Have you ever tried to select a tile for a reno? Did you poke around online or hop over to your nearest tile showroom? If you did, I’m willing to bet you left (or X-ed out of the browser tab) feeling more confused than when you started!

You’re not alone. I’ve talked to countless homeowners during Design Strategy Consults, and tile seems to stump everyone. However, to help give you a leg up, I can narrow it down to 5 main challenges… & some solutions, of course.

Solve these early and you’ll be far less likely to feel stuck down the road.

Challenge 1: Translating Pinterest Inspo into Real Life Design

If your beautiful Pinterest board is not translating into a design concept you love, it’s not your fault. First, it is very difficult to match colors on a screen to materials in real life. (This is why designers create flat lays.) 

& second, most homeowners try selecting their materials one item at a time, which means that even if you find a stunning tile that matches your Pinspo, it may or may not look cohesive with the rest of your bathroom design.

My suggestion: Assemble your tile samples AND all of the other materials that could be going into the reno. Mix and match them until you create a cohesive design with a similar look and feel to what you originally envisioned.

OR, skip the guesswork entirely and scoop up a Bathroom Design Kit, where we have already sourced materials that work well together and add up to a designer-quality & totally Pinterest-worthy final result. 

Challenge 2: Where Can You Find Quality Tile?

Another comment I hear often: “I don’t know where to find quality tile.” Fair enough. That’s an honest concern, and how are you supposed to know if you have never done this before? Google? Yeah… maybe not.

While I can’t necessarily advise you on any local suppliers, there are several online sources that we trust for the tile selections we include in our Design Kits. We’ve ordered these suppliers’ samples, tested the quality ourselves, and made sure their color options work with each bathroom design.

I won’t give away alllll of our secrets, but if you want tile picks you can trust, find your Design Kit match here.

Challenge 3: Fear of Selecting Dated Materials

No one wants to invest in a bathroom reno and have it look dated a month or two later. Or even a year later. You want it to feel fresh and current yet timeless and sophisticated. Yep, me too.

Your best bet is to consult a design professional (not necessarily the salesman at your local tile showroom) who understands industry trends and how they differ from classic design. You’ll also want to make sure that you don’t ask for “trendy” design — trends fade. You want relevant and up-to-date design with classic, enduring roots. 

As someone who doesn’t believe in trendy design, I have made every effort to ensure that our Design Kits are timeless yet modern. Yes, each has its unique look and feel, but they are all founded on long-lasting style. That’s my philosophy, and you’re welcome to it!

Challenge 4: Knowing the Right Scale for Tile

Understanding the right size and scale for anything in a home — pendants, a dining table, a rug — is difficult for design novices. This is doubly true in bathrooms, where mistakes become a permanent fixture in the space. Yikes!

When it comes to tile scale, there are several things to know…

The smaller the tile, the more grout, the less “slippage.” (Slippage = how slippery the floor is.) The bigger the tile, the less grout, and the more slippage. However, large scale tiles can make a small bathroom feel smaller, while too-small tiles can look out of place in a large bathroom. Ack! 

Safe to say, there’s some expertise involved here, and the right answer is usually somewhere in the middle, or a balance of both.

Our Design Kits help you blow right through this challenge like a yellow stoplight by giving you not only beautifully scaled materials, mirrors, and lighting but also helping combine them with complementary patterns and sizes. Phew.

Challenge 5: Creating a Cohesive Color Palette

If you read this and thought “don’t even get me started on color!” — I hear you. It is not easy. If it was, everyone would be a designer. (Or at least everyone who also likes project and construction management, since that’s 80% of what we do. Fun fact.)

In reality, there are color courses that last days, weeks, months, and even years. If I could teach it to you in one blog post, I would, but it’s not possible. So let’s leave it at this: We’ve got your back.

I am a trained True Colour Expert who knows undertones & color theory like the back of my hand. I’ve designed hundreds of homes over the last decade, and every limited edition Design Kit was created in our studio, where we could see the colors in real life, not on a screen. 

In other words, they work, so you don’t have to think about it. Cue sigh of relief!

Ready to leap over all 5 of these hurdles and inject confidence and ease into your reno? Take home one of our limited edition Design Kits here.

Xoxo,

Shawna

SOURCED is the take-charge woman’s fail-safe resource for leading a home renovation to success. Created by Interior Designer Shawna Percival of Styleberry Creative Interiors, each Design Kit serves up fresh yet timeless style, quality material selections, and an easy-to-follow renovation guide. Say hello to your new weekend plans.