Shower walls, floor and niche
Shower walls ask the least of a tile. Water runs down them and off, they carry no foot traffic, and nothing heavy is dropped against them, so most glazed porcelain, glazed ceramic and dense natural stone can be used on a shower wall.
The shower floor asks the most, because it is walked on wet and built on a slope toward the drain. Shower floor tile has its own collection, shower floor tile, where the smaller formats gather. The niche and the curb sit in between: small areas, seen up close, and the usual place for a change of tile.
Shower wall tile sizes
Among the shower tiles at Stone Tile Depot, 12x24 is the most common wall size, followed by 12x12 and the large 24x48 panel. The case for a large format on a shower wall is the joints. Grout is the part of a wall that holds soap film and shows mildew first, and a 24x48 wall has a fraction of the joint length of a 12x12 one. Large format needs a flat wall, since a big rigid tile shows every dip behind it.
3x12 and 3x6 are the subway shapes, and 8x40 is a plank format used for wood look porcelain. A small format makes more joints and follows an uneven wall more forgivingly, which matters in an older bathroom where the framing has moved over the years.
Subway tile in a shower
Subway tile is the most familiar shower wall there is, and it works because the shape is forgiving: a 3x6 or 3x12 rectangle reads well in almost any bathroom, and the many joints hide small variations in the wall. The classic layout is a running bond, each row shifted by half a tile, like brickwork.
Three other layouts change the look without changing the tile. A stacked layout lines the joints up into a grid and reads more modern. A vertical stack runs the long side upward and makes a low ceiling feel taller. A herringbone sets the tiles at an angle in a zigzag, which suits a single accent wall or the back of a niche. Grout color decides how strongly any of these shows: a contrasting joint draws the pattern, a matched one lets it recede.
Porcelain and natural stone in a shower
Shower tile divides into two materials made for different priorities. Porcelain is clay fired dense enough to absorb no more than 0.5 percent of its weight in water, the threshold the ANSI A137.1 standard sets for the name. Most glazed porcelain has a printed face, so it can copy concrete, slate, limestone, travertine, resin, marble or wood and repeat that look evenly; concrete and stone looks are the most common printed surfaces for shower tile, and a few are wood look planks. Several porcelain series here, Mood among them, make the same color in a standard face and an Anti-Slip Grip face, which lets the walls and the floor match.
Glazed ceramic is the lighter, softer relative of porcelain. It absorbs more water through its body, but the glaze on its face sheds water, and on a shower wall that is the side that matters. Many decorative wall tiles, including handmade-look and crackled glazes, are ceramic for that reason.
Natural stone brings real variation, because every piece is cut from a block and no two are the same. The marble in this collection runs from white Carrara, Calacatta and Thassos to gray Bardiglio and black Nero. Marble is calcium carbonate, and acids etch it, which is the material fact to know before choosing it for a shower. The stones are compared one by one in marble shower tile, and the fired side in porcelain shower tile.
Matte, polished and anti-slip finishes
Matte is the most common finish for shower tile, with polished, honed and glossy behind it. On a wall the choice is mostly about light: a glossy or polished face reflects it back into an enclosure, and matte shows fewer water spots between cleanings.
Anti-slip belongs underfoot. Anti-slip faces are textured to grip a wet bare foot, which helps on a shower floor and adds nothing on a wall. A finish name is not a slip rating; a measured figure, where the maker publishes one, is the reliable guide.
Shower niche tile
A shower niche is a recessed shelf built into the wall between two studs, and it is where bottles live instead of on a corner caddy. Wall studs in American framing are usually 16 inches apart on center, which leaves about 14 1/2 inches of clear space between them, so most niches are 12 to 14 inches wide. Heights vary more: a niche 24 inches tall or more is often split by a shelf into two levels. Prefabricated foam niches made to be tiled over are widely used because they arrive already waterproofed.
Tile in a niche is seen from about a foot away, so it is the natural place for a contrast: a mosaic, a zellige look tile or a marble set against a plain porcelain wall. The other approach runs the wall tile straight through, lining the joints up with the wall around it so the niche reads as part of the wall. Either way, the edges of the opening need a finish. The trim pieces in this collection are made for that: marble pencil liners, ceramic edge trim, cornice pieces and bullnose base in the colors of some porcelain series, and a single stone sill often forms the bottom of the niche so water does not sit in a joint.
Pebble and mosaic for accent walls
In a shower, mosaic tends to land in three places: the niche, a band at eye level, and the floor. Much of the mosaic here is pebble, natural stones set on a 12x12 mesh sheet, which follows a curved or sloped surface easily and puts a lot of joint underfoot. Alongside it are marble mosaics and chevron wood look sheets.
Hexagon tiles, from small mosaics to larger single hexagons, appear across the collection, along with picket and zellige look shapes for a feature wall. The full mosaic side, including sheets made for a shower floor, is in mosaic shower tile.
Tile for a tub surround
A tub surround is the three walls around a bathtub that also serves as a shower, and it is tiled with the same wall tile as a walk-in shower. The difference is height and edges. A surround is commonly tiled to about 6 feet above the tub, a few inches past the showerhead, or all the way to the ceiling, which reads cleaner in a small bathroom and leaves no painted strip to take spray.
The open ends of a surround are where the tile meets drywall, so they need a finished edge: a bullnose, a pencil liner or a metal profile. The tub deck or ledge, if there is one, is often a single piece of stone, the same marble or quartz as the vanity top, which avoids a grout line where water collects.
Shower tile ideas that work
A handful of combinations account for most good showers. Large format on the walls with a small mosaic on the floor gives an easy-clean wall and a gripping floor in matching tones. White subway with a darker grout gives a classic, graphic wall. A hexagon floor under plain walls brings pattern underfoot where it is seen from above.
Black and white works at any budget: a white wall with a black hexagon or a black pencil liner, or the reverse, a dark wall with a white niche. Floor to ceiling tile in one color, wall and niche and curb alike, is the most modern look and the one that makes a small enclosure feel largest. A single statement material, a veined marble or a strong zellige, is usually best kept to one wall or the niche, with quieter tile around it.
The shower curb and threshold
The curb is the low wall at the entrance of a walk-in shower that keeps water in. Its top is the one horizontal surface in the shower that is stepped over every day and splashed constantly, so it is often a single solid piece, a marble threshold or a stone sill, because a grout joint running along the top is where water tends to sit.
The sides of the curb are usually tiled to match the floor inside or the wall above, with a bullnose or pencil piece on the exposed edge. A curbless shower drops the floor instead, so the bathroom floor runs straight into the shower; it needs a recessed subfloor and usually a linear drain, and it is the layout most often chosen for accessibility.
Waterproofing, grout and drains
Tile and grout form the visible surface of a shower; the waterproofing is a separate layer behind them. That layer is a membrane, either a sheet bonded to the wall board or a liquid painted on, or a foam board that is waterproof itself. Grout fills and finishes the joint, and the membrane keeps water out of the wall.
Drains shape the floor more than the walls. A center drain needs a floor sloped four ways, which favors small tile. A linear drain along one wall lets the floor fall in a single plane, which is what makes large tile on a shower floor possible, and many linear drains have a tile-in cover so the floor tile runs right over the drain line. The rest of the room, floor and walls outside the shower, is in bathroom tile.
