Short answer: the pattern changes the cuts and the look of a surface, not the number of tiles or the length of joint in a square metre. A 600 × 600 mm square can be laid in a straight grid, stepped by half, turned on the diagonal or set out in two colours as a checkerboard. The 2:1 rectangles, 300 × 600 mm and 600 × 1200 mm, add the half and one-third offsets, basketweave and herringbone. Twenty-eight tiles here are made in two of these sizes on the same product page, which is what a mixed-size layout needs. For a checkerboard, section 6 sets out five same-series pairings with a clear step between a light and a dark colour, each matching on size, thickness, Finish row and slip class; none of them is black and white, because no square here is tagged black.
This guide covers the three large formats only. Subway tiles have their own guide, Subway tile layouts: 8 patterns, and ready-made herringbone mosaic sheets are in Herringbone tiles: three ready-made sheets, or lay it yourself. Product facts were read from the product pages on 6 October 2026. None of the 37 product pages in these three sizes states a layout, so nothing below is a recommendation for a particular tile or surface: the pattern is a choice you make with whoever lays the tile.
1. The three sizes, and what a pattern leaves unchanged
| Format | Tiles here | Pieces per m² | Joint per m² | Patterns it can make |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600 × 600 mm | 34 | about 2.78 | about 3.3 m | Straight grid, half step, diagonal, checkerboard; mixed with its second size |
| 300 × 600 mm | 19 | about 5.56 | about 5.0 m | Stack (level or upright), half and one-third offset, basketweave, herringbone; mixed with the square |
| 600 × 1200 mm | 12 | about 1.39 | about 2.5 m | The same as 300 × 600 mm, at twice the scale; mixed with the square |
The pieces and joint figures are the author's calculations from the recorded face sizes, before cuts and before any joint width; they match the size guides for each format. They hold for every pattern in this guide, because in any layout of whole rectangles each edge is shared by two tiles, so the joint in a square metre is fixed by the tile, not by how the rows step. Subway tile layouts works that reasoning through, and Tile sizes in Australia sets every size on the site side by side. What a pattern does change is how many edge pieces are cut, what shape they are, and how the joints read across the surface.
The seven layouts here are the straight grid, the half step, the one-third step, basketweave, herringbone, checkerboard and mixed sizes; a diagonal is a grid turned 45°, covered at the end of section 2.
Across the three sizes there are 37 different tiles. Six are made only as the square, Studio Pure White only at 300 × 600 mm, and Pietra Vela and Pietra Vela Fluted only at 600 × 1200 mm. The other 28 offer two sizes: 18 pair the square with 300 × 600 mm and 10 pair it with 600 × 1200 mm. No tile here is made in both 300 × 600 mm and 600 × 1200 mm. All 37 record a thickness of 10 mm.
2. Straight grid, or stack bond
Every joint runs straight in both directions. Any of the 37 tiles can be laid this way; a rectangle can run with its long side level or upright. Because nothing breaks the lines up, a grid shows any drift in a joint along its whole length.
Posts in the installed series describe a grid in their own words. Haven White in a living room is “laid as large squares in a straight grid”; in the Pietra Perla bathroom, “the floor is laid in a straight grid”; and on the back wall of the Pietra Luna walk-in shower the joints “line up both ways rather than stepping like brickwork”. On the Haven Fine White kitchen floor, “the grid of joints only becomes clear where daylight from the window falls across it”. The photographs come from the supplier and record what was laid in one room; they are not an instruction for yours, and not a statement about where a tile may be used.
Diagonal, briefly. Any grid, the checkerboard in section 6 included, can be turned 45° to the walls. The count per square metre does not change; every edge piece becomes an angled cut. Set-out starts from a square reference line, and What is the 3/4/5 rule for tiling? covers how that right angle is checked.
3. Brick bond: a half step or a third
Each course starts part of the way along the course below. On the 31 rectangles the step is taken along the long side, either half a tile or a third. A square can be stepped by half as well, giving a brick bond of squares; a third has no particular meaning on a square, because it has no long side.
The millimetres for each step, and the second, unrelated meaning of the phrase “1/3 rule”, are in What is the 1/3 rule for tiles?. Tiling guides often give a reason for preferring a third on long tiles, to do with how flat a long tile is along its length. No product page here records flatness, so this guide does not take a view on it; if a third is proposed for your tile, ask your tiler why.
4. Basketweave with a 2:1 rectangle
Basketweave works cleanly with these rectangles because of their proportion. Two 300 × 600 mm tiles side by side make a 600 mm square block; two 600 × 1200 mm tiles make a 1,200 mm block. The blocks alternate direction, so the surface reads as a checker of blocks rather than of tiles. Any of the 31 rectangles (19 at 300 × 600 mm, 12 at 600 × 1200 mm) can make it. Edge cuts are square, and the block, not the tile, is the grid you set out to. With a subway tile the block takes more tiles; the subway guide covers that.
