Glossy tiles in bathroom

Kalliope

Kalliope

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Long story short, I have to renovate my bathroom and am exhausted over all the big and small decisions that needs to be made.

Could I ask for your experience and opinion regarding bathroom tiles?

I have a tiny bathroom and have found some beautiful patterned tiles for the floor. The walls I want to be in white, but am struggling to make a decision between glossy or matt tiles.

I think glossy tiles look cool and is a bit of a statement, but am struggling to imagine how it will be in a tiny bathroom.

Would glossy white tiles be too bright and reflect too much light? I can tolerate day light well and don't use sunglasses, but don't want bathroom walls that are so reflective that it's bothersome. I don't have windows in the bathroom, but there will be 2 lights in it.

Any of you have glossy bathroom tiles? Have you been bothered by it for being too bright and hurt you eyes or cause any other discomfort?
 
I can't comment much, only an observation or two.

Glossy tiles should be easier to clean, my understanding is that this is why they are used in kitchens and bathrooms.

I have never seen matt tiles in such an environment so I cannot say if they would work.

The tiles in my kitchen and bathroom do not produce any glare, to my eyes anyway.

Obviously I cannot speak for yours.

I should probably mention that the tiles in my bathroom are not total, in fact only covering the area around the sink and bath, and I have no idea what it would be like if all the wall area was tiled.
 
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I have glossy white tiles, which cause me no issue, but only on one side around the bath - so not whole room & not on the floor, and i have a regular pendant lightbulb in middle of room, with a paper lantern shade on it (so at no point can the bulb be seen unfiltered/un-diffused, so it cant reflect off any shiny surface in the same way a naked light would) If you have halogen down-lighters or spotlights i imagine that could be an issue - i have spotlights in my kitchen & had to move one of them because the light was glancing off it.

si i'd say its more about your lighting in combination with the tile, than the tiles themselves IYSWIM

Edited to add - @Wonko i think the new style 'matt' tiles are still glazed so easy to wipe clean its just not a high sheen effect.
 
I have glossy white tiles in my bathroom and they don't disturb my eyes. I have a row of 4 large light bulbs along my mirror and don't find that they reflect too much shine. My bathroom is small.

My floor has large light brown matt tiles so that could help deflect the brightness a little.
 
Wonko said:
I can't comment much, only an observation or two.

Glossy tiles should be easier to clean, my understanding is that this is why they are used in kitchens and bathrooms.

I have never seen matt tiles in such an environment so I cannot say if they would work.

The tiles in my kitchen and bathroom to not producevany glare, to my eyes anyway.

Obviously I cannot speak for yours.

I should probably mention that the tiles in my bathroom are not total, in fact only covering the area around the sink and bath, and I have no idea what it would be like if all the wall area was tiled.
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Thank you. Yes, easy cleaning is a big plus!

I would like the tiles to make the room appear bright and bigger, just not extremely shiny.
 
JemPD said:
I have glossy white tiles, which cause me no issue, but only on one side around the bath - so not whole room & not on the floor, and i have a regular pendant lightbulb in middle of room, with a paper lantern shade on it (so at no point can the bulb be seen unfiltered/un-diffused, so it cant reflect off any shiny surface in the same way a naked light would) If you have halogen down-lighters or spotlights i imagine that could be an issue - i have spotlights in my kitchen & had to move one of them because the light was glancing off it.

si i'd say its more about your lighting in combination with the tile, than the tiles themselves IYSWIM

Edited to add - @Wonko i think the new style 'matt' tiles are still glazed so easy to wipe clean its just not a high sheen effect.
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Thank you. Glad the hear you're not bothered by it and I think it's very good point regarding the light sources. It will primarily be integrative lights on a mirror and maybe a ceiling lamp with shade, so no direct, exposed lamp bulbs. I saw some pictures of glossy tiles in shops and thought they were extremely bright, but of course that might simply be because they also keep the room very brightly lit.
 
Mij said:
I have glossy white tiles in my bathroom and they don't disturb my eyes. I have a row of 4 large light bulbs along my mirror and don't find that they reflect too much shine. My bathroom is small.

My floor has large light brown matt tiles so that could help deflect the brightness a little.
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That's great to hear. I had set my mind on the glossy ones, and am suppose to make a final decision today, but suddenly wondered if glossy tiles could trigger symptoms.
 
I have vinyl on my bathroom floor and terracotta floor tiles in my kitchen. I love the look of the kitchen floor, but it has downsides. It's colder and harder than vinyl, so if you come over faint and need to lie on the floor or have a fall stone or ceramic is much less comfortable, it's less easy to clean, and anything glass dropped on hard stone or ceramic tiles shatters spectacularly. I've even wondered about covering my lovely tiled kitchen floor with a sheet of vinyl with a slightly spongy feel.
 
