DIY Tile Tip of the Week #3

MIX TILE SIZES for great designs:

Ceramic tile comes in a myriad of sizes and shapes, yet most tile projects use a single size - usually square - in a plain grid pattern. You can spice up your next ceramic tile design by mixing small tiles within a field of larger tiles.

This isn't rocket science for interior design; it's done all the time by professionals. No reason you can't adopt their visual strategies to make your DIY tile job look fantastic.

Choose your main "field" tile for base color and coverage. A medium-sized floor area, for instance, might best use 12" square tiles of a pastel earth tone. This selection provides lots of design flexibility. Now choose an accent color in a smaller tile to add visual flair to an otherwise ordinary floor.

Small tiles can be added as inset borders or as linear stripes, or positioned like diamonds (see photo) where four square tiles meet. Remember that ceramic tile last for decades, so be careful about choosing colors that dictate future decor choices too stringently.

The important thing is choose pizazz over plain. If you're going to the trouble to lay tile that will last a half century, you might as well make your project provocative! Or at least interesting. Have a look at some of the pictures displayed here (sidebar, for instance) to see examples of jazzy tile designs of all sorts.

This is Tip #3, Jan 16 2009

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