Are all bathroom tiles now confined to the brown part of the spectrum ?

SilverLiningOK

Currently I am trying to get a bathroom renovated. I am happy enough with the sanitary ware on offer from suppliers. I am happy enough with the showers and cubicles. I am sort of ok with the "vanity units" available. But I am completely at a loss with the selection of tiles being sold.

The guy I am getting to do the job pointed me in the direction of a main tile supplier. I visited their showroom and looked at the suggested ranges. What completely confuses me is the absence of colour. They are all brown. They used crafty names to tell you that they are not brown, but they are. Beige, tan, earth, bone, cream. sahara, safari, coffee, chocolate, cappuccino, etc. are all brown or browny shades of white.

I don't like brown. I don't own any brown clothes. I don't wear brown shoes. On saying this to anyone, from the plumber to the tile people, I am ignored. They don't seem to see the problem. Basically, I don't like brown. If I have to have a brownish bathroom, I may like that it's new but I will never like the colour.

What is so confusing about this, is that it seems to be confined to Ireland. Looking at the websites of the manufacturers of tiles from Portugal that ship into Ireland, they have all sorts of colours. The suppliers here only seem to stock the most boring brown ones.

Is there anywhere in the Dublin area doing anything different ?

lochness

Consider timber wall panelling. You can paint it any colour you like.

i've had the tile hunting experience and i hated it. i've seen than all and they all offer the same....... good luck.

lochness

sorry i asummed you meant wall tiles. i've no tiles in my bathrooms. they're all timber floors and timber wall panelling. it's alot less 'show house'.

Joey the lips

Can we possibly start with colours you like...

They are brown for a reason. Earth colours sell...

They have been brown for at least 10 years now.

in colours its mainly black and white...

spikealmighty

Creams&Browns are popular for their "softer and warmer" appearance.

You could go down the route of introducing colour by moasics, I was in TomDoyle supplies in Camolin during the summer and they had a good range of coloured moasics. Its a more expensive route but if you offset it with cheap white tiles you could even out the price and end up with something interesting and fun.

Another idea would be to introduce coloured glass as I mentioned to someone before viking glass in wexford have a shop in wex town with the glass on show and its really cheap compared to kitchen places that sell it. You could pick whatever colour you want from a chart like paint swatches and they cut it to size so you could get large panels get them cut into large tiles for a tile effect. I just thought i'd mention it because its so verstile and could look really amazing!

antoinolachtnai

A lot of tiles are samey for sure. Try tilestyle in Ballymount. They will be able to get whatever color you want but they have a reasonable amount of non-brown colours. Now generally, what they have in stock is fairly neutral. But go down and have a look.

Wyldwood

I'd be very careful of putting a lot of coloured tiles up as you will get tired of them, want to change decor or they'll go out of fashion in a few years. I think the reason for neutral tiles is that you can change towel/window dressing colours easily but to redo tiles you're looking at a huge expensive job.

SilverLiningOK

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Just have to work on getting what I want. I want colour and light in my small bathroom not sober and neutral. The tiler may be shocked with someone who won't take an off the shelf colour scheme. Next thing is to find a whb that looks good without the ubiquitous "vanity unit" which I am sure is in vogue so jobs are easier and all the pipes are hidden in a flash. Not very future proof when it come to replacing the MDF montrosity and discover the tiling weeds to be redone as well to aviod the inevitable gaps.

This railroading of home decor is a nuisance when you know what you don't want.

anniehoo

Have a look at Fired Earths tiles, they have some gorgeous designs.

Thoie

Have you considered putting up plain white tiles and then using tile decals on top of them? I've never used them, but would imagine you could remove them later if you wanted to change colours. Here's the first google result (an American site) I came up with to give you an idea:

http://www.sticviews.com/custom-home-decor/bathroom-decor.aspx


I've got a plain white tiled shower stall and am considering designing a full wall "mural" for one side of the shower, but haven't really gone much further than the "considering" stage