Timeless and Low Maintenance Bathroom Floor Designs

Hexagonal floor tile (image from Apartment Therapy)

A tenant proof bathroom floor design starts with a classic color palate of primarily white with accents of gray and black. Flooring requires a glazed porcelain or ceramic tile floor which is both durable and easy to clean. The grout must be sealed. A good porcelain or ceramic tile product that is properly installed may never require anything more than an occasional mopping. Some porcelain and ceramic tile floor installed over a hundred years ago are still in use today.


In order to be a timeless it should employ a classic ceramic or porcelain floor tile styles such as the one inch or two inch hexagons, basket weave pattern, spiral pattern or penny rounds and 1 inch square tiles for accent.. These tile styles can be found at your local big box store as well as your specialty tile store such as Subway Ceramics. These styles are so old they are considered classics and you want classics not trends in order for your property to remain timeless.

Hexagonal Floor Tiles

Basketweave Tile Pattern 

Spiral Tile

Penny Tile

Square Tiles (used for accent not alone)

Greek Key Mosaic (using square tile)

Hexagonal Black and White Tiles

Basketweave Floor Tile in Bathroom

Be certain to use glazed tiles to prevent that ground in dirty look found with the original unglazed tiles shown in the images below taken from The Old House Journal magazine website or if you used unglazed tile to seal them with a stone sealer product after installation.

The hexagonal floor tile is an original unglazed floor tile.

 Having a primarily black, white and gray color palate does not mean boring. Using this color combination you can create a variety of interesting tile designs as simple or as complicated as you like. Take a look at some of the images above and below for inspiration. For more tile patterns check out http://www.restorationtile.com/index.html shop pics and installations. Notice that sometimes patterns you didn't like in shop pics are patterns you like when you see them in installations. Keep in mind for a timeless bathroom look you want to do very simple designs, the small flower, Greek keys, basically if you have seen it in a bathroom designs from 1900 to 1940 its okay to use for a timeless, tenant proof bathroom.

Hexagonal Floor tiles in a combination of black and white

Hex tiles combined with square mosaic tiles as a border

 Things to avoid when designing with these tiles include the following:

1. Using black tiles entirely or primarily will cause the floor to always look dirty whether it is or not
2. Using a grout color other than gray on the floor
3. Not sealing the grout
4. Creating very complex or unusual design patterns
5. Using tile colors other than black, gray or white
6. Choosing floor tile with little indentations in the surface such as tumbled marble or limestone. These little crevices will fill with dirt and require scrubbing on your hands and knees with a nail brush.
7. Using a wooden baseboard with tile. Use a tile baseboard instead.