What is fluted tile?
Fluted tile is tile with a row of parallel grooves running the length of its face. The idea comes from the shafts of classical stone columns, where vertical channels made a heavy column look lighter and taller. On a tile the same grooves add a texture you can feel and a pattern of highlights and shadows that shifts as daylight moves across the room. A plain wall becomes a feature without any change of color.
Two profiles turn up again and again. A concave flute is hollowed into the face, with the grooves below the surface. A convex flute, often called reeded or ribbed, stands out from the face as rounded ribs. Both are in this collection, and the difference is easiest to see in marble, where the same stone is offered both ways.
Fluted marble tile
Fluted marble tile comes in two 12x24 honed patterns in the same three stones, which makes it easy to compare the profiles side by side. Valentino Fluto is the concave version, with grooves hollowed into the marble. Milano Ribbo is the convex version, with rounded ribs that stand outward. Both are offered in Carrara White, a white marble with gray veining, Arabescato Venato, which blends warm whites, creams and hazy grays, and Capri Blue, a light gray marble veined in gray, blue and gold.
For a smaller scale, the Arabescato Venato 4x12 slat puts a fluted face on a subway size, in warm white, creamy taupe and dusky gray with a honed finish. Scollopini Lilac Pattern takes a different route, a honed white marble mosaic with charcoal veins and a concave pattern, mounted on mesh.
Marble flute trim
Honed flute trim is a 6x12 natural stone piece a full 3/4 inch thick, so the edge shows as solid stone. It comes in Iris Black, Royal Beige, Calacatta Cremo and Lilac New York. A trim this thick works as an architectural detail more than a field tile: a band along the top of a wainscot, a frame around a mirror or a niche, a vertical border beside a fireplace, or a short run under a floating shelf. Paired with a flat marble in a similar tone, it gives a wall a crafted, built-in look.
Fluted porcelain tile
Fluted porcelain tile comes in the Gems, Piano, Hip Hop and Folk series, which differ in size, finish and profile:
- Gems 5x10 in a glossy finish, pre-scored so the grooves look like slats, in Latte, Caraibi, Grigio and Cobalto, and suited to indoor and outdoor walls and pool surrounds
- Piano 4.5x9 in a matte finish, in Arena, a limestone look, Abedul, a blonde wood look, Camel, a brown wood look, and Ceniza, a gray limestone look
- Hip Hop 6x16 in a matte finish in the same four colors
- Folk 7x16 in a satin finish with a 3D extruded profile that mixes concave and convex elements, in Sky, a pastel blue, Pearl, a cool white, Silver and Charcoal
Piano and Hip Hop share their colors, so the same tone can run in two scales, the small 4.5x9 on a backsplash and the longer 6x16 on an accent wall in the next room.
Fluted ceramic wall panels
Fluted ceramic wall panels in 16x48 cover a wall with few grout lines, and the long format lets the grooves run as one continuous surface. The Urbanslat series is the core of this group. Its wood looks come in White, Blonde, Natural and Tawny, and Urbanslat Carbon adds a plain black flute, all in a matte finish. The Urbanslat Flute colors add a sculpted flute to the wood grain: Oak, Maple and the dark beige Flute Timber have a wavy, sculpted strip pattern, and Umber is a deep coffee tone. Urbanslat Marmi trades the wood for marble looks in a satin finish, Marmi Noir with a black ground and chalky white veining and Marmi Gold with a warm white base and gold veining.
Two 16x48 matte ceramics take a stone look instead. Tajvero Avorio is a cream tile modeled on Taj Mahal, with gentle veining and a lightly distressed face under the flutes. Terrazzo Ribatta puts fluting on a cool gray terrazzo look with scattered stone fragments. Both work as calm, large panels behind a bed, a vanity or a television wall.
Fluted glazed terracotta and thin brick
Fluted glazed terracotta and fluted thin brick share a 2 1/4 by 7 9/16 face and a 9/16 inch thickness, the proportions of a thin brick with a ridged face. The glazed terracotta comes in Ash Glossy, Crimson Leather, Navy Leather and Grove Leather, and the thin brick in Topaz Glossy, a yellow, Rose Leather and Ocean Leather. Glossy glazes catch the light along every ridge, and leather glazes have a lustrous surface. Laid in a stack bond the pieces line up in neat columns, and in a running bond they take on a brick rhythm that suits a coffee bar, a kitchen backsplash or a powder room.
Where the texture works best
Fluted tile works well on the wall the eye meets first: behind a vanity, along a kitchen backsplash, on the face of an island or a bar, around a fireplace, or as a single feature wall in a living room or bedroom. In a shower it suits the back wall or a niche; most Urbanslat colors, Urbanslat Marmi, Valentino Fluto and the Arabescato Venato slat are made for shower walls. A fluted wall shows the most depth beside a window or under a wall light that grazes the surface from the side.
Fluting on one surface with a flat tile around it is a common way to plan a room. A fluted marble wall next to plain marble tile, or a fluted porcelain wall beside a matching flat field tile, looks like a deliberate choice.
Should fluted tile run vertically or horizontally?
Vertical flutes draw the eye upward and make a ceiling feel higher, which makes them a common choice on a bathroom wall, a fireplace or a tall feature wall. Horizontal flutes stretch a wall sideways, so they suit a long, low surface such as a bar front, the back of a bench or a narrow powder room that needs to feel wider. Slats and long 16x48 panels show the direction most clearly; the thin brick sizes can be turned either way and keep their brick character.
Related tile
Other textured and dimensional tiles are in accent tiles and wall decos, flat thin brick in thin brick, and more ideas for the kitchen in backsplash tiles.
