The Impact of Tile Color
Tile color can influence how you, your family, and your guests feel in your home. Throughout history, different cultures have used color to elicit symbolic meaning and emotional associations. The tile colors you select are crucial to your overall design strategy and leave a deeply impactful, lasting impression. With that in mind, before you choose tile for your next home project, it’s important to consider how different colors will affect the mood and experience of everyone who enters the area you plan to tile.
Resale Value
If you’re planning on eventually selling your home, you may want to consider what prospective home buyers want before you make a final decision on your tile colors. The prevailing opinion among real estate professionals, designers, and home staging experts is that for the best home resale value, neutral colors are best.
Suppose a home buyer has a vision of their future home. They tour a home that would suit them in almost every way, but when they encounter a chaotic mix of bold-colored tiles, it scrambles their eggs, so to speak. Not only can intrusive tile colors prevent them from envisioning the home as their own, but it can also create frustration and uncertainty about the cost of replacing the tile.
According to Better Homes and Gardens, mostly neutral colors help “establish an atmosphere of serenity and relaxation.” They suggest using two neutral colors, such as gray and white, in a distribution of 70/30 to “make a calming color scheme that’s understated without being boring.” If you prefer more color, they recommend mixing colors in a 70/20/10 ratio — 70% neutral tile, 20% in a rich contrasting color, and the final 10% in an accent color.
Room Size and Lighting
When selecting the right color tile for a space, it’s important to consider how different hues can influence the room’s perceived size. Lighter-colored tiles can make a room feel more spacious. In rooms with no windows or low natural light, this can be a big help.
On the other hand, tile in darker colors can create a sense of coziness in expansive rooms or rooms with an overabundance of natural light.
Be sure to consider paint color along with tile flooring, since walls cover such a tremendous amount of visual space. Tilezz.com recommends pairing light walls with dark flooring:
We often associate light colors with airiness and open spaces. However, when walls painted in light colors are paired with dark flooring, the contrast between the walls and floor creates a sense of openness that makes the room feel larger. Dark flooring also tends to have the effect of making lighter ceilings seem higher.
Maintenance
Adam Copher, owner of Copher Tile & Stone has a suggestion regarding tile color in light of maintenance: “I would tend to recommend a mid to dark tone porcelain tile for people worried about maintenance or grout darkening. Clients selecting midrange to darker tile with a matching grout may be happier with how the grout ages with less-than-perfect cleaning habits.”
Regardless of what color tile you choose, using high-quality walk off mats at entryways is a great way to capture contaminants brought in from outside on the bottoms of shoes. Contaminants that do make their way in can be kept at bay with a quick sweep or vacuum each day or running a robot vacuum, such as Roomba®. To get the most life out of your tile, treat tile that hides dirt the same way you would treat tile that shows it. Regular cleaning and care can keep your tile looking great all the time, should you choose to go for the color you really want.
For some types of tile, the actual cleanliness of the tile, not just how clean it appears to be, can influence the longevity of your installation. Why? Because abrasive contaminants can get ground into the surface with foot traffic, creating wear patterns over time.
If your tile is porous or a calcium-based stone, certain substances that are not cleaned up promptly can cause permanent staining or chemical damage called etching. Some patterned tiles can help minimize the appearance of stains or etching.
For more cleaning and care tips, read this article: How Do I Keep My Tile Looking New After Installation?
Room Function
Each room in your home serves a specific purpose or sometimes multiple purposes. The color of the tile you select can help create the right mood or atmosphere for the function of the space.
To feel active and engaged, you might opt to include yellows, reds, or other warm colors. You’ll appreciate these colors in the kitchen along with your morning coffee, when you entertain in your dining room, or during brainstorming sessions in your home office. Cooler tones help you feel calm. Light blues, grays, and greens are perfect for fireplace surrounds, bedroom accent walls, showers, and bathroom walls or anywhere you want to unwind.
Here are some common symbolic meanings of colors:
- Red – Festive, excited, passionate, dangerous, loving, auspicious, gaudy, enthusiastic, awe-inspiring
- Dark red – Noble, solemn, selfless
- Pink – Gentle, soft, earthy, reserved
- Lavender – Elegant, romantic, dreamy, sexy
- Purple – Solemn, deep, mysterious, noble, arrogant, glamorous
- Blue – Serenity, lost, peaceful, wisdom, hope, reason, transcendence, refreshing, eternal
- Green – Hope, nature, balance, environmental protection, youth, growth, freshness
- Light yellow – Quiet, serene, light-hearted
- Yellow – Hope, joy, light, confidence, dignity, danger
- Orange – Vitality, warmth, joy, kindness, joy, liveliness, leisure
- White – Sublime, clean, parting, truth, indifference
- Black – Simple, mysterious, composed, insidious, cold, evil, dead, noble
(Source: “Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?”)
While color psychology is a good starting point, it is also very subjective. Homeowners should feel free to choose tile colors that make them feel right about the space. Trust your instincts, even if they are unconventional.
Grout Color
According to Daltile, the best-selling tile brand in America, “How do I choose grout color for tile?” is a question they get all the time. They suggest you “look at grout samples rather than relying on the color represented on the packaging or the color of the grout in the package” because color can be affected by mixing methods and cure times. An experienced tile installer familiar with the type of grout you choose can minimize the amount of variation.
There are two basic design options when it comes to grout color: match or contrast. You can match the grout to the color of the tile, or for patterned tiles, choose a color within the pattern to match. Matching the grout and tile colors can help create a more uniform, consistent appearance, which creates a soothing and calm vibe. For contrast, you can select a lighter color grout with a dark tile or vice versa. Contrasting grout colors will draw attention to the layout pattern of the tile and bring a dramatic sense of energy to the space.
If you are having trouble envisioning how your grout color will impact the appearance of your tile selection, Copher Tile & Stone would be happy to create mockups for you, upon request, for an additional fee. Just ask!
Tile color selection is an important decision. After considering all the influencing factors, it’s essential to choose colors that resonate with you and make you feel at home.
by Alice Dean
Copher Tile & Stone proudly stays up to date on tile installation with ongoing education with Mapei Technical Institute, Ardex Academy, the National Tile Contractors Association, Laticrete, and Schluter. Copher is a Certified Tile Installer (#1644).
