43 Kitchen Tile Ideas

One of the most significant decisions you’ll make when renovating your kitchen is what tile you go for. Choose the wrong tile, and you’ve ruined all of your hard work. Choose the right tile, and you’ll elevate your kitchen design. To make things easier, we’ve come up with this collection of functional and stylish kitchen tile ideas. 

The biggest dilemma for most people is the sheer number of options. Tile sizes range from one-inch square penny tiles to large natural stone sheets. They also range in every color imaginable. Next, you’ll have to think about the shape of the tile.

These kitchen tile ideas discussed below will help you narrow down your options so that you choose the perfect tile for your kitchen floor and wall.

1. Elegant Black Kitchen Tile Ideas

If you love the look of black tile, consider using it on your floor. Whether it’s shiny or matte, the darker color on the floor will give the illusion of a bigger room. You can choose a porcelain tile or a natural stone like slate. Whatever tile you choose, make sure the size fits well with the area of your kitchen. Larger tiles will help the space to feel larger. Consider using a dark grey or black grout with your tile. This will help the individual tiles blend together, providing a smooth look throughout the kitchen.

If you decide to create a black kitchen look with black cabinets, you can continue this look with black tiles for your backsplash or walls. This continues the look of the black but creates depth and texture in the space. By doing this, you avoid the black hole or void effect.

Black subway tile is a twist on a popular modern trend. Black natural stone works well in modern, industrial, or minimalist kitchens too. It creates a sense of earthiness in the space.

2. Warm and Earthy

Have you ever seen a brown tile that was attractive? Neither have we. Instead of looking for brown tiles, consider a natural stone that has brown elements in it. These tiles give your kitchen a natural rustic warmth. Most people stick to using them for the flooring, around a fireplace, or on an accent wall.

Consider a natural stone such as travertine or something handmade like clay or terracotta. Embrace the fact that these tiles won’t be perfectly uniform. They’ll have varying heights and rough-hewn edges and come in large squares or brick shapes, helping give your kitchen a unique look.

This type of tile is perfect for a rustic, country, cottage, or farmhouse kitchen. The handmade appeal of the tiles and lack of uniformity helps them to blend into the rest of your interior decor approaches.

3. Timeless and Versatile

If you’re going for a traditional look and feel in your kitchen, then you’ll want to stick with classic tile designs. These tiles have muted, subtle, or neutral color schemes. You’ll want to lay them in either a grid or as a mosaic tile design. Skip the trendy chevron and herringbone designs.

You should also stick with traditional materials for your tile. This means avoiding the glass tile and instead opting for porcelain, terracotta, stone, or cement tile. Square tiles are a safe bet, just not the oversized ones that have recently come into vogue.

If you want to use a hexagon shape, keep the tile small. Penny tile is a traditional design, and it comes in square, round, and hexagon shapes. However, the small size can be overwhelming in a large kitchen space, so it’s best left for small kitchens with minimal floor square footage.

4. Inspiring Design Ideas

Don’t be afraid to use tiles to create a contemporary kitchen design. Use different types of tiles in different areas to create visual effects. Use one tile for your floor and then another tile for your backsplash. You can even use a third as an accent tile.

Another option is to use different types of tiles to create different zones within your kitchen. Perhaps you have one kind of tile in the cooking area and another in your breakfast nook. When choosing your tiles, don’t pick all bold patterns. Balance the look visually by having an even mix of plain and patterned tiles.

5. Stunning Floor Designs

The type of floor tile you choose can enhance the interior design look you’re going for. A minimalist or modern kitchen will look great with large, polished marble tiles with minimal veining and thin grout lines. This reduces the floor’s pattern and texture, which blends perfectly with both of these design approaches.

If you want a rustic approach, then choose a handmade tile that lacks uniformity. Something that’s not highly polished is also good.

Modern trends embrace an elevated look to traditional designs and patterns. Instead of large marble squares, the marble tile is shaped like a subway tile and then arranged into a chevron or off-centered pattern.

6. Embrace the Beauty of Gloss

A popular choice for many modern kitchens is a polished or glossy tile. Choose from a polished stone or ceramic tile with a gloss finish. While you may think it makes a perfect kitchen backsplash idea, many people choose to put it on their floor.

