Timeless Floor Tile Looks And Ideas

Floor tile fashions are fleeting; the history of home design is full of trends that have come and gone. So, while Italtile stocks a number of trending looks in high quality porcelain tiles, sourced from our international and local suppliers, we keep our ear to the ground when it comes to trend longevity – and select tile trends that are destined to become timeless looks. We always suggest that you consider the kind of home design elements that will stand the test of time when planning a renovation, to ensure that the spaces in your home won’t go out of style or date – and when the time comes to put your home on the market, won’t hurt the resale value.

One of our core ‘looks’ at Italtile is the Classic Aesthetic. Truly timeless and elegant, it can be interpreted in a number of ways: with a contemporary twist, with relaxed rustic chic, formal splendour, vintage Victorian, full-on Italian glamour or French style.

The right quality tile combinations provide the perfect canvas for your renovation, so they are key when it comes to pulling your timeless home look together. Let’s look at some classic tile choices that offer eco-chic credentials and high quality ­– and are exclusive to Italtile.

Wood Look Tiles. Dark wood – and equally, very pale, bleached looks – are ultra-popular, providing extreme contrasts with the rest of your décor. But our trend specialists advise caution with these high fashion extremes and suggest you choose a mid-tone wood look. There are a variety of wood look finishes which will appeal to different tastes and moodboards – like a smoky feel which gives a shadowy, greyish overtone, or carpentry marks for authentic handcrafted looks, or distressed or worn finishes which add a sense of story and history to your room.

Exence by Sustainable Pioneers Atlas Concorde is a breathtaking remastering of the rare Italian Oak still found in parts of southern Italy. The range is available in two pure, honey tones that perfectly mimic the luminosity and essence of oak. Each ‘plank’ shows the mark of the carpenter and the passage of time. 185 x 1500, these are long format wood look tiles, designed with 48 faces to ensure that there is no repetition of pattern when installed. You can lay Exence outdoors with peace of mind, thanks to a slip-resistant option.

Barkwood, another exclusive, eco-chic Italian wood look tile, is available in a variety of tones, from pale to dark – White, Ash, Natural and Burnt – but our favourite is Natural. This is a look that offers truly epic proportions, with extremely long ‘timber’: 300 by 1800.

Our Local Legno Wood Look Tile Range is made by Proudly South African sustainability experts Gryphon, with pioneering technology called EcoTec, that creates super slim, super strong tiles using less clay, less fuel and less water. Legno is available in Ash, Natural and Walnut, with slip-resistant options.

Helsinki EcoWood is a new arrival from passionately sustainable Spanish tile masters EcoCeramic Ceramica. 200 x 1200, and available in a beautiful range of tones, from cool Perla, soft Blanco, honeyed Haya and rich, warm Taupe. Each slim plank has the silky finish of carpenter-worked timber. Like the name suggests, these colours will all work beautifully in a classic Scandi space with minimalist styling.

Footnote: Laminate vs Vinyl. We compare and contrast Laminate and Vinyl wood look flooring options over on the blog.

Stone Look Tiles. Stone is one of the most ancient materials in the built environment, so when it comes to timeless looks, you really can’t do better than stone look tiles. Today’s technology ensures an unbelievably convincing, authentic natural stone finish. We have selected ranges in our curated collection that offer the highest number of ‘faces’ – to ensure that the tile surfaces offer as little repetition as possible to ensure you get the optimal natural effect.

Aix, from our long-time partners in Italy, Atlas Concorde, is a sustainable porcelain tile range, designed to mimic two varieties of European limestone – the cool stone seen in British castles and German schlosses, and the warm stone so reminiscent of the ancient farmhouses that dot the landscape of southern France and the Mediterranean.

Glacier is a superb rendition of mottled and varianced stone looks with an imaginative, flecked, ‘stardust’ finish. This is an 800 x 800 EcoTec range developed by Gryphon, leaders in sustainable tile production. It’s available in Beige, Smoke and Snow, with slip-resistant options.

Rockstone hails from Spain, and is the ultimate inside/outside tile choice. These large 1000 x 1000 slabs have been sustainably engineered with unique INOUT technology developed to create a velvety yet slip-resistant finish underfoot – the wetter it gets, the better it grips! The extraordinary sparkle mimics the unique, almost sugary ‘icefire’ at the heart of Andalusian alpine rock. Available in Beige and Pearl.

Concrete/cement look tiles. Concrete and cement looks have been popular for years for their classic, pared-down looks. We are seeing the rise in screed compilations that are raising the bar with their more multidimensional surface details.

We have a huge range to choose from, all worth browsing instore or in our online shop. So for now, let’s confine ourselves to one of the most interesting cement/stone/concrete looks. Glamstone. This is another gorgeous Spanish tile.

A true XXL contender, at 1200 x 1200. It’s a newcomer with a fascinating speckled, splashed character that makes us think of terrazzo looks.

The Black and White Tiled Floor. Equally at home in a relaxed retro space or a more formal, glamorous environment, the Black and White tiled floor – also called Checkerboard – has the power to continually reinvent itself and remain current.

Why does it work so well in a variety of styles? Quite simply, because it is simultaneously formal and fun! The checkerboard effect is equally at home in small spaces – like a bathroom – or in larger areas – like a foyer. Italtile offers a smaller version of the black and white look in our dainty Octagonal Chess Ceramic Mosaics, but if it’s the ubiquitous black and white squares you’re after, we’ll always direct you to our 333 x 333 Silk Anthracite and Silk Blanco matt glazed ceramic tiles.

Patterned Tiles. Patterned tiles have been around forever. For centuries, in fact. They will never go out of fashion (and you have our word on this)! We have a kaleidoscope of patterns and patchwork designs in an array of colourways to charm and delight you. From beautiful blues, like our antique-style, Talavera-type Leeds from Spain, to our charmingly vintage Retro, an EcoTec tile in warm neutral tones, made by our local sustainable pioneers Gryphon, to our unashamedly flamboyant, mediterranean-style Sole Mix Luc by Ceramica Sant’Agostino.

The Subway Tile. The eternal child of the style world. As we’ve pointed out, many styles tend to look out of place as the years go by, and some more so than others. But the Subway Tile – also called the Metro Tile – has been a perennial favourite since it first got its starring role in the subway system of NYC in 1904! Year on year, the look reinvents itself with smart twists, like fresh new colours, elongated or mini shapes, or exciting new installation patterns and coloured grouts. Think marbled subways with gold grout. Or stay with classic white, but install your subways in chevron or herringbone formats.

We will always advise you to find a way to imbue your moodboard with your own personality. Rather than re-creating a page from a style magazine which echoes someone else’s style choices, bring us your ideas and our design-certified sales consultants will bring Italtile inspiration to the party, to help you work out what your “you” factor is.

Once we’ve found that ‘timeless youness’, we’ll help you select quality floor tiles for the space you want to renovate that reflect your own personal brand. That’s how you create welcoming, comfortable and inviting home décor with timeless appeal.

One last word on our top quality floor tiles. Whatever tiles you choose, you’ll be making a sizeable investment in superb quality. We strongly suggest you take a great deal of care with the tile installation process – especially if you’ve selected XXL tiles, which require specialised installation skills. Please ask us about the Italtile Professional Installation Service.

Live beautifully, in timeless style!

Ciao.