5. Herringbone with a long tile
Each tile meets the side of its neighbour at a right angle, and the zigzag advances by one tile width at each step: 300 mm on a 300 × 600 mm tile, 600 mm on a 600 × 1200 mm tile. Laid at 90°, the zigzag runs diagonally across the surface and the edge cuts are square; turned 45°, the zigzag runs straight along the room and every perimeter piece is an angled cut. The same 31 rectangles can make it.
Because the tiles step at right angles to each other rather than running in straight courses, herringbone leaves more cut pieces at the edges than a grid. How many depends on the room and the tiler's set-out, so this guide gives no allowance figure; ask for it in the quote. The pattern also comes ready-made on mesh in much smaller pieces: Herringbone tiles: three ready-made sheets compares the sheets with laying loose pieces. The three sheets are listed in Herringbone mosaic tiles.
6. Checkerboard: the pairs here that share a size, thickness and finish
A checkerboard is a straight grid of squares in two colours. The pairs below are two tiles from the same series that offer the same sizes on their pages and record the same thickness, the same Finish row and the same slip class, so the only difference written down between them is the colour. Each is a separate product: you choose the size, and the finish where there are two, on each page.
| Pair | Colour tags | Page wording | Sizes on both pages | Thickness | Finish row | Slip row |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urban Pearl with Urban Graphite | Beige / Charcoal | “A light concrete-look tile”; “A deeper graphite concrete look” | 300 × 600 or 600 × 600 mm | 10 mm | Matt | P3 |
| Haven White or Haven Fine White with Haven Grey | White / Grey | “A light terrazzo look”; “A fine-grain white terrazzo look”; “A grey terrazzo look with large pale aggregate” | 300 × 600 or 600 × 600 mm | 10 mm | Matt | P3 |
| Pietra Alba with Pietra Shadow | White / Grey | “A white marble look with bold grey cloud movement”; “A deep grey marble look with pale crossing veins” | 600 × 600 or 600 × 1200 mm | 10 mm | Polished or matt (choose one, the same on both) | P3 |
| Ridge Grey with Ridge Charcoal | Grey / Charcoal | “A mid-grey slate look”; “A near-black slate look” | 300 × 600 or 600 × 600 mm | 10 mm | Rough | P5 |
| Pietra Latte, Pietra Cream, Pietra Bianco or Pietra Neve with Pietra Storm | White / Grey | “A cool blue-grey marble look” | 300 × 600 or 600 × 600 mm | 10 mm | Honed or polished (choose one, the same on both) | P2 |
In the Pietra row, Pietra Smoke and Pietra Dove, the other two greys offered in 600 × 600 or 600 × 1200 mm, match Pietra Alba on the same rows; Shadow is the one whose page says “deep grey”.
These five are not the only matches. Urban Mist with Urban Pearl or Urban Graphite, Coastal Dune with Coastal Mist or Coastal Stone, Quarry Sand with Quarry Ash or Quarry Stone, Ridge Slate with Ridge Charcoal, Atlas Ivory with Atlas Frost, and Pietra Sienna with Pietra Storm or the four Pietra whites in the last row also match a series partner with a different colour tag on every row: 24 same-series pairings with different colour tags among the squares in all. The table keeps to five with a clear step between a light and a dark colour.
A slip class is a row on each page, listed here only because it is one of the rows the two tiles share; each page notes that the rating is a reference figure to confirm for the intended application.
Two near pairs do not match on every row, and the difference is set out rather than judged. Pietra Luna offers the same sizes and finishes as Pietra Shadow, but its page records P2 and Shadow's records P3. A surface laid in both carries two different records; what that means for the surface is a question for your installer or specifier. Atlas Frost and Atlas Pearl are both offered at 600 × 600 mm and 10 mm, but Frost's Finish row reads “Texture and honed” and Pearl's “Matt”, Frost is also made at 600 × 1200 mm, and Pearl is supplied across eight face designs. Frost's exact partner in the series is Atlas Ivory, tagged Beige: both offer 600 × 600 or 600 × 1200 mm, record “Texture and honed” and show P3 in a row headed Slip-rating reference.
No black square. None of the 34 squares here carries the Colour: Black tag: 14 are tagged grey, 10 white, 8 beige and two charcoal. The two black tiles on the site, Studio Ink and Studio Ink Wave, are 75 × 300 mm subway tiles. The darkest squares are the two in Charcoal tiles: Urban Graphite, “a deeper graphite concrete look”, and Ridge Charcoal, “a near-black slate look”. Charcoal and black tiles: 5 compared sets the darks side by side.
