Shower Tile Design & Ideas

If you're tiling the surround in your shower, you can do a basic one- or two-color tile that just keeps the water at bay, or you can have some fun with it. Waterproofed hard tiles are available in all kinds of colors, shapes and materials (ceramic, marble, slate, porcelain). How you decide to arrange them is pretty much unlimited, but whatever you do, make sure you follow standard tiling procedures of installing a strong backer-board, mounting the tiles with thinset mortar, and grouting and sealing between the lines.

Painted Tiles

You shouldn't paint ceramic tiles that you intend to put in the shower, because you can't seal them well enough to stand up to direct constant water. But you can buy tiles with painted scenes on them--designs, landscapes, even human portraits--which have been glazed on the top of the designs. Look in craft shops or on the Internet for tile art that appeals to you and make it part of the shower surround. Some of the tiles are individual renderings, while others are designed to be installed together in groups to form their pictures.

Contrasting Themes

For a real conversation piece of a shower, deliberately mix very modern tiles with very natural, rustic ones. Try walling the entire surround in sleek opaque glass tiles of some funky color like neon green, then lay one randomly placed strip of rough gray slate tiles that look unfinished. (They can't actually be unfinished, since that would let water permeate them, but you can get flat sealant that doesn't look shiny.) Or make the whole shower a formal, fancy polished marble in a muted color, interspersed with candy-red porcelain.

Mosaic Murals

Buy a bunch of differently colored sheets of tiny mosaic tiles (they're sold pre-mounted on mesh screens), spread them out in a work area, and design a mural out of them, cutting away the mesh to form groups of colors in the shapes you need. Think of a natural landscape, a sunset over the ocean, or a forest scene--whatever your artistic talent makes possible. Once you have your design, mount it on the shower wall with thinset mortar as you would any other tile.

References

• Ceramic tile design.