Ideas · planning · tile detail

Blog

78 articles

How to measure, compare and plan a tiling job, with the numbers worked through and every product fact taken from its product page.

From the journal

Room ideas and practical decisions.

Two gloss ceramic wall tiles on a pale sage plaster surface: a deep green one with an undulating wave face and a flat off-white one, the same length as each other but a different width.

Guides

Subway tile sizes in Australia: the classic 75 × 150, and the two sizes we stock

Short answer: The size the trade calls the classic subway is 75 × 150 mm, a rectangle twice as long as it is wide. None of the eleven subway tiles we stock is that size. Nine are 75 × 300 mm and two are...

19 September 2026 Read article

Four unglazed tile sample pieces standing on edge in a row on a pale grey surface, seen from a low angle so the narrow edges face the camera and the small difference in thickness between them shows.

Guides

Tile thickness in mm: from thin 6 mm mosaic sheets to 10 mm porcelain

Short answer: fifty-nine of the sixty tiles here record a thickness. Thirty-seven say 10 mm, sixteen 8 mm, two 7 mm and four 6 mm. One, a mosaic...

19 Sep 2026

Charcoal gloss rectangular wall tiles laid so each course steps a third of a tile along from the one below, the joints forming a diagonal stair across the wall in warm raking light.

Guides

What is the 1/3 rule for tiles? Two meanings, and the millimetres for each size here

Short answer: Two different rules go by the name. One is about layout: each row steps across by a third of the tile's length rather than half. The...

19 Sep 2026

Five white marble-look tile sample pieces overlapping on a warm off-white plaster surface, their grey veining ranging from fine and sparse to bold and dramatic, in low raking morning light.

Guides

Nine tiles here say Carrara. Five of them are marble.

Short answer: Carrara is a place in Italy, not a grade of material. Nine products on this site carry the name. Five record Marble in the Material row,...

18 Sep 2026

Bathroom

Feature wall tiles: 11 installed walls in bathrooms, kitchens and a dining room

Eleven of the nineteen rooms on the Styling ideas blog put the tile on one wall and not the walls around it; this guide records what each wall...

15 Sep 2026

Herringbone

Herringbone tiles: one marble and two ceramic mosaic sheets, or lay it yourself

A herringbone sheet fixes the piece size, the angle and the joint inside the pattern; this guide sets the three sheets against laying herringbone from loose subway or...

15 Sep 2026

Nine grey tile samples in a row on a pale stone bench under a window: polished, matt, greige, blue-grey, charcoal, a veined grey, a terrazzo-look grey, a subway piece and a mosaic corner.

Colour

Grey tiles: 17 greys compared by undertone, face, finish and format

Seventeen products carry the Colour: Grey tag; this guide sets them side by side on what their own product pages record, type, size, finish, material and the page's...

15 Sep 2026

Six tile samples on a stone vanity top beside a basin: glossy white and dark green subway pieces, a matte grey piece, a beige stone-look square, a fluted white piece and a corner of white mosaic.

Bathroom

How to choose bathroom tiles: seven decisions, in the order the product page can settle them

A bathroom tile choice is seven decisions taken in the order the product record can settle them, with each count read off the sixty product pages on 15...

15 Sep 2026

A partly laid bathroom floor of large pale tiles set out with spacers, a steel tape measure extended across two tiles, a pencil and a paper sketch of a rectangle lying on the tiles in low afternoon light.

Measuring

How many tiles do I need? Three rooms worked through, piece by piece

Three surfaces worked end to end from real tile sizes, showing the sum the tile calculator runs: net area, tile face area, allowance, pieces or sheets to order,...

15 Sep 2026

A small ensuite from the doorway: pale large-format tiles on the shower walls, a light mosaic on the shower floor, a timber vanity with a round basin and brass tapware.

Bathroom

Bathroom tile ideas: 12 installed rooms, what tile is on the wall and floor, and where it stops

The twelve bathroom-type rooms on the Styling ideas blog read as one set: one tile or two, mosaic versus large format, the vanity wall as the feature, a...

15 Sep 2026

Close-up of four large tile pieces fanned on a concrete bench, edges and faces showing: glossy white reflecting a window, matt grey, honed beige stone-look, rough charcoal, in raking light.

Finish

Porcelain or ceramic, rectified or not, matt or gloss: what the words on a tile page mean, and which tiles here are which

What porcelain, ceramic, rectified, matt and gloss mean in plain terms, and which of the sixty tiles here carry each word on their product page.

14 Sep 2026

Bathroom

Half wall or floor to ceiling: what the choice changes in square metres, tiles and where they stop

Three common tiling heights worked on one room: net wall area, tile counts for four formats, where the courses land and what the top cut looks like.

14 Sep 2026

Still life on a pale timber desk by a window: five small tile sample pieces in muted colours laid on paper beside a steel tape measure and a pencil, soft morning light from the left.

Batches

Buying tiles online in Australia: samples, batches, shade variation and what to check before the full order

A checklist for buying tiles from a website for the first time: what a sample settles, what to read on the product page, why batches matter, and what...

14 Sep 2026

Planning support

Useful answers, without a separate help section.

Common project questionsFAQ → Surfaces, openings and allowanceMeasuring guide →