Arranging marble looking porcelain tiles with some pattern matching.

last year

last modified: last year

After sorting my tiles, I found that out of 62 tiles, there were several that could be matched together with minimal or no discontinuity at the edge to form a seamless pair of tiles. Here is a photo of all my tiles with the bottom 2 rows showing matching pairs I discovered. Would it ever make design sense to incorporated these matching pairs into the final wall layout ?

Here's a close up of a couple:

And here is an example of how I could 'randomly' arrange them on a wall portion:

Does this make any design sense or should I go completely random ?

Secondary question. Does it make sense to arrange random tiles such that, like finding animals shapes in the clouds, shapes could appear in the tile veins ? Here's an example, and although random it kind of looks like a humanoid shooting a laser from its hand:

While laying out these tiles in my computer program, my OCD has seriously kicked in, so I need some help :). Thanks all.

Featured Answer

chispa

last year

last modified: last year

The experienced tile installers I have used usually have the pattern flow in one direction. I prefer that look also.

Some people like it totally random and that is their personal preference.

My guest bathroom with marble-look porcelain ... pattern flowing from top left to bottom right.

Ugh, hate what the phone camera does to the colors! The wall paint is definitely not gray! The tile is a calacatta gold look and has some warm brown/gold veining.

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Comments (11)

millworkman
last year
last modified: last year
The problem with doing "matching pairs" is what do when you have none left? It will make the non-matching pairs look even worse. I would install all random.
Lyn Nielson
last year
Yes. match what you can and separate the repeat so it looks more natural.

I generally try to let a 'line' flow in one direction... like low left to top right or the opposite. Depending on how I see it from entering the room. whatever pleases you.

I currently have a small guest bath with the line starting at the doorway floor and traveling left, away from the door at an angle (if you can follow that)
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PRO
JAN MOYER
last year
last modified: last year
These are meant to be randomly installed. They are not meant to yield the appearance of a stone slab, carved out of the earth.

You are warned not to ask porcelain faux marble anything to mime Mother Nature. It will not.
PRO
Skippack Tile & Stone
last year
Don't do it; at best it'll look contrived.
PRO
Minardi
last year
last modified: last year
It will look tacky and low end to try to match up veining. Not to mention the installer will charge 10x what was originally estimated to deal with the headache of dealing with an engineer. Setting to any pattern like that, laid out by a homeowner, is an ultra plus labor upgrade.

It's supposed to look random. Otherwise, go buy a stone slab and use that.
Travestine
last year
last modified: last year
A directional flow is quite different than trying to connect veining to make it look like a slab.
chispa
last year
last modified: last year
If you look closely, the tiler does try to match similar veins from tile to tile, but the ultimate goal is a smooth flow across the wall.

There is no right or wrong, just what is pleasing to the homeowner's eye!
John 9a
last year
Our eyes/minds are used to certain things. We can't fully focus our attention to EVERY detail so we tend to look for mis-matches. I think that is why random is better.
PRO
Debbi Washburn
last year
Is there a picture on the tile companies website showing this tile installed on a floor or wall? That might help
Mark Rollins
Original Author
last year
Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate all the replies. Going random was advised the most and it makes sense after considering all the comments above.