This Bathroom Tile Design Idea Changes Everything

It makes sense to think outside the box when you're decorating your powder room. You use it sparingly, so that metallic wallpaper isn't going to give you a headache like it would in the equally tiny bathroom you use day in and day out. But how do you make said regular ol' bathroom a place you want to be, without using jarring patterns or throwing down serious cash on all marble everything? Tile, says Suzanne McGrath, one half of design firm McGrath II. But not just any tile, floor tile. On the walls.

See the 1x4 ceramic tiles plastered floor-to-ceiling in this guest bathroom, part of McGrath II's impressive overhaul of a prewar apartment in New York City? Yeah, those are technically for the floor. But it's the tile's design that really mattered to the decorating duo. "In a small room like this, we thought, how can we make this more interesting? because if we just paint it, it's going to be so boring, and you don't really want to wallpaper a heavily used bathroom," McGrath explains.

She recommends not looking at tile so literally, shopping based on size and color rather than marketed location. "For smaller bathroom walls, we like to specify ceramic tiles that are small in size," says McGrath—they like 1x4 and 2x6 styles, specifically. There's also porcelain to consider, which is even less expensive. And to make the decision that much easier, floor tiles are pre-cut and relatively easy to install.

In the end, covering the guest bathroom walls in tile ended up costing about the same as smoothing, prepping, painting, and waterproofing the walls would have, but it has double the impact. McGrath adds, "Tile is much lower maintenance than painted walls. It is compatible with moisture, whereas sometimes a painted finish will develop a film on it over time from excess moisture." We predict powder rooms everywhere are going to have some serious design competition.