Boxes for two colours. Each colour covers about half the area, and each is ordered and rounded up on its own. On an assumed 10 m² of 600 × 600 mm, about 27.8 squares, one colour alone would be 6.94 boxes of 1.44 m², so 7. Split in two, each colour is 3.47 boxes, so 4 of each, 8 in all, before any allowance for cuts, which your tiler sets and which goes on each colour. The 600 × 600 mm box, 4 pieces and 1.44 m², is in the supplier's documentation for every tile in the table.
7. Mixing two sizes from one page
A mixed-size layout uses two sizes of the same tile. The 28 tiles that offer two sizes on one page are the ones that can do it without mixing two different products: the face, thickness and finish row are the same and only the size changes.
- 600 × 600 with 300 × 600 mm (18 tiles). The rectangle is half a square, so the two share a 600 mm line. Courses of squares can alternate with courses of rectangles, as in the drawing, or a square can sit beside a pair of rectangles that make up a second square.
- 600 × 600 with 600 × 1200 mm (10 tiles). Both are 600 mm on one side, so they can share a 600 mm course and mix along it in two lengths.
The count moves between the two sizes' figures. With half the area in each size of the first kind, a square metre takes about 4.17 pieces and carries about 4.2 m of joint (the author's arithmetic, as in section 1). Each size is a separate choice on the product page and the order is placed for the size chosen, so a mixed layout is two lines on the order. Where a page offers two finishes, choose the same one for both sizes. The 600 × 600 mm box is in the supplier's documentation; for the second size the page uses a typical pack, 8 pieces of 300 × 600 mm or 2 of 600 × 1200 mm at 1.44 m² a box, and asks you to confirm it before ordering.
Questions people ask
Does the pattern change how many tiles I need?
Not per square metre: about 2.78 pieces at 600 × 600 mm, 5.56 at 300 × 600 mm and 1.39 at 600 × 1200 mm in every pattern here, before cuts. What changes is the cutting at the edges, which is more in herringbone and on the diagonal than in a grid; the allowance for it comes from your tiler.
Can you make a checkerboard with 600 × 600 tiles?
Yes, with two tiles of the same size in two colours. The five pairings in section 6 each share a series, the sizes offered, a 10 mm thickness, a Finish row and a slip class; Urban Pearl with Urban Graphite and Ridge Grey with Ridge Charcoal are the two with a charcoal side.
Is there a black and white checkerboard pair here?
No. No square here is tagged black, and the two black tiles are 75 × 300 mm subway tiles. The nearest is white against charcoal, which needs two series: Haven White and Urban Graphite record the same sizes, 10 mm, a Matt Finish row and P3, but one is a terrazzo look and the other a concrete look, so set the two samples side by side before deciding.
Which patterns can a 300 × 600 tile make?
Stack, level or upright; brick bond stepped by half or a third; basketweave in 600 mm blocks; herringbone at 90° or 45°; and, on the 18 tiles also made as a square, a mix with 600 × 600 mm. All 19 are listed in 300 × 600 mm tiles: 19 compared.
Can I mix 600 × 600 and 300 × 600 from the same tile?
On 18 tiles, yes: the page offers both sizes, and each is ordered as its own line. The 300 × 600 mm box is a typical pack that the supplier's current documentation does not state, so confirm it before ordering.
Where these facts come from
Sizes, size and finish choices, thicknesses, Finish and slip rows, colour tags and the wording quoted from product pages were read from the 37 product pages in the 600 × 600, 300 × 600 and 600 × 1200 mm collections on 6 October 2026; the size choice on the product page dates from 5 October 2026, and the box records from the supplier's current documentation, with the typical pack shown for a second size. The installed quotations are from three pages in the installed series. Pieces, joint lengths and box counts are the author's arithmetic on the recorded sizes, and the 10 m² area is an assumption. The drawings are to scale but schematic. No figure here was measured or tested by Tilekind, and no product page here states a layout; confirm the pattern, the set-out and the quantity with the tiler doing the work.
What to do next
Pick the size first, then the pattern. Build a sample shortlist to see both colours of a checkerboard pair together, estimate tile quantities from your own area, and prepare a project brief with the pattern written in. The format guides take each size one tile at a time: 600 × 600 mm tiles: 34 compared, 300 × 600 mm tiles: 19 compared and 600 × 1200 mm tiles: 12 compared.
Where this guide sits: Where to start sets out the order the guides follow.
Search with Google? Add Tilekind as a preferred source and Google is more likely to show our guides in your Top stories.