The advantage is that your floor will have a beautiful glossy, shiny finish that you can wash and polish to perfection. It’ll gleam and reflect light, making your kitchen brighter. The negative is that if it gets wet, it can be downright dangerous. If there’s a puddle you unknowingly step into, you might find yourself slipping and sitting on the floor before you know what hit you.

7. Chic and Sophisticated Gray

Gray tiles can give your kitchen a modern look while also keeping things neutral. If you plan to have bold colors in other areas, sticking with gray is a smart choice. Whether you pick a light or dark gray, both pair beautifully with a wide range of colors.

Gray tile’s neutral nature means you won’t want or need to change the tile anytime in the near future. The best design is to choose a classic subway tile in a flat grey with a gloss treatment or in a natural stone like marble or granite. Then there are lighter shades of slate that come in gray which also make for a great kitchen tile.

8. Luxurious Marble Tiles

Marble tiles will give your kitchen an elegant and luxurious feel. Most people only think about marble countertops for their kitchen, but you can do so much more than that. Just like your counters, marble tiles offer both beauty and durability.

You can use marble anywhere and everywhere in your kitchen without it feeling overwhelming. Start with the floor, then bring it up to cover the sides of your kitchen island. Then install it on the wall as your backsplash and you have yourself an enviable marble kitchen.

9. Embrace Modern Style

Modern tile trends embrace unique shapes, bold colors, and complicated patterns. Hexagon tiles or tiles with a fish scale shape are very trendy. Before you choose these shapes, keep in mind that they may not be so chic in years to come, and this will make your kitchen look outdated.

Another popular modern trend is to choose a tile with a classic design and use it in a new way. Subway tile was once the most in-demand tile, then it fell out of favor, and now it’s popular again. A subway tile backsplash can give your kitchen a retro-cool feel. It also works well in industrial-inspired kitchens.

10. Patterned Tile Options

There are several ways you can create a pattern with your tile. The first is to choose a style with a design on each individual tile. This might be a pattern painted onto or molded into the tile’s surface, such as with encaustic tiles. You can also find tiles that you must lay in a specific way to create a larger pattern across your kitchen floor.

Another idea is to create a pattern by choosing different tiles and then laying them out to create your own custom pattern.

11. Beautiful and Functional Backsplashes

You should have a tile backsplash on the walls behind your workspaces. This means it’ll cover the wall behind your kitchen sink, stovetop, and anywhere else that you need additional protection. The tile is more durable and easier to clean than painted drywall. Many people create a cohesive look by continuing the kitchen tile backsplash throughout the space.

Many kitchen tile backsplash ideas feature uniquely patterned, colored, or shaped tile. This is because the space tends to be smaller, so you can choose a bolder tile. This is your chance to use that patterned tile that you fell in love with or the hexagon tile that is too intense for your kitchen floor. Or perhaps you love subway tiles and want to create a herringbone pattern.

If you have upper cabinets mounted on the wall above your countertop, consider continuing the backsplash tile to cover the wall’s length between these two elements. This ties the entire kitchen together.

When you tile the wall behind your stove, bring the backsplash all the way up to the bottom of the ventilation fan. If your fan doesn’t take up the entire wall, then continue the tile around it to extend to the ceiling.

12. Creative Square Tiles

Square tiles are an excellent option for your kitchen. The shape is easy to work with and fits nicely into architectural structures. The trick to getting it right has a lot to do with choosing the right size. Go too small and you end up creating an overwhelming pattern. Go too big and the tile will look too large for your kitchen, making the space feel smaller than it really is.

One option is to choose different-sized square tiles. You can have large tiles for the floor, then smaller square tiles for the backsplash.

13. Natural and Rustic Stone

Using natural stone in your kitchen allows you to add subtle color variation and texture without competing with the other elements in the room. The natural material also adds a sense of warmth and earthiness to the space.

Most people only consider using natural stone as tile flooring. However, that isn’t your only option. You can use it to create an accent wall or as your stone backsplash to create depth and texture throughout the kitchen.

14. Clean and Bright

If you have a white kitchen design in mind, you’ll want to use a white tile to complete the look. However, as with any all-white room, you’ll want to use the tile to create texture and depth. This prevents all of the white from blending and becoming a single blinding wash of white.

Natural white stone or white marble tile is perfect for your kitchen floor and the walls around your white cabinets. The tile creates texture with the individual tiles. It also creates visual interest with its natural color variation through the veining in the stone. To create even more visual interest, choose a bold pattern like herringbone or weave.