How To Choose And Style Victorian Tiles

The Victorian era was known for opulence, ornamentation and bold colours, so it’s no wonder we desire to carry this on. The overall aesthetic of Victorian interiors, as beautiful as they were, can become quite overwhelming to look at in regards to todays styles. To capture the look and feel of the Victorian aesthetic and implement it into our modern day homes, try utilising smaller features from the time period, like lavish rugs or historic tiling. Smaller features like these can create a historic and strong interior, while still being practical and fitting in the modern day world.

Choosing The Right Victorian Tile

When it comes to choosing the right Victorian tiles, it all depends on where you’ll be installing them. For example, if you’re looking to redo the hallway, you should consider features around the space you know you want to keep and choose tiles to match them. For example, your front door may be a certain colour that you can’t (or don’t want to) change, so you should match your tiles to the colour of the door and any other features you can’t change. The size of the space also plays a part in the kind of tiles you choose. If you have a smaller room, for example, the bathroom, ensure you’re not using extremely detailed patterned tiles to prevent the space from becoming too busy and overwhelming. When it comes to choosing tiles for the porch or patio, we think traditional black and white chequer tiling looks outstanding.

Styling Your Victorian Tiles

1 – Encaustic Beauty

Consider using encaustic or encaustic effect tiles for a detailed and classic look. They create a seamless and impactful look across the space. They work great in rooms like the hallway or bathroom. Our Ledbury Marina Blue Pattern Tiles have done a great job at achieving a traditional and timeless look in the hallway, paired with matching blue wall tiles to complete the space. The blues across the whole space complement one another and work hard to create a seamless and coherent space. In a smaller hallway like this one, we’d recommend keeping the rest of the décor simple and stripped back, to ensure the floor tiles have their time to shine, and the space doesn’t appear too cluttered.

2 – Pair With Traditional Furniture

If you’re thinking of implementing Victorian style tiles into a space with the opportunity to utilise more traditional style furniture, we’d always recommend you go for it. To match your furniture to your tiling is sometimes quite tricky, especially if the tiles are so distinctively one style. For our Heritage Hatfield Blue Pattern Tiles we’ve implemented them into a bathroom scheme, and used traditional style sanitary ware to compliment the style of the tiles. The tiles are beautifully classic in style, and so it’s only right to pair them with equally classic furniture. The vintage blues and white of these tiles also complement the bathroom scheme seamlessly, with blue and white being traditional and common bathroom colours.

3 – Visionary Victorian Exteriors

When it comes to implementing the beloved Victorian aesthetic into our gardens, it can sometimes get a bit tricky. For patios and porches, we would always recommend sticking with the traditional black and white chequer look across the floor space. It creates the classic Victorian aesthetic and is effortlessly beautiful and effective. It takes little to no styling, and compliments any front exterior. Our Cava Victorian Black Quarry Tiles and White Quarry Tiles will achieve this perfectly. Not only do they look outstanding, their durability is the best of the best, so is sure to last your exterior floors for years and years to come. To complete the look, ensure you invest in the complimentary boarder tiles, giving the floor space that finishing touch.

4 – Create Historic Hallways

The black and white chequer look can be effortlessly continued from the patio to the hallway. This look in the hallway can be incredibly effective in creating that desired Victorian aesthetic. Pair with bold colours to enhance a sense of modernity, working great to bring the traditional style up to date. We’ve paired Churchill Snow And Midnight Chequer Mosaic with a bold, deep blue, to create a dynamic and imaginative space. The possibilities for complimentary colours are extensive, whether you choose pale pastels or deep muted shades. These tiles are also sure to work beautifully in a bathroom space.

5 – Bold and Exciting

For something a bit different and exciting, seek tiles that are perhaps out of the normal for a Victorian-style tile, but can still be worked into a Victorian-style space. These can be geometric patterned tiles, or maybe wall tiles with a unique design. As long as you implement the Victorian aesthetic elsewhere, your vision is sure to come to life. We’ve used our Gatsby Noir Tiles to compliment this traditional bathroom space. Alone, they can be considered to be quite modern and contemporary. However, when paired with this grand, traditional bathtub, the space becomes incredibly classic and visionary. The gold in the bath works beautifully with the black and white tiles, and the complimentary hardware features across the bathroom represent that desired look.

6 – Vintage and Rustic

For a more vintage and worn look, opt for tiles that have a purposeful weathered effect. This makes it appear as though the tiles have perhaps been in place since the Victorian era, and they are part of the original features of the house. Here at Walls and Floors we have a wide range of tiles that feature a similar weathered effect, but for a Victorian look we especially love these Classico Fleur Silver Pattern Tiles. They feature a delicate pattern that compliments the weathered look, to enhance the idea they’ve been there for some time. Paired with these traditional cabinets, the room feels incredibly classic and vintage, perfect for those aiming for that Victorian charm.

7 – Beautiful Victorian Boarders

A classic feature that a lot of wall spaces had in the Victorian era was moldura boarder tiles. If a wall space had tiles going part way up the wall, it would typically be finished along the top of the tiling off with a classic moldura tile. This creates a bit more depth and detail to the wall space, instead of the tiles finishing quite harshly. Our Capsule™ Powder Room Moldura Tiles achieve this look perfectly. Their muted pink shade is complimentary to the Victorian aesthetic, with muted colours used frequently throughout the era. These moldura tiles are intended for use alongside the Capsule™ Powder Room Tiles and the Capsule™ Powder Room Bevelled Tiles. 

There you have our help and advice on choosing and styling Victorian tiles. We hope you’ve found some inspiration for your redesign! Be sure to tag us in the results on Instagram, @Wallsandfloors.