Walls set the mood of a room long before the furniture arrives, and they cover a lot of ground while they do it. Get the tiling right and a small bathroom feels calmer, a kitchen looks sharper, a laundry stops being the room you keep the door shut on. Get it wrong and it nags at you every time you walk past.
At Ceramic Tile Imports we’ve been helping Melbourne sort out exactly this since 1974. Our wall tile range has grown past 1,000 designs over those fifty-odd years, so the wall tiles Melbourne homeowners choose from us come down to what suits the space, not what happened to land in the container this month.
Where Wall Tiles Work Hardest
Wall tiles do their best work in the wet and busy parts of a home. In bathrooms they take a room from floor to ceiling and keep it sealed against splashes and steam. Behind a kitchen bench they double as a splashback that wipes down in seconds. In a laundry they protect the wall behind the trough and still look tidy. Plenty of people also use them well away from water, on a feature wall behind a bed or a fireplace, where a textured or patterned tile does something paint never could. Outdoors, the right tile handles an alfresco wall or a pool surround, though there the finish and slip rating matter more than the look, and our team will steer you to tiles built for it.
20,000+
Residential Projects Supplied
50+
Years in Business
1,000+
Builders Supplied
Finishes and Formats, And What They Actually Do
A gloss tile bounces light around, which helps a dim ensuite feel brighter, but it shows splashes and fingerprints more readily. Matt and satin finishes hide marks and feel more relaxed, which is why they’ve taken over in a lot of newer bathrooms. The format changes the whole feel too: classic subway still looks right in almost any home, large-format tiles in 300×600 or bigger give you fewer grout lines and a cleaner wall, finger tiles and mosaics add texture, and a bold patterned tile can carry an entire powder room on its own. There’s no single right answer, which is rather the point of having more than a thousand to look at.
Choosing Wall Tiles in Melbourne
Two things trip people up most. The first is colour under the wrong light: a tile that looks crisp white under showroom downlights can read grey or cream in a north-facing room, so it’s worth seeing samples in the actual space. The second is scale, where a large tile can overwhelm a tiny bathroom and tiny mosaics can make a big wall look busy. Grout colour matters more than people expect as well, since a contrasting grout turns subway tiles into a grid feature while a matching grout lets a large-format wall settle into one clean surface.
See Them in Our Clayton showroom
The easiest way through all of it is to come and see them. Our showroom is a few minutes from Chadstone, and you’re welcome to bring paint chips, a benchtop offcut or a photo of the room. While you’re choosing wall tiles it’s worth looking at the matching floor tiles and porcelain range at the same time, since the two need to work together. Have a look through the full tile range online first if you’d rather narrow things down before you visit.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can the same tile go on the wall and the floor?
Sometimes, but not always. Most floor tiles can be used on walls, while many wall tiles are too thin or aren’t rated for foot traffic. If you want a seamless look running up the wall and across the floor, tell us and we’ll point out the tiles rated for both.
What size wall tile suits a small bathroom?
Large-format tiles usually work better than you’d think, because fewer grout lines make a small room read as one clean surface rather than a busy grid. Very small mosaics tend to look fussy over a whole wall, though they’re great as a feature strip.
How many spare tiles should I order?
Allow around 10% extra for cuts, breakages and the odd future repair. Dye lots vary between batches, so keeping spares from the same lot saves a headache if a tile ever needs replacing.