Trish said:
I have vinyl on my bathroom floor and terracotta floor tiles in my kitchen. I love the look of the kitchen floor, but it has downsides. It's colder and harder than vinyl, so if you come over faint and need to lie on the floor or have a fall stone or ceramic is much less comfortable, it's less easy to clean, and anything glass dropped on hard stone or ceramic tiles shatters spectacularly. I've even wondered about covering my lovely tiled kitchen floor with a sheet of vinyl with a slightly spongy feel.
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Yes, those are also important things to consider, having a fall or dropping something on the floor. Vinyl could sound like a good option, but a pity you'd lose sight of your lovely terracotta floor.
 
Trish said:
I've even wondered about covering my lovely tiled kitchen floor with a sheet of vinyl with a slightly spongy feel.
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just as an aside, and not to take over the thread, but if you live in a house built before around 1940, then the terracotta tiles may be laid either direct to substrate or on lime-crete rather than on concrete, which means it will be breatheable - if you put vinyl straight onto that you will get MOULD & a lot of it, & likely damp up your walls too. wont expand here but i did that & it turned into an indescribable nightmare.
 
A few comments...

My husband and I bought some expensive hand-made tiles for the walls of our bathroom 20+ years ago. I've regretted this ever since. They aren't completely flat in the same way that machine-made tiles are which makes cleaning them an absolute nightmare. We live in an area where limescale is a constant issue, and the only way of reducing the problem is if we use a paint scraper with a sharp blade to scrape off the scale. But the dips and imperfections in the "flatness" make this only partially successful.

am struggling to make a decision between glossy or matt tiles

I don't know whether gloss or matt makes a difference to how slippery tiles would be. But be careful that you take "slipperiness" into account for floor use.
 
Kalliope said:
I can well understand such patterns may cause discomfort. Easy to forget while planning and too late to change your mind once the tiles are up.
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Yes depending on how severe you are and whether patterns ever affect you, i'd definitely wanting to take several tiles home with me to look at them, 'en masse' in the room you want them in, while you are at your worst, eg with a migraine if you get them. You dont want to discover you cant cope when its too late. Especially as, in my case at least, when i'm bad i have to look at the floor to place my feet, so its not like you can look away to avoid it.

When i picked some tiles recently, i just bought a few (big stores you need to buy but can then return, smaller independants will usually lend you then. I think i bought 6 x 15x15cm tiles, placed them on a drawing board so they could be moved around in different areas of the floor easily.
 
Arnie Pye said:
A few comments...

My husband and I bought some expensive hand-made tiles for the walls of our bathroom 20+ years ago. I've regretted this ever since. They aren't completely flat in the same way that machine-made tiles are which makes cleaning them an absolute nightmare. We live in an area where limescale is a constant issue, and the only way of reducing the problem is if we use a paint scraper with a sharp blade to scrape off the scale. But the dips and imperfections in the "flatness" make this only partially successful.

am struggling to make a decision between glossy or matt tiles

I don't know whether gloss or matt makes a difference to how slippery tiles would be. But be careful that you take "slipperiness" into account for floor use.
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Thank you. All these inputs from you are very useful. The tiles will have a handmade look and not be completely flat. On the other hand limescale is not that much of an issue in my area. The floor tiles will not be glossy though, so not particularly slippery.
 
JemPD said:
Yes depending on how severe you are and whether patterns ever affect you, i'd definitely wanting to take several tiles home with me to look at them, 'en masse' in the room you want them in, while you are at your worst, eg with a migraine if you get them. You dont want to discover you cant cope when its too late. Especially as, in my case at least, when i'm bad i have to look at the floor to place my feet, so its not like you can look away to avoid it.

When i picked some tiles recently, i just bought a few (big stores you need to buy but can then return, smaller independants will usually lend you then. I think i bought 6 x 15x15cm tiles, placed them on a drawing board so they could be moved around in different areas of the floor easily.
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I wish that was an option, but am mostly housebound, don't have a car and an insurance company is organising this, so have to make decisions on their schedule based on online research.
 
Arnie Pye said:
I don't know whether gloss or matt makes a difference to how slippery tiles would be. But be careful that you take "slipperiness" into account for floor use.
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All floor tiles have to be slip resistant these days, so do make sure they are suitable for bathroom floor, the retailer will state this. But there are different rates of slip resistance - eg 'medium SR' or 'high SR'
 
Kalliope said:
I wish that was an option, but am mostly housebound, don't have a car and an insurance company is organising this, so have to make decisions on their schedule based on online research.
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I pretty much housebound too. I ordered them online from a large nationwide chain, they were delivered in 3days. And i bad quite often so i was able to see them in a bad state within a wk, but if you bad less often that would be impossible. what a bummer
 
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