely durable which makes them great for wet spaces like kitchens and bathrooms. Most importantly, we want our clients to know there are ways to incorporate inexpensive tiles in really unique ways to assist in a successful project without blowing the budget. 

GET CREATIVE WITH COLOR COMBINATIONS AND PATTERNS

The most important way to tile a space inexpensively is to focus on the installation. Instead of buying custom-cut, high-gloss, porcelain tiles, you can create beautiful spaces in a more cost-effective manner by thinking creatively using “ordinary” tiles.

• Combine different colors to create a unique take on a traditional checkered pattern

• Play with a linear, brick wall, or herringbone patterns.

types of tile material and price points

A tiling project requires buying a significant number of tiles, so the material they are made of has a lot to do with the price of the project. Typically, ceramic is the most cost friendly, while porcelain, marble, granite, and stone are more expensive. There are some really good dupe's out there that do a fabulous job mimicking natural stones. We would warn you to be careful in how you use them.

Pro Tips

1. ALWAYS look up the overall pattern of the faux marble. Sometimes they look great in a single sample, but look really cheap or fake in a large pattern. They have a reputation of looking busy pretty quickly so seeing an installed image of the tile is imperative.

2. If you are going to use a faux marble tile in a space, try to use a countertop material that isn’t also mimicking a natural stone. Using a real marble next to next to a printed version highlights the fact that it isn’t the real deal. (Same goes for LVP and real wood)

LABOR COST CONSIDERATIONS

When working within a budget for your tile project, selecting the tiles is only the first step. Next, one has to consider the cost of installation. The size of the tiles and the pattern they’re installed in, both affect how much the cost of labor. Mosaic tiles (small tiles laid on a sheet) and really oversized tiles are the more expensive to install. We’ve found the sweet spot for labor seems to be 12 x 24” tiles or in that general range. In terms of installation pattern, straight stack patterns are less expensive than staggered or diagonal patterns (like herringbone) as they require less finessing and cutting.