Your Guide to Laundry Room Tile
Photo via Angle Eye Photography for Liz Walton Home
It’s time to get excited about doing laundry and design the laundry room of your dreams! Whether you have a spacious or a small laundry room, these ideas are sure to help you design the space. Thoughtful laundry room design balances durability, functionality, and style — and tile plays a key role in bringing all three together.
Ceramic tile is a natural choice for laundry rooms with its low-maintenance benefits, waterproof installation system, versatile applications, and impressive design options.
Why Ceramic Tile Is Ideal for Laundry Rooms
Ceramic tile features an impressive “laundry list” of benefits:
- Water resistance: Water resistance is arguably the most important consideration for laundry rooms, where water and liquid messes are a regular occurance. Splashes from the sink, leaky washing machines, spilled detergents, and drips from hang-drying clothing could all jeopardize materials that aren’t designed for wet areas.
Fortunately, ceramic tile creates a waterproof application when properly installed according to the manufacturer’s specifications — a key feature whether you’re tiling the floor or installing a backsplash for laundry room use. - Slip resistance: All of the liquid threats that make water resistance important for your laundry room surfaces make slip resistance a smart choice as well. Ceramic tile offers numerous slip-resistant options for you to choose from so that you can have peace of mind without sacrificing style.
- Bacteria resistance: Laundry baskets full of dirty socks, rags used for cleaning, and more create a less than hygienic environment in laundry rooms. Ceramic tile helps keep your space healthy by resisting the growth of bacteria, mold, and mildew.
- Stain and scratch resistance: These benefits are especially important for laundry room-mudroom combinations, where dirt and grit may be tracked in on a daily basis. Ceramic tile won’t stain, scratch, scuff, or easily chip, despite regular wear and tear and the heavy “load” of your washing machine and dryer.
- Easy cleaning: Ideally, the laundry room should make your life easier with a design that simplifies the process of cleaning your clothing and linens — it shouldn’t be a nuisance to clean itself. Luckily, ceramic tile laundry rooms are a cinch to clean: Oftentimes, wiping with water is all that’s necessary.
- Fade resistance: If you do end up needing to use cleaners or disinfectants for extra tough messes or deep cleaning, you don’t need to worry about your tile fading. Ceramic tile’s color is baked right in and is fade-resistant.
What’s more, ceramic tile can be used just about anywhere in your laundry room and is available in seemingly endless design options. Take your pick of colors, patterns, natural looks, sizes, shapes, and even textures — whether for the floor, walls, or your backsplash ideas for laundry room inspiration.
It’s no wonder that Consumer Reports named porcelain floor tiles (a type of ceramic tile) the best flooring choice for laundry rooms (and bathrooms, kitchens, mudrooms, porches, and sunrooms!).
[Related: Low-Maintenance Benefits of Ceramic and Porcelain Tile]
How to Use Tile in Your Laundry Room
Here are the top ways to consider using ceramic tile in your laundry room:
- Laundry room floor tile: Bring water and slip resistance to your flooring choice with a ceramic tile laundry room floor.
- Gauged porcelain tile panel/slab laundry room countertops: Gauged porcelain tile panels/slabs can create a seamless (and gorgeous) countertop in your laundry room that can stand up to whatever dirty laundry you throw at it.
- Laundry room tile backsplash: Protect the area behind your laundry room countertop from splashes and stains with a laundry room tile backsplash.
- Laundry room wall tile: The area behind your counter isn’t the only part of the wall that can be tiled — extend ceramic tile’s low-maintenance care and durability to any (or all) of the walls in your laundry room and add some floating shelves!
- Dog shower tile: A dog shower is a great laundry room addition for anyone who has pups at home. You might find this convenience good for everything from garden produce to toddlers! The cleaning station can be built off the ground for your convenience and (of course) finished in ceramic tile to make it easy to maintain.
Larger rooms may benefit from large format floor tile, which creates a more open feel and simplifies cleaning.
[Related: Dog Showers You (and Your Pup) Will Love]
Laundry Floor Tile Ideas for Every Style
Sunny and fresh, farmhouse, or industrial chic? We have some laundry room tile ideas to help you explore your design options.
Black Tile Laundry Room
Far from merely functional, laundry rooms take on a bold, contemporary look when decked out in black tile. This black laundry room tile mixes bold and muted blacks to add complexity to a modified subway tile design.
[Related: Bewitching Black Bathroom Tile]
Black and White Tile Laundry Room
Nothing’s more timeless than a black and white color combination. This classic look works well in just about any home decor style.
These black and white penny round tiles are arranged strategically to create a diamond design that dazzles.
[Related: Black and White Tile Designs for Every Space]
Modern Laundry Room Tile
Looking for a more minimalist or modern laundry room look? This ceramic stone-look tile is a stunning, foolproof option for flooring with a coordinating mosaic tile in the dog shower.
Brick Tile Laundry Room
For traditional or industrial decor, opt for brick-look tile in your laundry room. You’ll enjoy brick’s warm aesthetic — without any of brick’s maintenance concerns. Your brick-look ceramic tile will deliver good looks and an easy-to-clean surface.
[Related: Unleash the Creativity of Hexagon Tile: Hexagon Tile Uses and Design Ideas]
Subway Tile Laundry Room
You can’t go wrong with everyone’s favorite tile pattern: subway tile.
Laundry room subway tile is an especially smart choice because of its clean, pristine look — beneficial for any space where hygiene is a priority. While this example is white subway tile, options are available in a large variety of colors, sizes, and textures.
You can also choose to install your subway tile vertically, stacked, or in a pattern, such as herringbone, for a one-of-a-kind look.
[Related: Everything You Need to Know About Subway Tile]
Farmhouse Laundry Room Tile
When paired with bronze fixtures, creative storage solutions, and wood accents, this warm stone-look tile is the perfect option to create to create farmhouse laundry room tile style. For more ideas, visit our Pinterest boards.
Farmhouse-inspired laundry rooms often rely on textures and finishes that mimic natural stone. When paired with warm metals and wood accents, tile becomes a foundational element of thoughtful laundry room design.
Fun Laundry Room Tile
Who said laundry wasn’t fun?
Fun laundry room tile ideas include creative patterns and bright colors. The two colorful laundry rooms above show just how big a difference mixing colors can make (don’t try that with your next load of wash, though)!
[Related: Colorful Bathroom Floor Tile Ideas]
Find Your Laundry Room Tile
We hope you’ve found your dream laundry room tile and are forming ideas of how to use it in your space.
Whether your style leans modern, farmhouse, or playful, the right tile supports both form and function. From large format flooring to natural stone looks, tile remains one of the most versatile materials for intentional, long-lasting laundry room design.
To ponder even more laundry room floor tile ideas, laundry room wall tile ideas, and laundry room backsplash tile ideas, explore our Pinterest boards:
About the Author: Cynthia Faber Smith
