When I moved into my first home, my bathroom was tiny. Like, tiny shower kind of tiny. Step-style tiny.
When I first saw it, I didn’t think it could look any worse than it did. Sad brown tiles the size of postage stamps. Fluorescent lighting.
It felt like a jail cell. I knew I wanted to rip it out and start fresh as soon as possible, but tiny bathrooms have the unique problem where every decision is amplified tenfold.
Choose the wrong subway tile, and you feel like you’re showering in a shoebox.
Go too crazy with pattern, and you’ll get dizzy every time you step in there. Too small, and you might as well scrub the grout lines off your hands. After spending three weekends browsing every tile shop in town (and crying in the mosaic tile aisle because they all looked the same to me), I slowly began to understand what actually works in a tiny shower.
Sure, there are tons of bathrooms that look amazing on Pinterest and Instagram, but tiles that look great online don’t always translate to real life (trust me, I learned this the hard way). I put together a list of everything I learned about shower tiling along the way that actually makes a small shower work. Hint: it has way less to do with aesthetic and much more to do with the types of tiles you choose.
Tile Size Matters I was laying sample boards all over my kitchen floor when it hit me. I was trying to visualize how each tile would look on my shower walls at full scale when I realised I had been looking at the wrong size my whole life. Sure, small bathrooms require small tiles, right?
Nope. Biggest mistake of my life. Small tiles have tons of grout lines, which messes up your sight lines and make the room feel even smaller.
Oh, and did I mention that small tiles are a pain to keep clean? Every square inch of tiny tile is a microscopic place to collect dirt and grime. I ended up going with 12×24 inch tiles.
All onesheet tiles like these are game-changers in small spaces. They have fewer grout lines, which gives your eyes a clear path to travel and tricks your brain into thinking the walls are bigger than they are. Large-format tiles also give you a nice canvas to work with when it comes to pattern.
Direction, Direction, Direction Wait, before you start laying down tile ask yourself: which way should my tiles run? It sounds stupidly simple, but the direction you place your tiles can make your small bathroom feel wider or taller. I decided to lay mine horizontally, with the long edge of the tile parallel to the floor.
Large horizontal lines will always make your shower feel wider. Vertical installations have the same effect on height, which sounds ideal until you’re shimmying around your narrow-as-hell shower stall. Pattern Makes All The Difference Honestly, this is the part that stressed me out the most.
I spent way too much time at Home Depot trying to tape paper tiles to my shower wall in every pattern imaginable. Straight stack bond? Too corporate.
Traditional brick pattern? Too busy. After days of frustrated googling, I landed on a running bond pattern where each tile is offset by one-third instead of the traditional half.
It adds visual interest without being overwhelming in a small space. Colour Conundrums As much as I hate to say I was trendy at one point in my life, dark tiles were all the rage when I was picking out my shower. Barely any light shines in there anyway, so why not go dark and moody?
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This is not ideal for a small shower. Dark colours suck the light out of a room, and make the space feel even smaller. I ended up going with a white tile with subtle grey veining to brighten up the space.
And when I say subtle, I mean subtle. You don’t want heavy-handed pattern that distracts from the beautiful tile you just spent weeks picking out. Veining is your friend though.
Going with a solid white tile was also a mistake of mine. They looked too… plain. Kind of like a hospital.
But subtle veining gives your tile some texture and interest. Finish: Matte or Glossy? I’ll let you in on a not-so-secret secret: maintenance.
Who wants to think about cleaning their shower? But here’s the thing. High-gloss tile looks incredible when they’re sparkling clean.
However, they show every water spot and fingerprint. Matte finish ends up looking more forgiving when you don’t have time to wipe down your shower every day. Choose wisely.
Grout Grumblings To grout or not to grout? That is the question. Okay, maybe not Shakespeare worthy, but picking grout colours is absolutely the worst.
Stand in your local tile store and hold grout samples up to your tile. What looks best? White grout will make each tile pop, but will show dirt and mildew faster.
Dark grout hides dirt, but can make your tile stand out more. I ended up choosing a light grey to appease both sides of the grout isle. Installation Height Please, for the love of all things ceramic, tile all the way to the ceiling.
It didn’t matter that my ceilings were literally nine feet high. Tile above the shower curtain and all the way to the ceiling. Contractors will try to talk you out of it because “it’s more work” and “no one will notice,” but you will notice.
Tiling your shower all the way to the ceiling eliminates the stark contrast where the wall “meets” the ceiling, creating the illusion of higher ceilings. And yes, I even continued the tile from the wall onto the floor.
More slip and autumn horror stories but please do your research!
There are textured versions of almost every tile out there. The continuity from wall to floor helps your eye travel the entire surface, instead of every texture fighting for your attention. How to Lighten Up Your Shower Alright, they may look like massive rectangles of shiny perfection, but those large tiles can look flat if your overhead lighting is too bright.
Don’t worry, I wasn’t about to spend hundreds of dollars on additional shower lighting. Instead, I added a small LED light at the top edge of my shower. It casts an even wash of light across the tiles that accents the natural variation in the stone.
Lesson Learned I love walking into my shower now. It actually feels like twice the size it is, takes no time to clean (literally wipe down in two minutes flat), and never makes me feel like I’m suffocating. To answer my own question: Yes, I would 100% tile my shower the same way again.
The large format tiles with limited grout lines were the perfect choice. And laying them in a horizontal pattern definitely made the space feel wider.
