Shower tiles: the best combinations

To help you choose the wall tiles best suited to this space, we will describe the advantages of bathroom tiles over other materials and review today's trend-setting combinations. 

Porcelain tile: the best shower wall covering

Porcelain tile is the best shower covering in terms of technical performance and design possibilities. Its qualities make it the perfect candidate in a space where materials must meet a series of requirements, such as high resistance to heat and damp. What are the characteristics of ceramic wall tiles?

• Resistance: if there is one thing that tiles stand out for, it is their great resistance. They withstand impacts, knocks and the passage of time without problems.
• Very low moisture absorption: porcelain stoneware is a material that is not very porous, so its impermeability to water is very high.
• Ease of cleaning and maintenance: it is easy and quick to care for, as it is also resistant to stains.
• Variety of designs: ceramic technology makes it possible to reproduce a multitude of materials, with ever greater fidelity. Undoubtedly, this is a very favourable point when it comes to choosing coverings that highlight the shower area.

Decorative tiles for the bath and shower

Decorative effect tiles are the most effective option for designing a shower with a personal style. We include in this group tiles with detailed drawings or patterns as well as small format collections that allow for greater versatility in the arrangement of shower tiles.

Decorative tiles in encaustic style 

Encaustic style wall tiles are ideal if you are looking for a vintage aesthetic adapted to modern times. Nowadays they are produced in an infinite number of shades, geometric and floral patterns, making them a very effective way to highlight the shower area. An example of this is our Danube collection, with a neutral cream tone and black diamonds.

Art Deco or Art Nouveau shower tiles

Art Deco shower tiles are reminiscent of a highly decorative style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. Art Deco tiles are distinguished by their golden tones and refined designs, something that the Art Deco White Spritz tile represents perfectly. Art Nouveau, on the other hand, emerged at the end of the 19th century. The Vienna tile collection conveys the essence of the Viennese gentry of the time and creates an elegant shower with a personality of its own.

Underground tiles for showers with their own personality

Underground tiles open up a world of possibilities as shower cladding. They can be installed in different ways, in a herringbone pattern to generate movement, vertically to make the wall appear higher or in a bevel, vertical and horizontal lines, to create an optical play. They also include differentiating designs such as Joliet Toffe Prisma, in gloss and relief to make the shower wall stand out from the rest of the bathroom areas.

Retro bathrooms with a nod to comics

And for original retro showers, there are wall cladding options that break with convention. Our Corten collection with the News Ornament colour option depicts single pages from comic books of yesteryear. Due to its high level of detail, it is the ideal candidate for highlighting this area of the bathroom.

Other shower tile designs

Beyond decorative style tiles, there are other equally effective shower tile options, such as tiles in hexagonal format or in designs such as marble.

Hexagonal shower tiles

Hexagonal tiles are gaining popularity year after year. It is a classic option that is still valid today and has more and more colour and design options. Due to their high decorative value, they are ideal for highlighting the shower wall. One example is the Lined hexagonal tile collection by Aparici, which is inspired by the essence of the Neo-Memphis style. A commitment to softer tones than the original, provocative and intense Memphis style.

The elegance of marble in the shower 

Undoubtedly, marble is one of the great allies when it comes to bathroom design. In addition to its unmistakable aesthetics, it stands out for its ability to combine with other materials. This characteristic makes the marble design porcelain tile an ideal material for covering bathrooms, especially the shower area.

In the Sutton tile collection we represent the natural wear and tear of natural stone over time, resulting in beautiful patterns piece by piece.

Modern terrazzo in bathrooms

Modern terrazzo effect tiles are an option that reinvents this classic Mediterranean material. It simulates stone pebbles and optionally, other decorative elements are added to create tiles with great emphasis on design, as is the case with Aparici's Stracciatella. In short, they are a dynamic and different option for use as shower tiles.

From vintage to industrial style bathrooms

Both vintage and industrial style tiles are a suitable choice for the shower wall. Here are some suggestions for designing a bathroom in which the industrial style with vintage touches takes centre stage:

• The vintage shower tiles from the Gatsby collection are inspired by the metals used in the trendy tin ceilings. They combine a colour palette and a five-geometric relief design, making them an eye-catching shower tile.
• Another vintage possibility is the Uptown tile collection, based on the cast iron radiators of Victorian England. It uses their tones to create a wide variety of colours and reliefs in a small format. It creates striking contrasts between the shower wall and the rest of the bathroom.
• And for an industrial style, Aparici's Grunge tiles feature a decorative metallic design that evokes a contemporary, urban aesthetic. This collection of shower tiles offers almost unlimited customisation possibilities, with designs reminiscent of rust, metal plates, or geometric patterns with a worn effect.

How to combine tiles in showers

If you are thinking about how to combine tiles in the shower area, you should know that the options are almost endless. Thanks to the variety of designs that we have just seen, we can opt for homogeneity, contrast, symmetry... according to our tastes. These are some of the combinations that are creating trends. 

Single-colour bathrooms with tiles  

Single-colour bathrooms explore a minimalist way of decorating the space. It consists of covering all the walls with the same colour to transmit a sense of homogeneity and balance. In Aparici's catalogue, there are numerous shades of plain tiles to make this design a reality.

Among them, white tiles are, without a doubt, the most used when opting for a single-colour bathroom. In addition to transmitting a greater sense of cleanliness, they modify the perception of space and make the bathroom look bigger.

Showers and baths with a uniform design 

Showers and bathrooms that opt for a uniform design are similar to the one-colour proposal while adding a nuance to the final design. The polyhedral personality of porcelain tiles, capable of reproducing the textures of materials such as concrete, marble or natural stone, makes them an ideal material for this type of bathroom.

If, for example, a stone-like tile is chosen, it will convey a more rustic feel to the bathroom as a whole. On the contrary, with a concrete look wall tile, the final result will be more avant-garde.

Wall tiles to highlight the shower area

Installing wall tiles to highlight the shower area is a way of breaking with homogeneity, favouring contrast and introducing a dynamic element in the bathroom. The immensity of designs, shapes and shades offered by the tile collections allow introducing from classic elements such as terrazzo to highly decorative tiles with geometric shapes on the wall.

We have analysed different ways of combining shower tiles, from monochromatic coverings to decorative styles such as hydraulic and Art Deco. In addition, we have explored different collections, both in the decorative tile range and in the marble and terrazzo design tile range. With all these suggestions, choosing the right tiling for your shower will be much easier, but if you need advice, please contact us!