Which Tiles Go Best with Marble Bathrooms?

Designing a marble bathroom can be a tricky affair. Marble swirls are, no doubt a real luxury in any home, but they’re also a law unto themselves, guided only by nature as the rock is formed over hundreds of years. So, choosing tiles that work alongside marble washbasins is really all a question of personal taste. There’s no wrong way. There’s only what does and doesn’t work for you. Before you break out the cement, grout and matchsticks, then, check out our handy guide.

Complement or clash?

This is the first question to answer because it will define the whole look and feel of your tiled bathroom. Ask yourself: are you a minimalist or a maximalist? Do you love well-matched, neoclassical marble design or postmodern colour clashes with strange juxtapositions of soft swirling patterns and rigid, repetitive geometric patterns? Marble has a rich history in the buildings of Greek and Roman antiquity, but it’s equally at home in the most futuristic of bathrooms. Once you know whether to match or clash your tiles, everything becomes that little bit easier because you can immediately eliminate whole ranges of tiles from your online shopping cart or Pinterest pins.

Matching tiles

Because marble is such a busy surface material – even white Carrara marble – if you want tiles that sit well alongside it, then you’re going to want to choose a plain colour. Blacks, greys, browns, creams, whites and other soft tones will allow your marble to show its opulence without looking gaudy or tacky. If you choose to use a couple of colours (no more than, two, please), take some samples home before you put any tiling cement down and make sure you like the look of them against the marble basin.

Choose simply shaped tiles that don’t distract the eye too much away from the marble or, if you do choose to incorporate hexagon shaped tiles or other shapes, then do so sparingly. Square and rectangular tiles will look far more sophisticated against a marble washbasin, on the whole.

Clashing tiles

This can be really exciting for anyone who fancies themselves as a bit creative and a chance to let your inner interior designer free. This might blow your mind, but have you ever thought about clashing your marble washbasin with marble tiles? Two types of marble in one room can really look pretty wild and cool. Think large panels, splashes of colour, real maximalism. Incorporate some Corian®, wood or Silestone. Choose tiles with different textures, different shapes and different colours. Imagine tiles in primary colours sitting alongside tiles in metallic gold and marble furniture. What else? This is your bathroom, not ours.

Whichever style you choose, tiling should be fun, not functional – a chance to really express yourself and your taste. You know, you can tell a lot about a person from the way they design their bathroom. Marble alone means you know they’ve got taste – the way they dress the bathroom around that marble, however, gives us a much greater insight into the parameters of that taste. So explore your creativity, have fun and send us your pics, even. We’d love to see the results.