The beauty of tiles!

Tiles have been used in interiors for centuries with early examples of glazed earthenware tiles being widely used in the 9th Century to create extravagant geometric designs on the floors and walls of royal palaces and places of worship. Tiles have continued in popularity throughout the years with the blue and white chinoiserie inspired tile designs from Delft being very popular throughout Europe from the 17th century onwards and hand painted tiles being an important feature of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements.

In warmer climates tiles have long been used as a floor and wall covering to maintain a cool temperature indoors. Tiles are a very practical material, hard wearing, easy to clean and water resistant. These properties have made them a popular material for use in kitchens and bathrooms in the UK but another advantage of tiles is they are available in an enormous range of colour, size, pattern and texture meaning that whatever the size, style or design of your space there is a tile for you and their use should not be restricted to the kitchen or bathroom! One wall in the lounge pictured right has been covered using a variety of patterned tiles to great effect. Picture courtesy of Elle Decoration.

On a recent visit to Sledmere House near Driffield I discovered the fabulous and unusual Turkish Room, pictured left. The walls are decorated entirely with tiles and the effect is amazingly beautiful. The room takes inspiration from one of the Sultan's apartments in the Yeni Mosque in Istanbul, the tiles were made in Damascus and shipped over to England during the First World War. The chandelier is also decorated with mosaic tiles making it delightfully different. This room is an excellent example of how using materials in a slighly unusual way can produce stunning effects.


Mosaic tiles are very small tiles which, when used in a bold way, can work very well to create a unique and powerful design statement. The bathroom pictured left is decorated with traditional Moroccan mosaic tiles which are a feature of each of the bathrooms at Hôtel Nord-Pinus Tanger in Morocco, photo taken from World of Interiors.



For a more fresh, vibrant and contemporary style these mosaic tiles from The Yard create a serene yet funky washroom which would be a pleasure to use at any time of the day.

The term mosaic means “the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of coloured glass, stone or other materials” and for a bathroom with extreme WOW factor make use of mosaic tiles with 3D images such as this tropical island scene from Glassdecor.


Let Transformations help you use tiles to fabulous effect in your interior www.transformationsid.co.uk