Skip to content
Over the decades, floor tiles have become some of the most popular items used when renovating homes. Versatile, durable, and available in many different types of materials, colors, designs, shapes, and sizes, you can find small floor tiles to use in a bathroom or kitchen, wood look tile flooring for living rooms and entryways, and even marble look porcelain floor tile and much more. In fact, whatever vision you have in your mind for how you want various rooms in your home to look, chances are various types of floor tiles can make your dream a reality. If you are ready to explore the fascinating world of tile sizes and shapes, here is our Oasis Tile Buyer's Guide to give you all the details.
Very Small to Very Large
If there is one thing we can say about today's floor tiles, it's that they come in sizes ranging from very small to ones that are very large.
Should you be captivated by small floor tiles, you can find square floor tiles in sizes ranging from as small as 2" square up to as large as 24" square. Depending upon the look you want for a room, it's likely you will use tile squares that measure at least 6"x6", although 12"x12" is the size most customers tend to use in kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, and elsewhere.
No matter what size you use for a project, the biggest advantage of square tiles of any size is that they are very easy to work with, make calculating how many tiles will be needed for a room very quick, and provide a uniform look from one end of a room to the other.
Rectangular and Subway Tiles
While traditional square tiles continue to remain far and away the most popular option for most renovations, our team here at Oasis Tile is starting to notice a trend with more customers seeking to use rectangular and subway tiles on their floors.
Rectangular tiles are generally sized ranging from as small as 1"x2" up to 6"x8", with numerous variations in between. Though you may assume subway tiles are different, they are actually considered to be a subset of rectangular tiles. Named subway tiles because they are tiles used in the design of subway stations in New York, they have been used mostly on walls, but in recent years have started to be used more on floors to give a distinct and trendy look. Typical sizes can range from 1"x3" all the way up to 4"x16", with many more from which to choose.
Using Tile Sizes and Shapes to Your Advantage
Now that you know more about just how many different sizes and shapes of tiles exist in today's modern world, let's look more at how you can use them to your advantage within your home.
If you have a small room you wish looked bigger, like a bathroom, you can use larger floor tiles in this space. However, we and most interior designers recommend you not use tiles larger than 18", since doing so will be too much of a good thing for a very tiny room.
In rooms that are quite large and rectangular, as is the case with many gallery kitchens, plank tile flooring often works best. By laying this tile across the floor, you can create a room that looks much wider and far more spacious than its true dimensions.
Finally, if you are wanting more texture to your room but don't want to upset the apple cart in terms of space, you can be bold and choose to use the same finish and color of tile. However, do so by using different sizes of square and rectangular tiles that are set in random patterns on the floor. By doing so, your eyes will not be drawn to any one distinct pattern within the room, which can often result in the space feeling much smaller.
Plank Tile
Thanks to new printing technology now being used in the tile manufacturing industry, you can now find tile flooring that looks like wood so much that it's hard to tell the difference between the tile and actual hardwood flooring. However, plank tile now goes far beyond just a wood look. If you wish, you can now also find plank floor tile that looks like stone or porcelain. In fact, you can find marble looking porcelain floor tiles that come in planks.
Common plank tile sizes range from 4"x12" up to 16"x32", although many plank tiles can also be found in lengths of as much as 48". Should you be interested in using plank tile in your home, it's important to remember that with most styles, longer planks will look more realistic when on your floor. Also, try to use a grout color that closely matches the darkest colors in the tile, since this also lends a more realistic look to your flooring.
Hexagon and Octagon Tiles
If you really want an unusual and unique look to your room, be like many people today and choose to use octagon and hexagon tiles in your home. Usually found in sizes of 4", 6", and 8", these tiles are currently one of the hottest trends in interior design.
Popular choices for smaller bathrooms that often look and feel cramped, they are also great for adding rustic charm to any room. Along with their shapes, these tiles also often have unique patterns within them, which is great if you want your room's floor to get all the attention.
As home and bathroom design trends change and technology allows for even more innovation within tile manufacturing, we at Oasis Tile have no doubt more fascinating selections of tiles will be available in the coming years. But even now, you've got plenty of great tiles from which to choose. Whether it's planks, hexagons, or traditional squares, one look at our Oasis Tile inventory will get your creative interior design juices flowing.
