Home Tile Design and Decor Trends

Tile has gone from being a functional way to add some variety to the interior decor of a home, to taking center stage as one of the premier design elements in any bathroom or kitchen. The versatility of tile continues to show up in living rooms, hallways, and other areas of the home where tile had never been considered welcome in the past.

The shift in attitudes about tile has more to do with changes in decor preferences than any technological innovations. It can be said that new manufacturing methods for tile have helped to make certain types of tile more available to homeowners, but this shift in design philosophy has more to do with the changing needs and tastes of homeowners.

Glass Accent Tile

One of the common themes that runs through many contemporary design trends is utilizing natural light. In some cases, the natural light is used to reduce the need for expensive artificial light. With tile design and decor, glass tiles are used to capture the light and give a very unique look to any room.

Glass tiles are often cut in one-inch squares and then fashioned together into a one-foot square piece that is used for kitchen back splashes and bathroom tub surrounds. The glass is often given a tint of color to enhance the effect when the light hits it throughout the day. Another part of this trend is that most glass tiles are made from recycled glass products, which makes them environmentally friendly as well.

Metal Tiles

It used to be that a homeowner had to invest in huge sheets of stainless steel or copper if they wanted to have a metallic finish to their walls. But that problem has been solved by the recent rise in metal tiles for the bathroom, kitchen, and any other room in the house.

These tiles are also made from recycled materials and are used as the main wall covering for bathrooms, or for accent pieces in hallways and living rooms. It is much easier to work with metal tiles than it is with huge sheets of metal and that has made this idea much more accessible to more homeowners and contractors.

Porcelain Hardwood Tiles

Laminate wood products have been created to look like real hardwoods and a variety of other flooring materials. Tile manufacturers have taken a few cues from the wood flooring manufacturers and are giving a new look to the common porcelain tile. Instead of having the porcelain tile look like porcelain, it is being fashioned to look like hardwood.

The final effect looks like high quality paneling on the bathroom walls, but it is just as water-resistant and safe to use as any other porcelain tile. This is opening up a lot of different design ideas for contractors and giving homeowners many different kinds of wall patterns to choose from.

Window Finishing

Tile design and decor has really started to branch out over the years and one of the newest trends is to finish a bathroom window with tile instead of wood. The normal process for finishing any window is to put up wooden trim that looks great, but does not really offer any kind of character. The new trend is to take border tile and use it to create window trim that looks very unique and matches the rest of the bathroom decor perfectly.

It takes an expert contractor to be able to get the border tile to look right around a window, but the final effect is well worth it. When you use tile around the window that is similar to the tile that makes up the bathroom walls, then it really helps to pull the whole room together.

Home tile design and decor trends are affected more by style than technology. There may be some new ways introduced to create tile that offer more color and texture options than before, but the most dynamic trends are the ones that utilize tiles in unique and quirky ways. For example, using glass tile as the surrounding materials for a fireplace has become very popular and something that may not have been considered in the past.

Existing tile patterns are being used in new designs, and tile manufacturers are finding ways to breathe new life into tile that has been around for years. Before you start working on the floors or walls in your home, you will want to spend a little while becoming familiar with the changes that have occurred in the world of home tile design and decor trends.

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