Tile is the largest visible surface in most bathrooms, which makes it the decision with the most leverage. A few principles keep it from going wrong.
Pick one place to be interesting
A patterned floor, a feature wall or a distinctive shower surround. Choose one and let the other surfaces support it. Bathrooms that try three feature areas at once read as unresolved rather than rich.
Scale to the room
Large-format tile makes a small bathroom feel larger because there are fewer grout lines interrupting the surface. Smaller mosaics suit shower floors, where the extra grout gives grip and the sheet can follow the fall to the drain.
Think about the layout, not just the tile
Stack bond, running bond, herringbone and vertical stack all change the character of the same tile completely. Layout costs nothing extra in material and a little extra in labour, and it is often where the design actually happens.
Plan where the cuts land
A good tile layout is planned so that cuts fall in the least visible places and full tiles land at the focal points. This is worked out on the drawing beforehand, and it is one of the clearest differences between careful tile work and rushed tile work.
Do not forget the grout
Match it to quieten the surface or contrast it to show the pattern, and insist on a sealed latex grout that resists mold and mildew. It is the detail people notice years later.
