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5 Great Places to Use Handmade Tile

Get pro tips on choosing and placing handmade tile for the biggest visual impact

Handmade tiles can give a home a wonderful artisan touch that’s hard to beat. They’re often more eco-friendly than machine-made tile; many manufacturers use recycled materials to create them, so you can feel good about using them too. With the array of options out there, it can be a little overwhelming to choose the right ones, let alone know where to use them, but I’ve got some suggestions to guide you. Read on to discover my top five areas for showcasing this great material in your home.
Allen Construction

1. Entryways

This lovely Mediterranean-style home by Allen Construction features a mix of natural and hand-painted terra-cotta tiles. The terra cotta tiles on the exterior paths and in the entryway create a smooth transition between outdoors and in.

Pro tip: Terra-cotta tile is strong, durable and moisture-resistant, which makes it a wonderful choice for indoor-outdoor use.

Cason Graye Homes

Terra-cotta tiles cover the foyer floor of this Spanish-style home by Cason Graye Homes. Left in their natural color, they provide a great contrast to the hand-painted Mediterranean-style tiles on the risers of the staircase. The risers have different colors and patterns, injecting a lot of visual interest into an otherwise all-white space.

Fireclay Tile

2. Kitchen Backsplashes

I really like when tile is the star of the show and enlivens an otherwise neutral space. This loft-style kitchen features hand-painted black-and-yellow diamond-shape tile from Fireclay Tile to contrast the black cabinets. The stunning tile adds an up-to-date twist on the industrial bones of the kitchen that will feel relevant for years to come.

Landed Interiors & Homes

Tile in a single bright color can also take a kitchen from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Sunny, glossy zellige tiles in a marigold yellow are a welcome splash of color in this kitchen by Landed Interiors & Homes.

Pro tip: Zellige tiles, traditionally from Morocco, are really hot right now. The glazing process results in multiple semitransparent, metallic, pearlescent or opaque shades, giving the tile a lot of visual depth.

Noz Design

3. Fireplace Surrounds

A fireplace surround is often the showpiece of a room, so adding handmade tile to it is a surefire way to get attention. I love the playfulness and whimsy of the fireplace surround in this living room by Noz Design. Showcasing tiles in multiple shapes, colors and sizes, this is a study in modern eclecticism. The red, orange, peach and turquoise come together in a wonderful random pattern.

Noz Design

Here’s a close-up of the same fireplace so you can see better how all the shapes and colors come together, like a modern mosaic mural with Mondrian and Memphis-group influences. Note how the surround has black grout and black edges to create a more graphic look.

Vertical Arts Architecture

4. Shower Walls and Niches

I love how this mostly white bathroom by Vertical Arts Architecture gets some zing from the handmade geometric tiles on the shower wall. A larger-scale diamond pattern has been used for the shower field tile, and smaller scaled tile has been used just above the shower ledge. Cleverly, the colors for the two tile patterns have been reversed to create visual separation.

Sabrina Alfin Interiors

The ogee, or fish scale, tile covering the shower niche here is part of a master bathroom remodel our studio did in collaboration with Darcy Tsung Design. The seafoam hues of the niche tile give a welcome color infusion to the gray marble field tile.

Pro tip: Don’t expect handmade tiles to have perfectly uniform colors. There often will be significant variations, which is why many people love them. My advice is to get several samples of the same color so you can determine if you can live with the differences in color gradation.

Greey Pickett

5. Pools and Patios

Handmade tile can be a great addition to your poolscape; these areas tend to have a lot of stone or concrete that can look somewhat bland. To break up all of the concrete around the pool here, Greey Pickett used handmade tile on the stair risers leading to covered patio. The result is a resort-style aesthetic that lends itself nicely to outdoor entertaining.