These Bathrooms Make the Case for Matching Your Wall Tiles to Your Floor Tiles

published Dec 28, 2018
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(Image credit: Hayley Kessner)

There is nothing quite as luxurious as a stylish bathroom, but sometimes it’s hard to design the small space in a way that makes your eyes pop while simultaneously leaving a lasting impression. There are an infinite number of light fixtures and shower curtains you can choose from, but one way to take your bathroom up a design level is to match your wall tiles to your floor tiles. Does it sound intense? Sure, but have faith and hear me out. Having your floor tiles melt down to the floor and spread out a continuing print across the room creates a punch that’s both creative and bold—but that doesn’t mean it has to be risky. You can decide to cover an entire room with a certain print, or have it only cascade from one single wall down to the floor, or even have it start as a sink backsplash and extend down to the floor, limiting just how much drama you add to the room. To see which style you like best, check out some of the examples below.

1. Black & White Accent Walls

Follow designer Claire Zinnecker’s lead and just match one wall (rather than all four) to your bathroom floor, creating a waterfall effect in the room.

2. Terrazzo Wildness

For those who have a bold sense of style and don’t mind decorating their bathroom in an of-the-moment trend, terrazzo walls and floors are calling your name. Take the funky, back-from-the-dead textile and splash it across everything from your walls, to your floor tiles, to your shower, making a bold statement in your washroom.

3. Matching Wooden Accents

You might not think of the word “wood” when you think of a bathroom, but this Polish home proves that a wooden panel bathroom looks as chic as it does cozy. These specific panels go from the shower and down to the floor, and are broken up with white subway tiles to add a fresh contrast that makes the room feel more modern-chic and less lodge-in-the-woods.

4. Unfinished Tile Work

There is a kind of whimsy to unfinished tilework, as this loft bathroom perfectly proves. The tiles start on the walls directly against the shower, and then honeycomb down to the floor, where they peter off and are replaced by white floor tiles to dilute the strong pattern.

5. Back to Black

(Image credit: Elaine Musiwa)

This black-on-black bathroom may seem intense, but the addition of greenery and a colorful rug keeps it from feeling overwhelmingly moody.

6. Mostly Marble

(Image credit: Minette Hand)

This light and airy bathroom features plenty of different touches of white, but the square tiles on the lower half of the shower that carry over onto the floor outside of the shower are of particular note.

7. Shades of Gray

(Image credit: Hayley Kessner)

This home’s large gray tiles are dark enough that the white cabinets pop, but not so dark that it doesn’t still feel family-friendly.