How High To Tile?
How High To Tile?
A handy guide for your renovation.
Once you’ve chosen the tile you love for your bathroom or powder room renovation, the next question to is how high should I tile? To the ceiling? To 1200cm? In-between?
I’ll step you through the three key factors:
Use - is this bathroom the main bathroom with daily use? Or is this a guest bathroom that may only be used a couple of times per year?
Decor - Would you to like to use wallpaper or paint as well as tile in the bathroom?
Ceiling Height - How high are your ceilings?
Tile to the Ceiling
If your bathroom is going to have daily use by multiple children, it’s a good idea to tile to the ceiling. Kids splash water from the bath, the basin and the shower. (I have four kids and my main bathroom is tiled to the ceiling). Fully tiling means that the bathroom does not develop mould or peeling paint where water is splashed. (Who wants to repaint the bathroom in 12 months time? No thanks!)
In my family bathroom, I chose the same large tile for the wall and floor and tiled to the ceiling. However, you don’t have to use the same tile.
Tiling to the ceiling also allows you to mix and match your tiles. Bathrooms look fantastic with a larger tile or subway tile going up to around 1200 and then a smaller tile such as a herringbone, hexagon or fish scale above this height.
(The exception to tiling to the ceiling is if your ceilings are extremely high which often happens in renovation of “Queenslanders”. In this case, tile to above the shower screen. There will be a painted area above.)
Tile to 1200cm
If your bathroom or powder room will have limited use or will only be used by guests or yourself, you can tile to 1200cm (from the floor to the top of tile). This is about half-way up the wall. The reason to do this is it allows you more decorative options - you can paint or wallpaper from the top of the tile to the ceiling.
Remember - you still tile to full height (around 2 metres) in the shower.
Tip:
In my guest bathroom, I wanted to tile to 1200cm. However, the tile I chose was large (600 x 300mm) and to ensure the tile wasn’t cut in half we went up to 1400cm. I wallpapered above the tile and the result is fantastic.
New Home
If you’re building a new home, check the height of the tiles you builder has allowed in their quote. Sometimes they only allow a ‘skirt’ which is one tile around the wall of the bathroom (& higher in the shower). This is not the look that you want!
Quick Tips
If you have kids or want to mix and match a few different styles, tile to the ceiling.
If you are looking to mix up your bathroom with tiles, painted walls and wallpaper, go to 1200 cm.
If you are building a new home, check the quote carefully. Some builders only quote for the bare minimum amount of tiles and often under-quote the cost of the tile.
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