5 Stylish Tips To Help You Design Your New Wetroom

More and more of us are replacing our baths and enclosures with a stylish showering space. According to property guru Phil Spencer, wetrooms are a great way of adding value to your home and they feature high up on any house-hunter's wishlist. A wetroom is basically a fully tiled room with an open shower area, usually with a glass screen to protect the loo and sink. As with a normal bathroom, it's important to ensure your room is fully waterproof. Thankfully, porcelain tiles and wetrooms go together like, er, bubbles and baths - they're resistant to water, really easy to care for and can be used with underfloor heating. Here are some inspiring ways to use porcelain tiles in your new wetroom:

 

1. A sense of space

Many people prefer to turn guest bathrooms and ensuites into wetrooms and it's no secret that these rooms tend to be smaller. Using lighter, stone effect tiles helps create a sense of space and calm, especially if you're using a white suite. Our Caracalla Avorio tile has a distinct semi-polished surface which helps reflect light around the room making it feel bigger.

2. Make a feature

With no bulky enclosure to get in the way, turn your shower walls into a focal point by using contrasting tiles to the rest of the room. Our Stoneskin tiles are a popular choice as they offer the striking looks of quartz and slate with the convenience and practicality of porcelain.

3. The warmth of wood

Wood in a bathroom? You must be kidding! Of course we are - we know that water and wood can only mean rotting planks and warped edges. Here's where our range of incredible wood effect tiles steps in. You'd be pretty hard-pushed to notice the difference but as these planks are made from porcelain, they're totally resistant to water so you can use them throughout your bathroom and even on your shower walls!

4. Luxurious style

If we asked you to think of a hotel bathroom there's a good chance polished marble tiles will spring to mind. And we can see why, they shout luxury and glamour and have a price tag to match. Fortunately, you can get the look but save yourself a small fortune by using stone effect tiles. Can you tell which is stone and which is porcelain in the image below? The tiles on the left are real marble. Those on the right are Calacatta - a digitally printed version and one of our most popular tiles. Calacatta is pretty indistinguishable, costs far less, and won't stain or absorb water - an important consideration for a wetroom. We know which tile we prefer!

5. Get a grip

We've heard stories of people choosing highly polished tiles for their wetroom floor but it's best to avoid these. A gloss surface is likely to become slippery when wet which isn't ideal for a shower area! Instead, choose tiles with a matt surface or with a textured finish for added slip resistance. Mosaics are also a popular choice for wetrooms as they offer extra grip underfloor and they also help disguise the fall in your wetroom tray. By their small nature, mosaics include a lot of grout lines - ask your tiler to seal these to ensure they don't stain over time.