The kitchen takes more punishment than any room in the house. Hot oil, dropped pans, red wine, foot traffic from the first coffee to the last dish of the night. Kitchen tiles have to take all of that and still look the part years later, which is a tall order for something people often choose in five minutes.
Ceramic Tile Imports has been getting Melbourne kitchens right since 1974, and with more than 1,000 designs in the showroom there’s room to match your cabinetry and benchtop properly rather than settle for close enough. The kitchen tiles Melbourne renovators come to us for cover both the floor underfoot and the wall behind the bench.
Floor Tiles That Survive A Working Kitchen
A kitchen floor needs to be hard, dense and easy to clean, which is why porcelain does so well here. Fired hotter than standard ceramic, it resists scratches, copes with dropped crockery better, and won’t soak up a spilt sauce the way a porous tile can. If you’re choosing for a busy household, look at the tile’s wear rating and lean towards the harder grades, and if anyone is prone to slipping, a tile with a little texture or a matt finish gives more grip than high gloss. Our floor tile range covers stone, concrete and timber looks that suit an open-plan kitchen running into the living area.
20,000+
Residential Projects Supplied
50+
Years in Business
1,000+
Builders Supplied
Splashbacks and Feature Walls
The wall behind the cooktop is where a kitchen gets its personality. A splashback has to shrug off heat and splatter and clean up fast, but it’s also the strip everyone’s eye lands on, so it’s worth a little extra. Subway tiles still suit most kitchens, finger tiles and herringbone layouts add movement, and a marble look or a bold colour can become the feature of the whole room. There’s more on this on our splashback tiles page, including what works around a rangehood and an induction top.
Matching Kitchen Tiles To Cabinetry And Benchtops
The mistake we see most is choosing tiles in isolation and hoping they’ll suit the joinery later. Bring a cabinet door sample and a benchtop offcut into the showroom and hold everything together under the same light. Warm timber cabinetry sits better with earthy stone looks and softer whites; crisp white or two-tone kitchens can take a cooler grey or a graphic feature. Getting all three in front of you at once saves the expensive kind of regret.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Are porcelain or ceramic tiles better for a kitchen floor?
For floors, porcelain is usually the better call. It’s denser, harder and less porous than standard ceramic, so it handles heavy traffic and spills more comfortably. Ceramic is perfectly fine on kitchen walls and splashbacks where wear isn’t an issue.
What’s the easiest kitchen tile to keep clean?
A matt or satin porcelain with a rectified edge and minimal grout lines is the easiest to keep clean. Large-format tiles mean less grout, and grout is where kitchen grime tends to settle.
Can I tile the floor before the cabinetry goes in?
Tiling the whole floor first, rather than just up to the cabinet line, is generally the better approach because it future-proofs you if the layout ever changes. Check with your tiler, but most prefer it.
Do dark kitchen floor tiles show more dirt?
Very dark and very light tiles both show marks, just different ones: dark shows dust and footprints, light shows crumbs and stains. A mid-tone or lightly speckled tile is the most forgiving day to day.