Tiles are one of the biggest decisions in a bathroom renovation, and one of the hardest to change once they’re down. They set the look of the room, they have to cope with water every day, and they’re usually locked in well before the tiler arrives. A little planning up front makes the whole job smoother, and it makes a showroom visit far more productive.
Here’s a step-by-step checklist for planning the tiles in your bathroom, written with Sunshine Coast homes in mind: humid summers, sandy feet and plenty of indoor–outdoor living.
1. Measure the room and decide what’s being tiled
Start with a simple floor plan. Measure the floor, then each wall you plan to tile, and note windows, doors, the vanity, the bath and any niches. Then decide how far the tiles will go:
- Floor only, with painted walls outside the shower
- Shower walls to the ceiling, the rest of the room part-height
- Full-height tiling throughout, which looks seamless and is the easiest to keep clean in a humid climate
- A feature wall, such as behind the vanity or bath, or the back wall of the shower
Write down the square metres for each surface separately. You’ll often use a different tile on the floor, the walls and the feature wall, so separate figures make ordering much easier later.
2. Check slip resistance for every floor surface
Before you fall for a look, check how it grips underfoot. Tiles sold in Australia carry a slip rating from P0 to P5, and a higher rating means more grip when wet. Shower floors and bathroom floors need a tile rated for wet areas, so ask about the rating of every floor tile on your shortlist, including patterned and feature tiles. A highly polished tile that’s beautiful on a wall can be the wrong choice underfoot.
Smaller tiles help too. A mosaic shower floor has far more grout lines than a large-format one, which adds grip. For floor ideas with slip resistance in mind, see our guide to patterned bathroom floor tiles.
3. Plan the waterproofing before the tiles
Tiles and grout aren’t the waterproofing. The membrane underneath is. Waterproofing in wet areas has to meet the Australian Standard, and it has to be finished and cured before any tile goes down. Confirm with your builder or tiler who is doing it and when, and build that time into your schedule. It’s also the moment to confirm the shower floor falls correctly to the waste, because the tiles will follow whatever falls are built.
4. Choose a material for each zone
Different parts of a bathroom ask different things of a tile:
- Floors: porcelain is the easy-care all-rounder. It’s dense, barely absorbs water and doesn’t need sealing. Timber-look porcelain gives the warmth of wood without the worry, and stone-look porcelain brings travertine and limestone looks with no sealing at all.
- Shower and feature walls: this is where you can have more fun. Zellige, bejmat and subway tiles add handmade texture and colour, while mosaics make a strong focal point.
- Natural stone: marble, travertine and limestone have a character no print can copy, but they’re porous and need sealing and gentler cleaning products. If you’re weighing it up, read our comparison of natural stone vs porcelain for a coastal home.
For a broader rundown of the options, see 10 of the best bathroom tile options for Sunshine Coast homes.
5. Decide on tile size and layout
Size changes both the look and the job:
- Large-format tiles mean fewer grout lines and a calmer, more spacious look, but they need a very flat surface underneath. Ask your tiler whether the floor or walls will need preparation first.
- Smaller tiles and mosaics follow the fall of a shower floor more easily and give more grip.
- Layout patterns such as herringbone, chevron or a vertical stack change the feel of a room completely. Herringbone and diagonal layouts involve more cuts, so they use more tiles and take longer to lay.
6. Choose grout and trims
Grout is easy to overlook, but it’s a big part of the finished look. A grout colour close to the tile gives a seamless, calm effect, while a contrasting colour shows off the shape of subway or patterned tiles. In showers, ask about higher-performance grouts that resist staining and moisture better. Also plan how the edges will be finished: external corners, niches and the line where tiles stop part-way up a wall all need a trim or a neat edge.
7. Work out how much to order
Take the square metres from step 1 and add an allowance for cuts and breakages. Around 10% is a common starting point for a simple layout, and more for herringbone, diagonal layouts or rooms with lots of corners. Your tiler can confirm the right figure for your plan. When you order:
- Order everything at once, so all the tiles come from the same batch. Colour and shade can vary slightly between production runs, especially with natural stone and handmade tiles.
- Keep a few spare tiles after the job. If a tile ever cracks, an exact match can be hard to find years later.
- Check availability early, before your tiler is booked, so the tiles are on site when the work starts.
8. Bring the right things to the showroom
A showroom visit is far more useful with a few things in hand:
- Your floor plan and the square metres for each surface
- Photos of the existing room, and of bathrooms you love
- Samples or photos of the vanity, benchtop and tapware finishes you’re considering
- A rough budget per square metre
- Your timeline, and when your tiler is booked
Seeing tiles at full size, in natural light and next to each other, is the best way to make a confident choice. A small sample on a screen can only tell you so much.
Your bathroom tile checklist at a glance
- Floor plan drawn, with square metres for each surface
- Tiling extent decided: floor, shower, part-height or full-height, feature wall
- Slip rating checked for every floor and shower tile
- Waterproofing and shower falls confirmed with your builder or tiler
- Material chosen for each zone
- Tile size and layout pattern decided
- Grout colour and edge trims chosen
- Quantities worked out with an allowance for cuts, ordered from one batch
- Availability confirmed before the tiler is booked
When you’re ready to see the options in person, our range covers porcelain, natural stone, zellige and subway tiles, mosaics and terracotta, plus vanities, basins and tapware to pair them with. Get in touch, or bring your plans along to our Coolum Beach showroom.
