My brother & sister-in-law are keen on the small kitchen tiles which are fashionable at the moment and would like to tile the whole kitchen, but not all with small tiles. Advice he has been given is to not mix small and larger tiles in the same room, but I suspect that's because it makes life more difficult for the tiler. Has anyone had experience of mixing large and small tiles (e.g. small ones between work tops and wall cupboards, larger elsewhere), how difficult was it to design, any tips, and what was the result like (picture if possible please!!).
Did a nice job like this in a bathroom..small mosaic tiles in a dado height line just above the basin and halfway up the bath...and very large tiles on the floor..
Another shower (wet) room has slates on the floor, and slate 'skirtings' and a thin strip of slates (~30mm wide) just above the basin, and other tiles above and below..looks trim enough to me..
if youre laying them intermixed rather than just as a border, the tile sizes need to fit exactly, taking into account grout lines. Its easy to get something just 2mm out and the lines look all wrong.
The main problem is getting the joints to look right where they join. I avoided it by using a contrasting colour of mosaic sized tiles (the stuff that comes on canvas backing) in a strip about 150mm wide between two different sized tiles. Done carefully, it looks like a design feature, rather than a bodge to overcome a problem.
As long as the different sizes are for different sections there is no proble except guessing what it will look like. It might be an improvement. As having identical tiles soon get boring. And there is no sense of scale.
It is a design feature and costs accordingly.
The trick with using tiles that vary slightly in size is to set them out to the largest tile size and if possible put a row or column of them in first or make a gauge and use it with rigid care.
Cheap tiles tend to be out of square as well as of variable size. You might want to measure them all first, bearing in mind that all tiles should be fixed taking them a few from each box at a time.
That can be very time consuming indeed.
Select a batch of "these, them and those" and lay them out in a line and measure them rather than measure each one. Nice wide joints cover a multitude of sins. Work quickly to allow the tiles to be adjusted. They stick "fast" extremly quickly.
Someone remind me as it has been ages: Is it an idea to wet the tiles to gain more time for fiddling with them?
Another thing to worry about before you start is walls that belly. If you can sort them out first it would save a lot of effort later. Ditto boxing in and electrical sockets. Make the cut-outs first and keep them ready. Leave the edges for last if there is any cutting to do. Work from the centre (or just off centre) out.
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