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Mad About … Cement Tiles

Oh I do love a cement tile floor. Practical as well as pretty and, if you install underfloor heating, warm too.

tile flooring by egue y seta for a house in Barcelona
tile flooring by egue y seta for a house in Barcelona

I have some cement tiles on the wall in my shower room and they never fail to make my heart sing when I see them. I rather wish I had bought more.

cement tile flooring industrial style kitchen black cupboards
cement tiles look great in this industrial style kitchen. image from homeposh.com

I had originally wanted to create a tile rug in the en suite bathroom but, what with one thing and another (the bank manager shouting mainly) it didn’t happen and we stuck with the reclaimed floorboards throughout.

black and white patchwork moroccan cement floor tiles kitchen
black and white patchwork tiles in a modern kitchen. image from remodelista

Now, don’t get me wrong. Painted floorboards are another of my favourite things, but if I was in the business of a fairly major redecoration job on this house, I would definitely consider some more dramatic flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms.

black and white floor tiles in a kitchen by jhinteriordesign.com
black and white floor tiles in a kitchen by jhinteriordesign.com

The addition of some dramatic flooring really lifts these rooms which have, for the most part, stuck to a fairly monochrome palette with the addition of wood and brass and a certain amount of greenery. Is the house plant returning?

cement floor tiles really bring this room in santa caterina to life, image from decoestilo.mujerhoy.com
cement floor tiles really bring this room in santa caterina to life, image from decoestilo.mujerhoy.com

The addition of some dramatic flooring really lifts these rooms which have, for the most part, stuck to a fairly monochrome palette with the addition of wood and brass and a certain amount of greenery. Is the house plant returning?

black and white cement floor tiles via pinterest
black and white cement floor tiles via pinterest

If you would like some more inspiration here’s my Pinterest board and if fancy this look then here are some suggestions on where to buy these tiles:

habibi.com designtegels.nl

bert and may

cement-tiles.com

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

4 Comments

  1. Hey, we caught up briefly on Twitter last week… just a quickie to say, you’ve done it again. Been talking floor tiles with my husband – as you do – for our downstairs toilet, we were going plain, I fancied something more interesting, a quick flit over here and I’ve got a link to an awesome cement tile company, thank you!

    1. Yes I do love a cement tile! Faking it? Well vinyl is certainly warmer underfoot unless you are installing underfloor heating too. When it comes to patterns, personally I think vinyl is fine although I think I would prefer the real thing and you may find that vinyl isn’t that much cheaper in the end. When it comes to wood/parquet and stone, I’m not a fan of fake I’m afraid. It’s so realistic looking that I feel cheated when I touch it! That is, of course, completely my personal opinion. But I would say if you long for parquet and can’t afford the real thing then I would prefer to go for something completely different – painted floorboards, rubber, ceramic tiles – there are lots of other options that aren’t pretending to be what they aren’t, if you see what I mean.

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